Sorted by date Results 651 - 675 of 1283
The evening of Saturday, Jan. 18, a pipe in the public safety building's sprinkler system broke and caused some flooding. Amber Al-Haddad, capital facilities director, explained that the building, which houses Wrangell's court, police department, fire department, and other entities, has two sprinkler systems: A wet system and a dry system. Somehow, she said that water got into the dry sprinkler system and froze during the cold weather Wrangell experienced this past month. This broke one of the...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly met last week, Jan. 14, to discuss the potential establishment of critical habitat areas for humpback whales in Southeast Alaska. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association is proposing these habitat areas be set up all along the Pacific coastline, from Alaska to southern California. NOAA officials held a meeting in Petersburg on Jan. 6 to discuss this proposal. According to a report by the Sentinel's sister-paper, the Petersburg Pilot, these habitat areas...
The borough assembly and other city officials met Saturday morning, Jan. 11, to workshop future priorities for the city and to look at the upcoming budget process. A long list of state and federal legislative priorities was laid out for attendees to review and talk about. For state priorities for Wrangell, the first and foremost was the reinstatement of several state positions to the city. Over the past decade, according to the priority list, Wrangell has seen several state jobs taken away that...
Below is the second half of The Wrangell Sentinel's review of 2019, covering the months of July to December: July July 4 - Wrangell Police Chief Doug McCloskey was recognized for his service to the community at last week's borough assembly meeting. With his retirement at the end of June, McCloskey has closed out 38 years of police work. July 11 - The Fourth of July was a hot and sunny day in Wrangell, but that did not stop many people from getting out and having a good time. Like all previous...
Following is the Wrangell Sentinel's news review for January through June of 2019. Next week the review will include events from July through December. January Jan. 13 - The Fairbanks Arts Association opened their 24th annual statewide poetry contest for submissions this December. Each year, the association picks a new judge for the contest. This year will be judged by Wrangell resident Vivian Faith Prescott. Prescott is the author of numerous works, including The Hide of My Tongue and The Dead...
The Wrangell Planning and Zoning commission held their monthly meeting last Thursday, Dec. 12. It was the first meeting for Commissioner Jillian Privett, who was just appointed by the borough assembly on Dec. 10. There were only three items on the agenda for the commission's meeting. The first item was a conditional use application by the Miller family, for a vacation rental. The Millers are purchasing a lot near the intersection of Reid Street and St. Michael's Street, according to the agenda...
The City and Borough of Wrangell released a statement last Friday, Dec. 6, in response to several complaints about residents' electric bills suddenly increasing. A Facebook post by Edward Rilatos on the Wrangell Community Board, asking if anyone else had received a big increase on their electric bill, received over 200 responses. Many of them were responses that their bills had, indeed, gone up. "33% increase over last month with the same usage [sic]," reads a comment by Kimberly Szczatko....
The Borough assembly had a busy night during their meeting on Dec. 10. The meeting opened with a report from State Representative Dan Ortiz. Ortiz said he is going around to the communities he represents, ahead of the next legislative session, to give an update on things in Juneau and to listen to the priorities of his constituents. The next legislative session will be opening on Jan. 21, 2020. Ortiz said that the financial situation for Alaska is largely unchanged from the previous legislative...
The Wrangell Port Commission met last Thursday, Dec. 5, for a relatively brief meeting. A workshop was held beforehand to continue ongoing discussions on the cruise industry in Wrangell, and potential changes to vessel classifications in the harbors. As this was a work session, no action will be taken yet on these items. The main piece of business during the meeting was a plan to change future meeting times. Port commission meetings have usually had a start time of 7 p.m. However, as the...
Shoemaker Bay Harbor has been undergoing renovations since the summer of 2018. First built in 1977, according to Harbor Master Greg Meissner in a previous interview with the Sentinel, it has grown well past its life expectancy. The work has seen the installation of a new gangway and floats. The harbor was also dredged to make it a little deeper. Meissner, in an interview in August 2018, said that the plan was to rebuild Shoemaker to make it more easily accessible to wider, deeper boats. During...
The Roadless Rule is legislation from 2001 designed to keep roadless areas of the country off-limits from future development. According to the Forest Service's website, this legislation prohibits road construction, reconstruction, or timber harvesting on over 58 million acres of "inventoried roadless areas" in National Forest System lands. The Tongass National Forest, and the Chugach further north, are protected by the Roadless Rule. However, according to an Oct. 15 press release from the U.S. D...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly organized a work session to discuss a recently vacated position at the Irene Ingle Public Library. There are three primary jobs at the library: Library Director, Assistant II, and Assistant I. The "Assistant II" position was recently vacated. It was proposed to promote Sarah Scambler, then Assistant I, up to the Assistant II position. This would leave the Assistant I position open, which the library planned to post as available and search for a new hire. However,...
