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Some of the items donated this week at Petersburg’s seventh-annual Project Connect Resource Fair will make it to Wrangell for a community clothing and household goods distribution. “It’s nice to have a change of clothes from another town,” Joan Sargent said of the fourth-annual Recycle Event sponsored by the Wrangell community service organization BRAVE, Building Respect and Valuing Everyone. If all goes on schedule, the U.S. Coast Guard will bring the donated goods from Petersburg to Wrangell on Wednesday, Jan. 31, barring an emergen...
The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium is offering people the chance to win Alaska Airlines miles for responding to a community health needs assessment survey. The survey is aimed at gathering information about the overall well-being of communities and individuals across Southeast. “Share your thoughts with us on daily living, nutrition, exercise habits and health care access,” the regional health care provider said in its Facebook postings. “The Community Wellness Health Needs Assessment was developed to evaluate the health statu...
After sitting vacant for almost three years — spending about half that time on the market — the borough is finally seeing interest from private parties in buying the former hospital property on Bennett Street. Three parties have expressed interest, said Interim Borough Manager Mason Villarma, adding he anticipated at least one offer by the start of the new year. Hopefully, the borough could sell off the 1.94-acre parcel by February, he said. “The value is getting rid of the property,” Villarma said in an interview before Christmas. The borough...
Wrangell could get off to a good start for 2024 if one of the three interested parties makes a reasonable offer to buy the borough-owned former hospital building, which has sat vacant for almost three years. Most any offer would be reasonable, considering that keeping the building dry and insured is costing the borough tens of thousands of dollars a year. And any offer would be improvement over the no offers that have come in since SEARHC vacated the property for its new medical center in 2021. “The value is getting rid of the property,” Int...
Therapy dogs Cupid and Tia calmly waited with their handlers Margaret Griffo and Terry Yeomans, greeting arrivals before class in the high school courtyard on Friday, Dec. 8, after starting their morning with the coffee crowd at the Stikine Inn and Restaurant. The dogs had arrived in Wrangell the day before, coming to town from their Anchorage-area homes for a few days to help people coping with the tragedy of the deadly landslide and the stress of the search and uncertainty, the loss and the...
Jeanie Arnold, who started work as the new director at the Nolan Center on Nov. 27, said she wants to "provide an overall sense of joy to the community of Wrangell through artistic exposure and historical storytelling." She replaces Cyni Crary, who is moving out of state. Crary had been in the job since July 2018. Arnold said some of her goals include broadening the scope of the center with new exhibits and events targeted at a wide variety of interests. She also hopes to collaborate with the...
Friendship and community support can comfort. Volunteers can collect food and money, provide housing, transportation and fuel. Relief and counseling organizations like churches, SEARHC, the Red Cross and state and federal agencies can help people cope with immediate and long-term emotional and financial needs. But nothing stops the hurt, the deep loss and the fear that it could happen again. The deadly landslide that roared down the mountainside at 11-Mile on Nov. 20 has forever changed not just the geology of the area but the collective...
Counseling and behavioral health services are available as the community comes together to help those in need after the deadly landslide. SEARHC has been providing counseling at no cost, and a private practitioner in Haines also is offering free assistance. Former Wrangell resident and therapist Riley Hall, who is offering free counseling to community members, was living in Haines in 2020 when a landslide killed two people there. The rain continued after the slide, adding to people’s anxiety. “It was really difficult for people to feel saf...
A SEARHC patient benefits staffer will be in Wrangell Monday through Thursday, Nov. 27-30, to assist people who have questions about health insurance and need help signing up for low-cost coverage through the Affordable Care Act federally operated online marketplace. The annual enrollment period is open through Jan. 15, but people need to sign up by Dec. 15 for their coverage to start Jan. 1, according to Susan Briles, the SEARHC patient health benefits manager in Sitka. One of her colleagues, Hillary Russom, comes to Wrangell twice a year to...
Groups and individuals can bring their decorated holiday trees to the Nolan Center this weekend for the Hospice of Wrangell annual Christmas Tree Lane fundraiser. The only rules are no real trees — only artificial ones to avoid any fire risk at the building — and no wreaths. Creative decorations and unusual themes are encouraged, said Alice Rooney, of Hospice. “One year we had a tree that was upside down,” she said of the donations over the past 20 years of the fundraiser. People have decorated trees with themes ranging from Harry Potter...
Multiple resources are responding Tuesday to help people affected by the massive landslide at 11-Mile on Monday night that killed at least one person, with five others still missing. The growing list includes food, temporary shelter, or just a warm place to spend the day with family and friends. Angela Stires, an evacuee and a nurse at Wrangell Medical Center, said she and her family were provided rooms at the Stikine Inn, which has been offering shelter to people displaced by the landslide....
SEARHC is offering a flu vaccination clinic from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4, at the Wrangell Medical Center. People are encouraged to pre-schedule a time slot to help reduce wait times, but walk-ins are welcome, said Randi Yancey, medical office coordinator at the clinic. Influenza vaccines are available for everyone ages 6 months and older, and high-dose vaccines formulated for people 65 and older will also be available. “To schedule a time slot, or to schedule an appointment for an alternative date and time if you are unable to a...
A seal-processing workshop hosted by the Wrangell Cooperative Association brought knowledge about traditional subsistence practices to the community. During a series of classes on Oct. 6, 7 and 8, students helped harvest the meat, fat, skin, oil and intestines from two seals and learned how each byproduct could be prepared or stored. Instructor Paul Marks II learned how to harvest and process seals from his family in Kake, particularly his grandmother. "I would bring in fish, crab, halibut, what...
