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A possible change to a City ordinance dealing with the long-term storage of vessels at the Marine Service Center was one of the topics discussed during the Wrangell Port Commission meeting held March 11 at City Hall. A discussion about prioritizing renovations at either Shoemaker Bay or Inner Harbor also took place before the regular meeting during a workshop session. According to Harbormaster Greg Meissner, a possible renovation of Shoemaker would cost as much as $9.75 million and would add...
Now that you have been appointed to the Wrangell Borough Assembly, what are the top three goals you would like to see accomplished during you tenure? I will move forward on securing ownership of the Tyee Hydroelectric project for the energy security for Wrangell and Petersburg. I have been and will continue to be an advocate for the building of the AK/BC Intertie. By providing a connection to the North American grid, the AK/BC Intertie would provide energy security to the communities currently...
Now that you have been appointed Mayor, how will you accomplish some of the goals you set out, such as building the new hospital? By encouraging the Medical Center Board and the Assembly to work together to find the best way to complete the project. What do you see in the future for the Marine Service Center? Will your administration seek additional property where the Borough can expand its operations? I believe the Marine Service Center is a bright spot in the community. I see it as being a...
The Wrangell Port Commission discussed the storage of boats in the Ritchie Yard at the corner of Case Avenue and Shakes Street during their regular meeting on Feb. 11 – and also talked of plans to open up new lease space at the Marine Service Center. Harbormaster Greg Meissner said the reason for opening up new space for storage, as well as four new working lease areas is simple. “We’ve just run out of room,” he said. While the MSC space leases will be used for repair work, the Ritchie propert...
DAVID JACK Why should the Borough Assembly appoint you as the next Mayor of Wrangell? I have served on the Assembly for over three years. I am familiar with issues before the Assembly. The office of Mayor requires a great deal of time on the part of any person serving in that capacity. I am retired and have the time to give to the position. What are some of you top priorities should be named as Mayor of the City and Borough of Wrangell? First is to continue toward building a new hospital and...
Borough Manager Tim Rooney has rejected a Canadian firm’s protest over the recent acceptance of a bid for a new travel lift at the Marine Service Center. Rooney, who also acts as the Borough’s procurement officer, informed the Vancouver-based Kendrick Equipment Company on Jan. 22 that their protest of a winning bid by the Italy-based firm of Ascom S.p.A. was rejected – and that his office would recommend entering into a contract for the new machine with the Italian company. In their prote...
The sales agent for Marine Travel Lift, the brand of haul-out machine currently in use at the Marine Service Center in downtown Wrangell, is none too happy about the Borough Assembly’s recent decision to accept an Italian bid for a new haul-out at the yard. Bill Kendrick, the owner of the Vancouver-based Kendrick Equipment Ltd. – and high bidder for a new vessel haul-out unit – is taking advantage of a 10-day protest period to challenge the decision by the Wrangell Port Commission to appro...
The debate about whether a travel lift bid from an Italian manufacturer will be accepted – over a higher bid from a North American company – is over, as the members of the Wrangell Port Commission voted on Thursday, Jan. 3 to accept the deal and purchase a new haul out unit for the Marine Service Center. Ascom S.p.A. a Modena, Italy-based firm, will provide the City and Borough of Wrangell with a 300-ton unit to replace the aging 150-ton Marine Travel Lift unit currently in use at the MSC. Prior to last week’s decision by the commission, some...
It’s official – the City and Borough of Wrangell has decided to purchase a 300-ton travel lift from Ascom S.p.A., an Italian manufacturer that recently won the bidding contest for the right to supply the Marine Service Center with its new haul out equipment. The decision to buy the new lift became official after the Borough Assembly approved the bid in a unanimous vote during their Jan. 8 regular meeting, which was their first of the New Year. Debate had initially raged about whether the Modena,...
A new mayor, renovations to the Shakes Island Tribal House and Marine Service Center, and the ongoing Wrangell Medical Center debate – all of these stories were newsmakers in 2012. Let’s take a look back at some of the biggest stories in Wrangell over the past year. JANUARY A late night blaze destroyed a trailer and sent a woman to Wrangell Medical Center with severe burns on Dec. 22. The fire, which began at 10:30 p.m. in a small pull-behind trailer near the top of the park, severely inj...
The Wrangell Port Commission is having serious doubts about the technical and mechanical aspects of a hoist bid from an Italian firm that recently won in the bidding process for a new 300-ton lift to be installed at the Marine Service Center in downtown. Ascom S.p.A., an Italian firm that builds travel lifts for clients in Europe and has sold at least one model to a yard in the Gulf Coast, made the lowest bid for the machine at $1,315,000, while the Canadian-based Kendrick Equipment turned in a...
The progression of a court case against former Wrangell Medical Center administrator Noel Rea and six former members of the WMC Board of Directors was a main topic discussed this week during the regularly scheduled Borough Assembly meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 27. After coming out of executive session, Mayor Don McConachie informed the public that the Assembly had directed Borough Manager Tim Rooney and Borough Attorney Bob Blasco to continue in negotiations to settle the matter. The offer would...
