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The Wrangell School Board held a special meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 9, to continue their discussion of a formal reprimand and improvement plan for the superintendent. Late last August, Superintendent Debbe Lancaster and several district staff members went on a trip to Juneau to purchase supplies to prepare the district for the upcoming school year. This was in violation of a district travel ban during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as done without board approval. The planned use of CARES Act...
The lawsuit by Wrangell resident Kipha Valvoda, against several current and former members of the city government, was removed from the trial schedule on Aug. 10. Valvoda's lawsuit contends, as reported in an Oct. 17, 2019 article in the Sentinel, that the city has used discriminatory hiring practices that kept him out of work. His complaint, which was filed in April of 2019, is seeking $700,000 in compensation. Defendants in his lawsuit include former Mayor David Jack, current Mayor Steve...
During the Wrangell Borough Assembly on Tuesday evening, Sept. 8 they discussed a community risk assessment of Wrangell for COVID-19. This risk assessment was created by Wrangell's Emergency Operations Center, to help determine how at-risk the community might be to the pandemic. The assessment takes into account information like the 7-day and 14-day average case count in Wrangell, the amount of community spread of COVID-19, the average number of close contacts per case, and the number of large...
Two members of the Wrangell Police Department made a four-day trip to Ketchikan last week for some training, according to city officials. The trip raised some questions, as the city has an ongoing moratorium for employees traveling outside of Wrangell during the COVID-19 pandemic. The trip was made with the full awareness of the borough assembly, it is reported, and an exception for the travel ban exists for public safety training. Chief Tom Radke said that Officers Connor Philips and Nick Pears...
Prior to their meeting Tuesday, Aug. 25, the Wrangell Borough Assembly held a workshop to go over several Capital Improvement Projects planned for FY 2021. The city has multiple projects lined up for the near future, across several departments. Last week’s workshop was to review these projects, and their estimated costs. “You approved a handful of items that were already in play, or had critical timelines in the operating budget, and those were attached in the agenda packet,” said Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen. “What is before you tonight...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly met Tuesday evening, Aug. 25. During this meeting, they reviewed an FY 2019 audit of the borough. This item was postponed from their meeting on Aug. 11, to wait for a representative from the auditing firm to be available to answer questions. According to the agenda packet, the fund balance for the city's governmental funds sits at $53.65 million, and approximately $54.31 million in the enterprise funds. Of these, unrestricted funds sit at about $9.16 million and $5....
The Wrangell School Board held a special meeting Monday, Aug. 24, to discuss recent travel and purchases made by the superintendent and school staff. Last week, Superintendent Debbe Lancaster and three other members of the school district traveled to Juneau for a shopping trip. This was to acquire some key items related to reopening the schools and COVID-19 mitigation, she said. There were several reasons this was a topic of discussion for the board, among them being a lack of communication...
Prior to last week's assembly meeting on Aug. 11, the Wrangell Borough Assembly held a work session to consider future renovations to the old Institute Property. The Institute Property, located near Shoemaker Harbor, has been zoned "holding" since 2011 while the borough came to a decision on how to renovate it. A master plan was developed in 2017, according to the meeting's agenda packet, but not much progress has been made since then. The work session that night was to consider how the...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly met last Friday, Aug. 14, to consider amendments to the job description of the Facilities Maintenance Specialist. This item was originally considered in their meeting on Aug. 11, but was postponed due to an error in the previous agenda packet making the proposed changes not visible. The changes were also reviewed by the IBEW, the electrical workers' union, and according to the packet no concerns were raised regarding them. The assembly also approved of the...
The Wrangell Port Commission met Thursday evening, Aug. 6, to discuss plans to relocate an old Forest Service vessel. The borough assembly adopted a memorandum with the Forest Service last November, regarding the M/V Chugach Ranger. According to a Nov. 14, 2019 article in the Sentinel, the ship was first constructed in 1925, and is one of the last wooden Forest Service ranger boats in existence. It currently resides in the boat yard. However, the plan is to move the boat over to the Nolan...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly met Tuesday evening, Aug. 11. During this meeting, they appointed Bob Dalrymple to fill a vacant seat on the assembly. A seat was left empty after the resignation of Mya DeLong in June. Dalrymple was the only one to submit a letter of interest in the term, which expires this October. "I would like to be more involved in public service and I think my abilities and experience would complement the current Assembly," Dalrymple wrote in his letter of interest. During...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly held a special meeting Tuesday, Aug. 4. The only item on the agenda that evening was a discussion of a potential mandate requiring the public wear face masks. No formal action was taken in the meeting, as this was only a discussion item. The general consensus among the assembly was, while they strongly recommend and encourage the public to wear masks, they do not want to go all the way to mandating it. This discussion was brought up at the request of the Emergency...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly was planning to hold a work session and meeting Tuesday evening, July 28. However, it was unexpectedly cancelled earlier that afternoon. Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen explained that there was a sudden tragedy involving the family of an assembly member. The originally planned meeting was going to cover a work session regarding the Wrangell Institute Property, followed by a regular assembly meeting. On the agenda for the meeting was a discussion of a potential mask...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly met Tuesday evening for a special meeting, to consider CARES Act funding for the school district. Wrangell, and many other communities, recently received special funds through the CARES Act to help respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Wrangell has used these funds, or plans to use them, for items like the purchase of a new ambulance, to cover wages for first responders, and to help pay for an alternate isolation site, among other planned expenses. As the Wrangell...
