Sorted by date Results 151 - 175 of 298
The month-long King Salmon Derby will get to a start on Saturday, the 65th in Wrangell's long-running competition. Wrangell's annual derby is organized by the Chamber of Commerce, and during its month long run draws close to 1,000 participants. Last year's grand prize winner was Malia McIntyre, who brought in a 46.7 pound king salmon toward the end of the derby. As with last year, first prize for 2017 will yield a $6,000 jackpot. Additional prizes for second through fourth place are $4,000,...
After four decades of public service, City Hall will bid farewell this month to its longtime finance director and recent borough manager, Jeff Jabusch. "It's going to be kind of strange, every morning getting up and not driving into this parking lot after forty years. My car will probably just come here automatically after that length," he said. "It's been very rewarding," he said of his tenure. "I've got to meet a lot of interesting people, and working with a lot of people, both staff people an...
We join with the community in thanking Jeff Jabusch for his 40 years of service to the citizens of Wrangell. Jeff has maintained the public’s checkbook for much of that time and kept it balanced through boom times and busts. During Alaska’s oil boom era, the city built its public safety building, high school and municipal pool. When the Wrangell Mill closed in 1994, “it was scary bleak,” as Jabusch put it. Later, Alaska’s rich uncle, Sen. Ted Stevens secured a $37 million relief grant that public officials along with Jabusch leveraged into $200...
Wrangell’s Port Commission gave its go-ahead to a tidelands purchase proposed by the Stikine Inn’s owners. Bill Goodale, who jointly manages the dockside hotel with his wife, Cheryl Goodale, appeared at the February 2 meeting to explain his proposal. He wishes to purchase from the city 25,450 square feet of submerged tidelands and 2,000 square feet of uplands to the north and west of the hotel’s current property line, with the intent of expanding and adding to the building. “We’re hoping for 30 rooms, plus retail space on the lower floor,” G...
Wrangell is being represented at the West Coast's biggest annual boat show, which began in Seattle on Friday. Held this year at CenturyLink Field's convention center and at South Lake Union, the annual Seattle Boat Show draws thousands of visitors for a 10-day celebration of all things nautical. This includes craft and gear – with 1,000s of vessels and three acres of accessories to peruse – seminars and activities, and also opportunities to work and travel. A booth boosting Wrangell's ava...
Things are coming together for a planned memorial dedicated to Wrangell's seafaring community. The Port Commission last week named two more people to the steering committee tasked with fundraising and contracting for the Mariners Memorial's construction. Fishermen Brennon Eagle and Gig Decker will be joining commission members John Yeager and John Martin on the committee. A fifth position is still vacant, and interested applicants are invited to submit a letter to the city clerk's office. The...
For Wrangell, the past year was one mixed with successes and setbacks, shared tragedies and uplifting moments. Sales taxes collected over the spring and summer tour seasons neared all-time highs, with the visitor industry experiencing a good season overall. On the other end, fishermen experienced one of their worst harvests of the summer, which after a disappointing 2015 season has put the fiscal pinch on a number of local families, boat builders, and associated sectors. As 2017 dawns, concerns...
Wrangell's Port Commission examined its options for lengthier leases at the Marine Service Center during a special workshop before its Tuesday evening meeting. The discussion has continued off and on since January, when contractor Don Sorric requested commissioners consider extending lease options for lots at the yard past the current five years. The yard currently has seven lease lots of varying sizes, with the potential for an eighth. The reasons Sorric gave for lengthening the leases was for stability, giving leaseholders greater assurance...
Sales tax returns indicate the spring and summer of 2016 to have been one of the best on record for the local economy. From April through the end of October Wrangell collected more than $1,659,000, which is the most ever brought in during those two quarters – historically the city's busiest. When adjusted for inflation, only 2011 was a better season, but by only 0.7 percent. The 2016 fiscal year as a whole came to a close on June 30, and returns for the year neared $2.65M. This made it second o...
Alaska’s university system is ramping up programs to train the next generations of fishery and ocean specialists - and plenty of jobs await. Since 1987, the College of Fisheries and Ocean Science (CFOS) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has offered undergraduate and graduate degrees in Fisheries Science, complete with paid internships to help prepare them for positions in the state’s largest industry. “It’s a degree path preparing students for what I call fish squeezers – they’re going to go to work for the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game, o...
At its regular meeting last week, members of the Wrangell Port Commission decided against allowing casual traffic through the Marine Service Center yard. Effective immediately, access to the boatyard has been restricted with entry limited to one gate. The action follows several months of discussions, with the issue first coming to the attention of commissioners in June. “There’s a really big safety issue with people being able to come and go as they please,” explained commission chair Clay Hammer. Since its start a decade ago, Wrang...
Meeting last week for the first time since June, Wrangell’s Port Commission set some priorities for its coming sessions. “We have a number of items we’re going to have on our plate,” explained commission president Clay Hammer. Of these, the three largest issues will be organizing a steering committee for construction of a new mariners memorial, reassessing the duration of lot leases at the Marine Service Center, and managing public access to the boatyard. The longest in the works, construction of the memorial weighed highly among commiss...