The Sept. 20 article in the Wrangell Sentinel made it clear that the community of Wrangell has been infected with cancer. “Dam” cancer to be exact. That being the Nieuw Amsterdam and the Westerdam, along with accompanying disease names the Queen Elizabeth, the Ruby Princess and Grand Princess. Not too long ago the people of Wrangell rejected the idea of turning the former sawmill site into some type of tourist-related mecca. Who gave this upcoming plague permission to infect Wrangell? Were our community leaders contacted? The mayor? The ass...
Alaska Seaplanes has decided to shut down its Wrangell and Petersburg operations, citing poor economics. Its last flights to the communities are scheduled for Oct. 31. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t financially sustainable with the ridership,” Carl Ramseth, general manager, said Thursday, Oct. 5. “It hurts to pull out of those two communities.” Alaska Seaplanes started scheduled service into Petersburg in spring 2021, with daily flights from Juneau, and added a Sitka-Petersburg-Wrangell-Sitka flight in May 2022. The air service, which was founded i...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association is taking steps to reduce the harm caused by fentanyl, opiates and other illegal drugs by providing free resources to community members experiencing addiction. As of Sept. 26, fentanyl test strips are available at the WCA office, Irene Ingle Public Library and the upstairs bathroom at the Kadin Building, where the state’s part-time Public Health Office is located. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 100 times more powerful than morphine, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Since it i...
The SEARHC Wrangell Medical Center wants to help the community prepare for the respiratory illness season and will offer flu and COVID-19 vaccination clinics this fall and also provide RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) vaccine shots as soon as they become available. Flu shots, including a supply of high-dose vaccines for people 65 and older, will be provided at the annual community flu clinic Saturday, Nov. 4, reported Randi Yancey, medical office coordinator at the SEARHC facility. The clinic will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. “Patients can c...
After a period when COVID-19 restrictions halted the spread of other respiratory diseases, Alaska had a big increase in influenza cases last fall and winter, state data shows. The overall influenza case load during the 2022-23 season was much higher than in prior years, reports a new bulletin issued by the epidemiology section of the Alaska Division of Public Health. Most notably, cases spiked much earlier in the season, in November and December, before dropping. There were five influenza deaths over the season, all among adults, according to...
The sixth annual Family Resilience Fair will bring games, prizes and educational resources to the community on Oct. 14 at the Nolan Center. BRAVE Wrangell, a domestic violence prevention organization whose name stands for Building Respect and Valuing Everyone, is organizing the event. Since the fair is a little over a month away, BRAVE is seeking community organizations to get involved, specifically those that support families, explained member Kay Larsen. “School groups, faith communities, health-related agencies … anything with a special foc...
Want to golf for a good cause? The WMC Foundation and SEARHC are offering the women of the community an opportunity to do just that at the Rally for Cancer Care fundraiser at Muskeg Meadows on Aug. 5. The event will feature a luncheon, beverages, prizes, a silent auction and a “fun and frolic” golf tournament — a non-scored, no-skills-necessary take on the game. The tournament is ladies only, but organizer Patty Gilbert said she “wouldn’t mind men attending” the lunch, games and auction. The fundraiser will support the WMC Foundation,...
The borough assembly is making another attempt at selling the former hospital property. It contracted last month with a real estate agent who will search near, far and wide for a buyer willing to pay the asking price of $470,000 — or anything close. Last year, the borough’s efforts to sell the building and land produced no down payments at the original minimum of $830,000. The assembly later cut the price in hopes of enticing someone to take ownership of the 30,000-square-foot building and almost two acres of land. It would be great if the bor...
Monday, June 26 Parking complaint. Lost property. Fraud. Parking complaint: Boat trailer. Agency assist: Hospital. Disturbance. Found bike. Noise complaint. Tuesday, June 27 Dog at large. Agency assist: Fire Department. Traffic stop: Citation issued for failure to provide proof of insurance. Verbal warning for no headlights and failure to carry and show drivers license. Noise complaint. Wednesday, June 28 Traffic stop: Citation issued for speeding. Parking complaint. Agency assist: SEARHC. Thursday, June 29 Traffic stop: Citation issued for...
Daisy Mae Lewis Callbreath passed away in Wrangell on May 29, 2023. No service is planned. The family will honor her passing privately. "Daisy spent her final days surrounded by family ones and passed away peacefully," her family wrote. Daisy was born July 4, 1933, and was the eldest child to Delphia and Fredrick Lewis. She was preceded in death by her stepbrother, Donald Lewis Sr.; sibling Fredrick Lewis; and daughter Elizabeth Callbreath. She is survived by her siblings Carol Ferguson...
There are large calendar pages tacked to a wall in the Sentinel office. May through September list the cruise ships scheduled to stop in Wrangell on specified days. We keep them there for easy reference. However, we don’t really need the pages to know when there’s a cruise ship in town. Remember that scene in Pixar’s “Finding Nemo” where the horrible little kid comes up to the fishbowl and starts tapping violently on the glass? Many businesses along Front Street may have had that same feeling when cruise ship passengers disembark and start fil...
We would like to thank City Market, Wrangell IGA, First Bank, Marlene Merritt, Cheri Wickman and SEARHC for their contributions to the Wrangell Community Cleanup. – Paula Rak and WCA IGAP...