Declarations of candidacy for Wrangell's election will be opening in the near future. A July 9 Facebook post on the city's page listed open positions interested candidates may consider. The position of mayor will be up for grabs this year, a two-year term. There are also three seats open on the borough assembly. Two seats are for three-year terms, while another one is for a two-year unexpired term. There is one spot available on the Wrangell School Board, for a three-year term. Lastly, there...
The Wrangell Parks and Recreation Advisory Board met Monday, June 29. During the meeting, the board reviewed the department's new budget for FY 2021, and also took a look at some tentative plans for summer programming. The borough assembly adopted the FY 2021 budget for Wrangell in their assembly meeting on Tuesday, June 23. The entire budget is aiming to break even, according to Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen, with expenses and revenues set at approximately $16 million. The Parks and Rec...
The Wrangell Convention and Visitor Bureau met last Thursday, to workshop their goals for a rebranding project. As part of a large to-do list recently approved by the borough assembly, the CVB is seeking to use CARES Act funding to improve Wrangell's brand and draw in more tourists. As this was just a workshop, no official action was taken. However, the bureau generally agreed that Wrangell's brand should be focused on Wrangell as a community. "I think our brand should be community-focused,"...
The Wrangell Convention and Visitor Bureau met last Wednesday, July 1, to discuss their recently approved marketing plan and what their top priorities should be. The CVB has spent several meetings, recently, to put together a marketing plan for Wrangell, which could be funded through the CARES Act. This plan, requesting a total of $146,516, was approved by the borough assembly in their June 23 meeting. With their plans approved, the CVB needed to decide what to work on first, as there was a...
With recent national attention on the topics of racial bias and police brutality, the community of Wrangell met via web conference last Monday evening for a town hall meeting to discuss policing practices in their hometown. The meeting provided an opportunity for residents to ask questions of Chief Tom Radke and to share their opinions on the Wrangell Police Department. Those who spoke in the meeting, by and large, expressed support for the police and their current practices. "We had a handful...
As Wrangell residents may remember, the borough assembly held a vote early in June to appoint Ryan Howe to fill an empty assembly seat. There was some question about this vote and whether or not it violated the Open Meetings Act, as assembly members chose their candidate via text message. Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen said in a June 18 article for the Wrangell Sentinel that the assembly does not believe anything incorrect occurred, and that she ran the idea by the city's attorneys before...
City officials organized an online town hall meeting last Thursday evening, June 18, to try and answer some community questions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. The town hall also saw some special guests from the state level take part in the Q&A session: Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink and Dr. Joseph McLaughlin. Representative Dan Ortiz also participated in the web conference. As the doctors had a limited window of time to take part in the town hall meeting, city officials spent previous...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly held one of their last budget work sessions last Wednesday evening, June 17, to finalize next year's budget for the city. For FY 2021, Wrangell is looking at revenues of $4.48 million in the general fund, but expenses of $4.78 million. Much of the discussion in this workshop revolved around the general fund, and how to handle its deficit. The workshop lasted for about three and a half hours. In the end, the assembly directed city administration to move forward with...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly met Tuesday evening, June 23. While the adoption of the FY 2021 budget was the primary topic of discussion, and is covered in another article, there were several other important items covered in the meeting. One such item was the resignation of Assembly Member Mya DeLong. DeLong submitted her letter of resignation on June 8, but it was only formally accepted by the assembly in this meeting. According to her letter of resignation, DeLong has served as a member of...
The Wrangell Convention and Visitor Bureau met last Wednesday afternoon, June 17, to finish up a proposed marketing plan to bring before the borough assembly. In the time of COVID-19, the bureau was hoping to receive funding from the city to address the impacts the pandemic has had on the visitor industry. According to their list of proposals, provided by Economic Development Director Carol Rushmore, the CVB is seeking a total of $146,516 for various projects. First of all, the CVB would like...
After multiple workshops, rewrites, and edits, the borough assembly met Tuesday evening to finally adopt a budget for FY 2021. This budget, overall, barely breaks even between revenues and expenses. However, despite recent concerns of a deficit in their general fund, the budget brought before the assembly this night actually had a general fund surplus. The general fund now has revenues of about $4.95 million, and expenses of roughly $4.91 million. After transfers, Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen...
