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Sea otters are considered by many people to be an adorable animal, an important part of the ecosystem, and also a nuisance that is threatening other marine life populations in Southeast Alaska. In Wrangell, many people have talked about the need for better population control when it comes to otters. The Wrangell Borough Assembly talked about loosening restrictions on hunting the creatures last September with Sebastian O'Kelly, a federal lobbyist. Back in May, fifth-grade student Brody Knecht...
With the recent retirement of Doug McCloskey, who has been Wrangell's police chief since 2003, the borough has been working hard to find a suitable replacement. City officials have been considering several candidates. Among these is Heath Scott, the chief of police in Haines. A meet and greet with Scott has been scheduled for Friday, July 19, at 5:30 p.m. at city hall. The public is invited to come meet with the candidate and get to know him better. Scott has over 22 years of "progressively resp...
In a special meeting on July 11, the Wrangell School Board adopted various amendments to their FY 2019 budget as well as the recently adopted FY 2020 budget. Superintendent Debbe Lancaster said that the 2019 budget needed to be revised to show the actuals for the end of the year, what money was actually made and what was actually spent. Budgets go through various revisions through the school year, she said, and is more or less a constant process of revision to stay as accurate as possible. “It’s a real dynamic process through the year, unt...
Wrangell Police Chief Doug McCloskey was recognized for his service to the community at last week's borough assembly meeting. With his recent retirement at the end of June, McCloskey has closed out 38 years of police work. His career in law enforcement started almost 40 years ago in Montana. His first job was as a reserve officer in the Madison County jail. Then, in 1981, he began working for the sheriff's department of Beaverhead County, Montana. What inspired him to work in law enforcement,...
Wrangell Police Chief Dough McCloskey was honored by the borough assembly last Tuesday night, in recognition of his upcoming retirement. McCloskey came to Wrangell in 1992, after a career as a police officer and as a Merchant Marine with the Coast Guard. He joined the local police department in 1992 as a police officer, and was appointed chief of police in 2003. He has served as chief since then, for the past 16 years. As he has announced his intention to retire, the assembly made a...
The Wrangell Planning and Zoning Commission held a special meeting last week, June 4, to review the borough’s hazard mitigation plan. The plan, according to Economic Development Coordinator Carol Rushmore, is meant for city and other governing entities to better understand what kind of natural disasters it may be vulnerable to, the potential costs of those disasters, and ways that the risks can be lessened. Wrangell’s plan was first created in 2010, and was in need of an update. She also sai...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly gave a second reading of the proposed FY 2020 budget during their meeting on Tuesday, June 11. This year's budget season has been a challenge for local governments across the state, thanks in part to an ongoing battle over the state budget in the Alaska legislature. City governments and school boards are all looking at financial challenges in the near future, and Wrangell is no exception. The proposed budget for the borough has revenues set at about $16.62 million,...
In last week’s story on the borough assembly agreeing to a $1.3 million contribution to the Wrangell School District, it was reported that an amendment proposed by Assembly Member Patty Gilbert was dropped after discussion. Instead, the amendment was voted on and rejected....
There was a long and, at times, tense meeting over a single issue at city hall last Friday, May 31. The Wrangell Borough Assembly had called a special meeting to make a last-minute decision on how much money to give to the Wrangell School District this year. The assembly had planned to cover the item in their previous meeting on May 28, but opted to table the item to wait for extra financial information from the school. Over the course of two-and-a-half hours the assembly and several school...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly held a long meeting last Tuesday evening, May 28. The meeting covered a wide variety of topics, from the city’s water management strategy to budget matters. First there was a workshop on the water management strategy. Wrangell and other communities faced a power crisis recently due to low water levels at Tyee and Swan Lake. Wrangell briefly went on a water watch in early March, as the reservoirs dropped to low levels. The U.S. Drought Monitor reports that the majority of Southeast Alaska is currently facing d...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly sat down for a continuation of their ongoing series of budget workshops on Tuesday, May 14. The assembly has been putting together their FY 2019-2020 budget for the past month, and are getting closer to final approval of it. Each workshop has covered a different portion of Wrangell's facilities and their financial needs. Last week's meeting took a look at capital facilities maintenance and improvements. The capital facilities department is looking at a budget of...
Members of the Wrangell School District and the borough assembly came together for a joint workshop on the school district’s recently adopted budget. As Superintendent Debbe Lancaster said in the past, and repeated in Monday evening’s meeting, this was a “no fat” budget that was operating very close to the district’s bare minimum. The FY 2020 budget is assuming $6.34 million in revenue, and almost the same in expenses. In comparison, this is a decrease from the FY 2019 budget which had expenses set at roughly $6.61 million, but still higher th...
