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A full complement of events is being arranged for next week's Bearfest, the eighth held since the festival's inception. It was started in 2010 by Alaska Vistas operator Sylvia Ettefagh, in order to highlight Wrangell's robust bear population. One of the prime places to see the area's brown and black bears together in one place is at Anan Wildlife Observatory, a short jump south of the island on the mainland. Several thousand visitors come to the island each summer in order to visit the Forest...
A new administrator has been hired by Wrangell Cooperative Association, assuming the role last week. Esther Ashton was hired to the position, which had been created in 2015 in order to implement Wrangell Tribal Council’s long-range strategic plans and economic development initiatives, as well as manage its various grants and projects. Ashton has been a Wrangell resident for 13 years, having previously worked for Wachovia Securities in Elizabeth City, North Carolina as a financial advisor and business manager. She has worked for the Tribe s...
While more commonly Wrangell leaves a lasting impression on its visitors, one thought to leave his mark on Wrangell instead. With the aid of two chainsaws and assorted carving equipment, Denny Leak spent most of last week outside Wrangell Cooperative Association's Cultural Center as he worked on fashioning out part of one of the tribe's stored totems. Hailing from Kansas, Leak was up for a visit with his daughter, who in March began work at Wrangell Medical Center as a physical therapy...
Mountains of metal are in the middle of being moved this week from the island's landfill and storage spaces. The city is working with Channel Construction to remove as much of the miscellaneous waste as it has on hand. Since Tuesday the company's barge has been busy at the loading yard piling on assorted scrap, discarded autos and bulky items. It has been at least five years since the city was last able to offload a consignment of scrap, after depressed metals prices made transport an expensive...
Summer officially began this week, with the solstice marking the year’s longest day on Wednesday. For hundreds of Wrangell children, the months-long break between school years began at the end of May, and programming to keep them active and socially engaged started up soon afterward. Wrangell Parks and Recreation kicked off its summer activities at the start of June. The library’s summer reading program began June 1, and young residents have already begun taking lessons in horseback riding and swimming. A fee structure is in place for par...
A recent reading on shellfish taken from around the Shoemaker Bay helipad has shown elevated risk of paralytic shellfish poisoning. Blue mussel samples from the site were taken by the local Indian Environmental General Assistance Program office on June 12, and sent to the laboratory maintained by Sitka Tribe of Alaska the next day. The readings came back positive for saxitoxin, the underlying agent responsible for PSP in humans. As a result, residents are advised to avoid eating shellfish from that area for the time being. Since last year...
A big batch of old gillnets is being shipped south for reprocessing. The Indian Environmental General Assistance Program (IGAP) offices in Wrangell and Petersburg planned to send several container loads this week to a Seattle-area processor for reuse. In all, the work of preparing the nets for transport took about two weeks. Wrangell's IGAP hired on temporary laborers this spring to help move, clip and sort through the collected nets. Weed, cork and lead lines were removed from them, with some...
Wrangell Cooperative Association administrator Aaron Angerman announced his resignation from the position, finishing last week. Handling front office, project management and grant administration duties for the Tribe, Angerman served in the position since its creation in the spring of 2015. In leaving, he explained he and his family will remain in Wrangell, but will be taking time to focus on other projects. WCA Board president Richard Oliver said council members will need to address the future of the position, what its continued parameters...
Wrangell Cooperative Association has created a new position for tourism development, hiring Rachel Moreno for the job. The move is one intended to better coordinate the Tribe’s participation in the visitor industry, a growing segment of the economy regionally despite declines in other sectors. According to state labor statistics, tourism accounted for nine percent of all employment earnings in Southeast for 2015. The sector made up about 17 percent of all jobs, and is currently the fastest-growing. About 500 average annual jobs were added last...
Last week Wrangell’s Indian Environmental General Assistance Program office issued an alert regarding potentially dangerous shellfish. Readings for butter clam samples taken from the south side of Zarembo Island earlier this month came back surprisingly high for saxitoxin, the root cause of paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) in humans. The Food and Drug Administration sets a safety threshold for consuming saxitoxin at 80 micrograms (μg) per 100 grams of shellfish. The butter clams sampled at Zarembo came back at 884 μg. As a contrast, the IGA...
The environmental office of Wrangell Cooperative Association will be holding a collection drive for residents’ unwanted electronics this weekend. The drive involves the collection, transport and reclamation of an assortment of technological contraptions. It will be funded through an Indian Environmental General Assistance Program grant, a program run through the Environmental Protection Agency cooperatively with the Tribe. “We will be collecting anything with a cord or a brain,” explained Kim Wickman, Wrangell IGAP technician. “They can be fax...
