Sorted by date Results 201 - 225 of 497
The borough is waiting on further guidance from the U.S. Department of the Interior on the agency’s nationwide initiative for researching and even searching the sites of former Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding schools, including the former Wrangell Institute property. The borough plans to subdivide the property for residential development, turning the 134 acres into 40 building lots. While waiting on the Interior Department, borough officials are talking with the State Historic Preservation Office and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to ensure t...
Six candidates are vying for three seats on the Wrangell school board. Angela Allen, Alex Angerman, Brittani Robbins and Elizabeth Roundtree are running for two open three-year terms. The top two vote-getters will win the election. Julia Ostrander and Jessica Whitaker are competing to fill one seat for an unexpired one-year term. Although each candidate has similar goals they want to achieve during their term if elected, they all have varied backgrounds and experience they believe would lend a...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association will assist with a two-year research project into seafood consumption rates, intended to help state officials understand the importance of clean water and healthy seafood for the community’s Indigenous population. The Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Tribal Climate Resilience Program has approved a $130,000 grant to the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission, which will administer the program and work with WCA. The project will include a survey of current and past seafood consumption and its imp...
Sept. 15, 1921 Fires invariably come in groups in Wrangell and three occurred within a short time during the past week. On Friday night, the McCulla house on Church Street had a small blaze on the roof; on Saturday forenoon, the house occupied by Mrs. Doit Burnett just off Front street was afire; and on Monday morning the Adams home, near St. Philip’s gymnasium, caused the alarm. Of the three, the Burnett home received the most damage, the roof being badly burned. Sept. 6, 1946 Republican boss Albert White has been attempting to direct some G...
Sometimes a pause in the hustle is necessary. Our transboundary watersheds, the Taku, Stikine and Unuk rivers that flow from Northwest British Columbia into Southeast Alaska, face an onslaught of too many industrial mining projects proposed for locations too close together to each other in far too sensitive areas. Those projects, and the way they are being approved without the consent or input of many of those who could be impacted, including tribes and Southeast Alaskans, give many reasons for a pause in business as usual. After the infamous...
Kindergartener Leeya Gillen was one of 154 Wrangell schoolchildren who went home Tuesday with new backpacks from the annual Wrangell Cooperative Association event. The backpacks, filled with school supplies, were part of the Tlingit & Haida Central Council's drive to ensure Native children have supplies for school. To guard against COVID-19 infections, the backpack giveaway was socially distanced at the covered basketball court behind Evergreen Elementary School. Classes start Monday in...
The borough’s plans to subdivide the former Wrangell Institute Native boarding school property will wait until a thorough inspection of the site is conducted for cultural artifacts and remains. “We are working with both the Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and working with the tribe (Wrangell Cooperative Association),” to ensure the property is searched “before any activity takes place,” Mayor Steve Prysunka said last week. “It is incredibly sensitive that we do it really well,” Prysunka said. “What I care the most a...
Wrangell businesses did better than those in Skagway but worse than their counterparts in the larger and more diversified economies of Juneau and Sitka during the economic shutdowns amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an online survey of business owners and managers throughout the region. “On average, reporting businesses in the region lost 42% of their revenue due to COVID-19, while Wrangell businesses were down 48% overall,” the third highest for any community in the area, said the report issued by the Southeast Conference, com...
Nate Rooney (left) practices his casting with help from Jason Rivers at the annual Family Fishing Day last Saturday at Pats Lake. Rivers, who taught kids and adults the basics of fly-fishing, was among several volunteers who helped out at the event, sponsored by the U.S. Forest Service. The Wrangell Cooperative Association and Stikine Sportsmen Association also participated....
Most of a half-mile of slippery boardwalk trail at the Anan Wildlife Observatory is being replaced with gravel this summer, but that's just one of several U.S. Forest Service projects planned and proposed for the Wrangell area over the next several years. The agency is accepting public comments on another project proposed at Anan - a new deck at the viewing platform. "The existing viewing platform has reached the end of its usable life and needs to be replaced,"according to the Forest Service...
Continuing a decade-plus of tradition, the U.S. Forest Service and other volunteers will sponsor Family Fishing Day at Pats Lake from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 26. The fishing day is an opportunity for families to come out and enjoy the outdoors, said Corree Delabrue with the Forest Service. It’s also a chance for kids to develop an interest in fishing and become “anglers for life.” “Family Fishing Day, it started probably over 10 years ago, I think,” she said. “It was originally put on and organized by the local Boy Scout troop. When all those s...
It was 25 years ago last month that Wrangell received title to the former Institute property near Shoemaker Bay. The 134 acres have mostly been unused since the Bureau of Indian Affairs shut down the boarding school almost 50 years ago. There have been plans, proposals, wishes and dreams over the decades of turning the property into tourist lodging, senior citizen housing, a school or training center. And now the borough is moving closer to the latest plan - subdividing the land into lots for...