The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board met to review some proposed fee changes last Wednesday, May 8. The fee changes discussed in the meeting were mainly for streamlining and reformatting, according to Parks and Recreation Director Kate Thomas. She said that most of the altered fees were either moved into a different category of the department's spreadsheet, or eliminated altogether. For example, the $5 fee for use of the showers at the community pool was removed, as Thomas said those fees...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly held an emergency meeting last Thursday night to adopt a "surplus property agreement" with the Nome Joint Utility System. The surplus property in question is a pair of diesel generators currently sitting in storage in Nome. Power has been a topic of concern around Wrangell, and amongst the assembly, thanks in part to the recent hydropower shortages at Tyee and Swan Lake. Wrangell currently has four diesel generators which it can use for power in the event of an...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly held a workshop before their regular meeting on Tuesday, April 30, to discuss the future of their solid waste program. According to the agenda packet for the evening, Wrangell has handled its waste by shipping the majority of it off the island via Alaska Marine Lines. However, AML decided that they would no longer ship municipal solid waste in open-top containers after a period of five years. This decision was made about four years ago, and Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen said they have about a year and a half...
Don Young, currently serving his 23rd term as Alaska's sole congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives, stopped in Wrangell for a workshop with the borough assembly the morning on Monday, April 15. Assembly members and city employees met with Young to discuss some of the city's priorities and ways Young could offer assistance at the federal level. Among the many topics covered in the workshop were water infrastructure and school funding. As evidenced by both ongoing power issues as well...
Work began to clear land for Wrangell's new hospital last week. Kendall Nielsen, with Dawson Construction, said that they began cutting down trees on April 4, and will continue to clear and level land next to the AICS Clinic through the rest of the month. The land will be ready to pour the foundation by the second week of May, he added. The new hospital has been an ongoing project in Wrangell for several years. Construction of a new hospital was part of the deal made by the Southeast Alaska...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly recognized the Lady Wolves high school basketball team during their meeting on Tuesday evening for their hard work over the recent season. Mayor Steve Prysunka, in reading a proclamation congratulating the team, pointed out that the Lady Wolves took first place in regionals, defeating Metlakatla, for the first time in 25 years, and that numerous team members had received several awards and accolades over the course of the season. "I, Stephen Prysunka, mayor of the...
The Wrangell Port Commission met last Thursday, April 4, to discuss a plan to alter lease rates at the boat yard. According to Commission Member John Martin, lease rates at the boat yard cover a wide range, from eight cents per square foot to 28 cents per square foot. Under a new formula the commission is planning to use, several businesses at the boat yard will see their rates decrease, while others will see an increase. Martin said that they are trying to bring a sense of equilibrium and...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly and the Wrangell School Board held a joint work session last Thursday to discuss the school district's proposed budget for the 2020 school year. Earlier this year, Governor Mike Dunleavy proposed a 23 percent cut to the Base Student Allocation, which helps determine the amount of funding a school district receives from the state based on the number of students within the district. Since then, funding for the Wrangell School District has been a topic of much concern...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly discussed a proposed noise ordinance once again during their meeting onTuesday. The ordinance has been the source of some controversy around town, some seeing it as the result of two feuding neighbors, or that the regulations proposed by the ordinance are unrealistic. When the ordinance was brought up for discussion in the last meeting, on March 12, there was a very large public turnout to speak their minds on the topic. During that meeting, the assembly proposed various amendments to the ordinance. Previously,...
A meeting was held at City Hall last Wednesday to discuss the upcoming cruise ship season, as well as some proposed projects around City Dock. Cruise ships will begin arriving in Wrangell in April, and the season will close in October. Roughly 20,000 tourists are expected to visit Wrangell this year, 4,000 more than came to town last season. Almost 60 ships are scheduled to dock in town. In a previous meeting to discuss the city's priorities for the cruise season, held last January, it was...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly came together for their regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday evening, March 12. The meeting drew an unusually large crowd, as well, as the assembly was scheduled to vote on a proposed noise ordinance after its second reading that night. Basically, the ordinance that came before the assembly stated that it would be illegal for someone to create noise above the level of 90 decibels between the hours of 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays, and from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends and holidays. During all other hours, the noise...
It was a long night for the Wrangell Borough Assembly. Beginning with a work session to discuss the borough’s federal priorities for 2019 at 5:30 p.m. last Tuesday evening, the assembly and more dedicated members of the public did not leave city hall until four hours later, at 9:40 p.m. The big issues covered in the assembly meeting ranged from proposed changes to the code of ordinances to the ongoing power supply issues in Wrangell and other communities. Proposed changes to the city’s code of ordinances, pertaining to new nuisance codes, wer...
The Wrangell Port Commission held its monthly meeting on Feb. 7 to hold a public workshop on the Mariners' Memorial. Members of the community have been working towards a memorial for Wrangell sailors lost at sea for almost two decades, according to the Mariners' Memorial group website. Some progress has been made towards the memorial, with the ground being broken at the proposed site last December. The workshop was called together to discuss the details of the memorial. One of the details that was discussed heavily was who, exactly, should be...