Planning for the proposed Mariner’s Memorial at Heritage Harbor, and the purchase of a new travel lift for the Marine Service Center were the highlights of the most recent Wrangell Port Commission meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 20. After the selection of Brennon Eagle as the new chairman of the commission, and the seating of Eric Yancey as the newest member, the quorum present got down to business beginning with a report from Harbormaster Greg Meissner. “Phase II of the (Marine Service Center) con...
A local man is in custody after an indictment for alleged drug possession and maintaining a residence in the borough for the purpose of distribution was returned against him by a grand jury in Sitka. Wilson Boon, 24, of Wrangell, was arrested by Wrangell Police Department officers on Friday, Oct. 26 and is charged with three felony counts – possession with intent to distribute hydrocodone, possession with intent to distribute an ounce or more of marijuana, and maintaining a dwelling within t...
The next step in the renovation process at the Marine Service Center in Wrangell is about to get underway – with better roadways and a paved connection to Trident Seafoods on the horizon. The section of the MSC nearest to the Case Street gate and Trident’s cold storage, or Project Area 1, would be the first to be renovated, according to Wrangell Harbormaster Greg Meissner. “The next phase of the project is under design and we have 35 percent of the design finished,” Meissner said. “In November,...
For master shipwright Don Sorric and a number of other ship repair businesses located at Wrangell’s Marine Service Center, the improvements made to the facility – along with Wrangell’s increasing reputation as the place to bring your vessel for repair – have made the economic outlook for those repairing boats better than ever. Sorric, who has held a lease location at the MCS for four years, employs seven workers and a number of subcontractors who are working on some of the largest fishing...
The Borough Assembly met in open session on Tuesday, Oct. 9 – and featured the return of Don McConachie as Mayor of the city – a position he held when Wrangell was incorporated as a borough in 2008. Assembly member Bill Privett was appointed as Vice Mayor, with Mayor McConachie appointing a number of Wrangell residents to various board and commission positions currently vacant. McConachie also directed Borough Clerk Kim Flores to seek out letters of intent from individuals seeking to be appointed to the assembly seat left vacant by his ele...
Assembly member Don McConachie was elected Mayor in Tuesday’s election by the thinnest of margins, with only two votes separating him and now former Assembly member David Jack. After the votes were tallied – and with eight fax votes making the difference in the election – McConachie wasted no time in announcing his intentions on moving the city and borough forward. “This is an exciting day,” McConachie said. “But, now we have to put Wrangell back into good stead with the state, and we need to ad...
Assembly Maxi Wiederspohn What background or experience do you have that qualifies you to be on the Wrangell Borough Assembly? I was born and raised in Wrangell and my work history is all in Wrangell. I will be a good listener then get as many facts and answers as I can. I can then consider what is best for the community as a whole. I will not jump to any judgment and will follow the rule of law. Why are you running for the assembly? To give back to the community and the people that I love so mu...
The Wrangell Road and Utility Improvement team met on Aug. 16 for what will be one of their final roundtable discussions of the project before it wraps in late September. Addressing the group, which included acting Borough Manager Carol Rushmore, project engineer Eric Voorhees stated that during the past two weeks vehicle access to City Market and Sentry Hardware has opened up to a greater degree, with parking and access to Zak’s Café being finalized as well. According to Voorhees, all the un...
Peggy Wilson Why are you running for this newly created seat in the Alaska State Legislature? I feel I have a good understanding of the legislative process and know what is reality and what really can be accomplished through legislation. I am not a quitter. I am in this thing for the long haul. Some legislation takes a long while to put in place like my bill forming the SEASWA (Southeast Solid Waste Authority) and another of my bills forming MTAB (Marine Transportation Advisory Board). Capital...
A bevy of capital improvement projects are underway in Wrangell, with the city dock undergoing rehabilitation, the Marine Service Center seeing a lot of pavement work, and underground electrical work on the Front Street redesign in full swing. In a July 24 supplemental report to the Borough Assembly, Borough Manager Tim Rooney brought the group up to date on those projects and others underway on the island. According to Rooney, while working on the city dock, crews found a number of improperly installed piling. “Several piles were discovered t...
The Borough Assembly met in two sessions on Tuesday, June 12 to hold a public hearing on a proposed ordinance relating to collection of utility fees, and to pursue a second reading of the ordinance during the regular session. Before the utility issue could be addressed in open session, however, assembly member David Jack, with fellow member Bill Privett, asked to have the agendized approval of the Wrangell Medical Center 2013 budget tabled until a future meeting. Jack asked to have WMC Chief Financial Officer Olinda White come before the...
The development of the timber and salmon fishing industries were the main topics discussed during Gov. Sean Parnell’s visit to Wrangell on June 5. In a meeting with Mayor Jeremy Maxand, Borough Manager Tim Rooney, and Jim Collier and Chris Guggenbickler, the governor was brought up to date – and asked for his assistance – on the possible creation of a value-added timber mill and salmon hatchery in the borough. According to Maxand, the governor was receptive to those ideas. “I wanted to give an...
Wrangell’s Marine Service Center and City Dock are getting a spruce-up this month as more than $4 million in capital improvements get underway. “We have these two new projects at the haul-out and at the City Dock,” Meissner said. “We have state money and some Denali funding to complete this work and really needed this for a while. We’re really glad it’s happening now.” According to Meissner, the steel pilings at the dock are more than 30 years old and need to undergo maintenance to keep it in...