A new business will be setting up shop at Wrangell’s boatyard. At its meeting last week, the Port Commission recommended transfer of Lot 6 at the Marine Service Center, belonging to Josh Young of J&R Fiberglass, to Steve Christensen of CTT Marine. If approved by the Borough Assembly Tuesday, the deal between the two business owners can be concluded this weekend. It would also be the first lease lot transferred since the yard was built. “We’ll try to build on the reputation Josh has already built with that,” Christensen said. He and his wife, L...
Gary Morrison, write-in candidate, running for two three-year seats Occupation and experience Retired, formerly of the U.S. Forest Service for 38 years, and former Alaska State Parks Director. Has sat on a number of BLM and USFS boards. Why do you wish to run for the Port Commission? "I think my management experience and background, and my interest in the marine environment, boating and interest in furthering the economy of Wrangell, I think I have something I can contribute and want to try to...
The City of Wrangell is applying to the United States Forest Service to give a historic boat a new home. The M/V Chugach was one of 11 ranger boats operating in the state during the first half of the 20th century. Built at the Lake Union Dry Dock and Machine Works in Seattle in 1925, the vessel was assigned to Cordova for work in the Tongass and Chugach national forests. It remains the last of its kind in the USFS fleet, continuing service until last year. The boat was restationed in Petersburg in 1953, it served from there more than 60 years....
With the seasonal peak behind it, Alaska’s commercial fishing industry is expecting one of the worst shortfalls for salmon in recent memory. As of Tuesday, Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s in-season blue sheet summary estimated just over 102,245,000 salmon had been caught statewide, with less than a quarter of that caught in Southeast. Despite a fair showing for sockeye, the state’s fishermen would be fortunate enough to harvest half the 263,463,000 salmon estimated caught last year. The news has not been good for the local comme...
As the fisheries industry continues to expand and Wrangell’s Marine Service Center’s services demand increases, I believe Wrangell’s economy has nowhere to go but up. However, to accommodate this growth, the state must maintain their services in Wrangell. I am particularly concerned about the conservation of state jobs in Wrangell. Several years ago, Wrangell lost its social worker and its fisheries biologist. Now, the loss of the Wrangell trooper and the potential of reduced funding to the city jail weigh heavily, as Wrangell’s state jobs sl...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – A national environmental group on Wednesday asked federal fisheries officials to block an oil company’s plans for offshore hydraulic fracturing underneath Alaska’s Cook Inlet because of the threat to the inlet’s population of endangered beluga whales. The Center for Biological Diversity in a letter to the National Marine Fisheries Service said fracking increases risks of spills, earthquakes and toxic pollutants to belugas, which were declared endangered in 2008. “Offshore fracking poses a grave and imminent thr...
In a close vote the Wrangell City and Borough Assembly approved a new fee structure for the community’s harbors and dock facilities. Already approved once on its first reading by the Assembly last month, the increases being put forward would institute a 10-percent increase to outside and inside dock face moorage, storage, port development fees and most boatyard rates. Those increases would also incorporate an anti-inflationary rise of two percent per year. Transient moorage rates have been rescheduled, shifting from flat per-foot rates to a s...
A consultancy returned with its draft findings for a feasibility study of developing Wrangell’s former mill site. A public presentation was given at the Nolan Center yesterday evening, following up on one given on Feb. 17. Washington-based firm Maul Foster & Alongi has spent the past several months assessing the Silver Bay Logging Company mill site at 6-Mile Zimovia Highway, a 110-acre property which the City and Borough of Wrangell has expressed interest in acquiring for future industrial development. “Overall it went positively,” said Micha...
The Wrangell Port Commission was tasked with solving a problem with access to the boatyard, after local sight-seeing operators were presented letters by the city asking them to stop driving buses through on tours. Gold Rush Tours and Alaska Waters were sent a pair of letters apiece from Borough Manager Jeff Jabusch, requesting them to discontinue tours through the Marine Service Center. This posed a problem for both outfits, as the yard had been included on the itinerary for tours which had already been booked through the season. Brooke Leslie...
An interisland ferry service startup has stopped again, after reporting trouble with its landing craft. After discovering water in the stern of the Rainforest Islander, operator Rainforest Islands Ferry contacted its customers last week to cancel reservations for the foreseeable future. On May 11, the ferry’s crew discovered water inside the hull. Closer inspection identified stress cracks on welds to the hull plating. Baker explained the engine’s shaft is slightly out of alignment, leading to the vibrations which may have caused the pla...
Community members were given a first peek at the budget being proposed for the next fiscal year, in the first of several planned workshops held on Monday. “This is a draft budget. It's certainly the starting point,” Borough Manager Jeff Jabusch pointed out. “The budget here is balanced up to this point,” finance director Lee Burgess summarized, presenting the draft. While the budget draft presented Monday is currently balanced, Burgess pointed out there are still several looming concerns. Rent revenues from the state for use of the local j...