Running three-and-a-half hours long before even coming to an executive session, the borough assembly meeting on Oct. 22 saw a wide variety of topics covered. One of them was overseeing several appointments to various city positions. Patty Gilbert, recently re-elected to the borough assembly, was named the vice-mayor. There were two open seats on the planning and zoning commission, to which Terri Henson and April Hutchinson were appointed. Annya Ritchie was appointed to the parks and recreation a...
Back in April of this year, Wrangell resident Kipha Valvoda filed a civil suit against several past and present members of the Wrangell city government. Valvoda, in several letters to the editor to the Wrangell Sentinel, has argued that the city has used discriminatory hiring practices that have kept him out of jobs. His complaint to the court, filed on April 17, contends that borough officials were lax in their hiring practices, and that they held onto his resume for seven years but never gave...
With the final votes tallied by the canvass board earlier that morning, the Wrangell Borough Assembly met last Thursday, Oct. 3, to confirm this year's local election. There were several positions open for election on the assembly, school board, and an open seat on the port commission in the election on Oct. 1. The public also voted on a proposition to remove the Wrangell Medical Center Board from the city's charter. In total, there were 365 votes cast on election day, plus an additional 41...
A total of 365 ballots were cast on Wrangell's election day, Oct.1, plus an additional 40 absentee ballots. There were several positions up for election on the borough assembly, school board and port commission. The public also had the opportunity to vote to make a minor amendment to Wrangell's charter, removing the Wrangell Medical Center Board as the hospital is no longer operated by the borough. The following is the preliminary election results (* indicates preliminary winner): Borough...
In last week’s edition, we reported that Wrangell’s two new generators were purchased from the city of Nome. According to Assembly Member Jim DeBord, the generators were given to the borough. Wrangell only paid for shipping and handling....
The Wrangell Borough Assembly held a work session on top of their regular meeting Tuesday, Sept. 24. The work session was to discuss the Alaska Municipal Sales Tax Authority, a statewide entity that the Alaska Municipal League is currently working to organize. The tax authority is meant to act as the "clearinghouse" for tax collection from remote retailers, according to the agenda packet. For towns like Wrangell, only large online retailers like Amazon meet certain thresholds to collect and...
The City and Borough Assembly: Three Year Tearm Julie Decker is seeking re-election to the Wrangell Borough Assembly for a three-year term. There are several reasons she wants to sit for another term on the assembly. The current borough assembly has been making some good decisions on behalf of the city, she said, and she would like to see that continue. As a member of the assembly, she said that she has tried to stay informed and lead in a way that benefits the city as a whole. She added that...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly met Tuesday, Sept. 10, to discuss, among several topics, the recent announcement that the Alaska Marine Highway System would stop traveling to and from Prince Rupert on Oct. 1. Mayor Steve Prysunka, who called into the meeting via teleconference, said that he has been in contact with the offices of Senator Lisa Murkowski and State Representative Dan Ortiz and has tried his best to stay on top of the situation. The reason for the closure, he explained, is that...
The Wrangell Parks and Recreation Advisory Board sat down to workshop a set of proposed increases to fees for youth sports programs last Wednesday, Sept. 4. Parks and Recreation Director Kate Thomas said that there are two main youth programs that use the P&R facilities: The Wrangell Swim Club and AAU girls basketball. The proposed fee change to $15 per hour would see the swim club pay a total annual fee of about $6,000, while AAU will see a bill of about $2,000. According to documents provided...
Declarations for candidacy in Wrangell's upcoming October elections closed at 4 p.m. last Friday, Aug. 30. From city hall to the school board, there are multiple positions open as well as people willing to run for them. The following is a list of open seats and a list of candidates, courtesy of city hall: Wrangell Borough Assembly Two open seats for three-year terms: Incumbent Julie Decker and incumbent Patricia Gilbert. Two open seats for one-year unexpired terms: Incumbent Anne Morrison,...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly met Tuesday evening, Aug. 27, for their regularly scheduled meeting. A work session was held prior to the meeting to discuss the potential demolition and replacement of part of Wrangell's power plant. The city recently contacted PND Engineers out of Juneau for a structural analysis of the concrete section of the power plant, according to the meeting's agenda packet. PND Engineers had performed an analysis on the building back in 2007, it was determined. According...
The Wrangell School District's budget/finance committee held a brief meeting last Wednesday, Aug. 7. One of the topics covered related to infrastructure and capital improvements. Capital improvement projects, or CIP, have been an ongoing discussion for the school district as of late. CIPs generally involve improving or renovating existing infrastructure. The Wrangell School District, with their budget season recently coming to a close, has sought city support for various projects. Back in June,...
The borough assembly held a second reading of a proposed amendment to Wrangell's municipal code during their meeting Tuesday. The amendment would be to chapter 15.12, Electricity, and would add a section that covers rate stabilization. This amendment was first brought up during the city's recent budget workshops, according to the meeting's agenda packet, where the assembly requested a "rate stabilization fund" be created to help offset increased power costs to residents in case the city had to s...