A preliminary plat for the first phase of developing the former Wrangell Institute property into residential and commercial lots, known as Shoemaker Bay Subdivision II, was approved by the planning and zoning commission Tuesday afternoon. There is still a lot of work to do, but this is a significant step in the development process, said Wrangell Economic Development Director Carol Rushmore. It may be optimistic, she said, but site work could begin sometime next year. Final plat approval by the commission could be several months away, Rushmore...
In an effort to reduce waste and provide good soil for gardens, the Wrangell Cooperative Association is encouraging people to bring their compostable waste to the community garden, out by City Park. The WCA took over the composting project about a year ago, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic things got put on hold. “In 2018 Chris Hatton (of WCA) completed a solid waste assessment, and in those findings she discovered that 40% of our waste that is being shipped is compostable,” said Kim Wickman, with the WCA. “We had big plans, then COVID happe...
The Wrangell Museum has two projects underway, both dealing with wood. One is a new sign, being carved from a 20-foot-long yellow cedar log. The other is the ongoing effort to preserve and display the 96-year-old retired U.S. Forest Service wooden boat, the Chugach Ranger. Wrangell carver Denny Leak started last month stripping the bark off the log and is cutting his way into the design, which will spell out MUSEUM in large block letters vertically, with an eagle and a raven carved out at the...
Herring eggs much appreciated Wrangell Central Council Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (CCTHITA) would like to thank Trixie Kalkins-Bennett of the Ketchikan Indian Community and fishermen from Ketchikan, Colleen James-Olson and Esther Reese, Wrangell Cooperative Association administrator, for collaborating with us, and to the people who helped distribute herring eggs, a cherished traditional food of the Tlingits, to the community on April 21. They include Annette Thompson, Jamie and Caleb Stough, Jerry Lee Knapp, Liz Romane of Tribal...
Delilah Roane (left) and Maria Holder look over a hermit crab they caught in a tide pool at the Sea Day event last Friday at Shoemaker Park. The Wrangell Cooperative Association and the U.S. Forest Service sponsored the event for the community's homeschool kids. The day featured arts and crafts, education on the plants and animals that can be found near the water, and a potluck lunch for several dozen homeschoolers....
About 70 people came out for Saturday's Wrangell Community Cleanup, about 10 more than usual, said organizer Valerie Massie. There was no cleanup in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the annual event was brought back this spring, sending volunteers around the city to pick up trash. Massie said participants filled 146 bags with trash in a half-day of work, enough for 10 full dumpsters and four truckloads of large items like metal and mattresses. Organizer Kim Wickman said there was not one...
The Wrangell Community Cleanup, a longtime tradition, is set for Saturday. Volunteers are invited to meet at the covered basketball court by Evergreen Elementary at 8:30 a.m. to help clean up Wrangell. The cleanup occurs every spring, except last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the public spending half the day picking up as much trash around the city as possible. The Wrangell Cooperative Association has been assisting with the cleanup organization for about four years, said Kim Wickman,...
According to unofficial election results, three incumbents were reelected to the Wrangell Cooperative Association tribal council last week and one new candidate was chosen by voters. Tribal citizens chose four out of five candidates to join the council for two-year terms. Turnout for the March 10 election was 128 voters, the WCA reported, compared to 90 in the last election in November. The winners are Luella Knapp (110 votes), Michelle Jenkins (86 votes), Richard Oliver (85 votes) and Jason...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association, Wrangell's tribal organization, and the Salvation Army collaborated last Friday to hand out 50 food boxes to people in need, with a second distribution planned for this Friday. Esther Reese, WCA tribal administrator, said her organization signed up with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to participate in their Farmers to Families Food Box program. It's a nationwide effort to support farmers and families, with the federal government buying the food from...
As part of ongoing efforts to encourage people to get vaccinated against COVID-19, the chief medical officer of the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium stood in front of a Wrangell audience - live and on Zoom - to take questions. The Wrangell Cooperative Association had invited Dr. Elliot Bruhl to town, where he explained how the vaccine works, how it was developed, and answered questions from the public Feb. 4 at the Nolan Center. As of Feb. 4, 680 people in Wrangell had received their...
Fiscal stability, infrastructure and land development are among Wrangell's priorities for the near future. But it will not be easy. "I'm certain that this involves us purchasing a printing press and having a secret room where we come up with the funds we need to do what's necessary," Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen said jokingly. "As the state continues to face fiscal hardship, as we continue to get downward pressure in a number of different ways, and at the same time the cost of operations is...
Ortiz asks constituents to take budget survey To the editor: This week, the Legislature convenes for session. One of the main obligations of the Legislature is to pass a budget for the upcoming fiscal year. It is also one of our greatest challenges. In order to create a budget that works for District 36, I need to hear from you. This time of year, I typically send out a survey asking for your opinion. This year, in lieu of a survey from my office, I am asking you to take Commonwealth North's bud...
Online sales tax revenues brought in more than $90,000 in nine months last year, with receipts continuing to rise, according to Wrangell Borough officials. While the municipality is struggling with rising costs and decreasing revenues, one bright spot has been the collection of sales taxes from online, out-of-town merchants. The borough is budgeted this fiscal year to collect $1.25 million in sales taxes, projected to be down substantially from last year due to the pandemic-inflicted economic...