The opening of a planned assisted living and senior housing center has been pushed back by a couple of weeks, its owners say. Shannon Bosdell said a Certification of Occupancy from the state is needed before Harbor House can open its doors to residents. First announcing the venture back in December, he and co-developer Daniel Blake were expecting an April 1 start date. “It got pushed out by a week, week and a half,” Bosdell said. Formerly the Sourdough Lodge, once certified, the Peninsula Avenue facility will be able to accommodate five assiste...
This year's annual Tent City Days celebration will start tomorrow, opening up with the dog show at 5 p.m. Celebrating the town of Wrangell's rustic beginnings, the annual late-winter festivity was held a bit later than usual this year due to scheduling conflicts. "I ain't competing with the Super Bowl," event organizer Kelly Gunderson joked. Involved with the festival in past years, she took organization of the celebration off the hands of Penny Allen, who in recent years has been working to...
The environmental office of Wrangell Cooperative Association will be conducting field surveys later this spring to gauge air quality in the community. In a presentation to the Healthy Wrangell Coalition at its monthly meeting last week, WCA it was reported will be acquiring an electronic monitoring device that will read for particulate content in the air. Readings will be taken to gauge air quality and measure how prevalent such material is in the air over certain timeframes. Run through the Indian Environmental General Assistance Program (IGAP...
To the Editor: When it comes to a program that collects solid scientific data, and provides resources that lead to more sustainable approaches, look no further than Wrangell IGAP, administered by the Wrangell Cooperative Association. IGAP provides our community with services such as gill net recycling, and E-waste collection, which take a big bite out of our solid waste burden. The program networks with other tribes in Southeast, collaborates with the City and USFS, and presents to science classes in our schools. Wrangell IGAP works to provide...
Wrangell Cooperative Association held its annual election for the Tribal Council on February 22. Open to members, a total of 68 ballots were counted, including four absentee and eight question ballots. Turnout was down by about a dozen members from the previous year, possibly due to the election being rescheduled from the previous week. Every year, half of the eight-member council is up for re-election, with members serving two-year seats. The results shown here are preliminary, to be validated at Tuesday evening’s Tribal Council meeting. O...
Following the February 16 article on its new Knowledge Imaging Center, the Irene Ingle Public Library wanted to acknowledge Wrangell Cooperative Association as the lead organization for the IMLS Grant that provided funds for its purchase. The library apologizes that this information was inadvertently omitted from last week’s article....
For Wrangell, the past year was one mixed with successes and setbacks, shared tragedies and uplifting moments. Sales taxes collected over the spring and summer tour seasons neared all-time highs, with the visitor industry experiencing a good season overall. On the other end, fishermen experienced one of their worst harvests of the summer, which after a disappointing 2015 season has put the fiscal pinch on a number of local families, boat builders, and associated sectors. As 2017 dawns, concerns...
Wrangell's second-largest travel lodging has been sold, and will be repurposed as a senior housing and assisted living center this spring. The owners of the Sourdough Lodge sold the property to a group of buyers, who are currently renovating its rooms and preparing it for the new use. Once completed, by April 1 the lodge will be rechristened Harbor House Assisted Living Center and Senior Housing. One of the buyers, Shannon Bosdell, explained the facility will fill a need in the community for hou...
The Wrangell Public School Board will get a first look at its budget next month for the upcoming year, which begins July 1, 2017. At its December 14 meeting, school superintendent Patrick Mayer reported the year’s budget would be reflecting expected reductions to revenue sources. He explained the district will be putting together its draft budget operating under four assumptions, which may change as the new year unfolds. One of these is a student enrollment count of 273, which takes into consideration part-time students. Health coverage p...
The special committee tasked with pursuing development of a residential high school in Wrangell is currently courting support from a major consortium of tribal villages in Interior Alaska. The school would be the first year-round residential facility to be operated under the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program (ANSEP), a supplementary learning program which earlier this fall opened its first full-time accelerated high school in the Matanuska-Susitna area. The program is part of the University of Alaska system, and was founded to impro...
The special committee tasked with pursuing development of a residential high school in Wrangell is currently courting support from a major consortium of tribal villages in Interior Alaska. The school would be the first year-round residential facility to be operated under the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program (ANSEP), a supplementary learning program which earlier this fall opened its first full-time accelerated high school in the Matanuska-Susitna area. The program is part of the Uni...
Latest samples of butter clams from Shoemaker Bay beaches show levels of saxitoxin have halved since this summer, when specimens were found to be a health hazard. The clams are still considered a health risk, albeit at a lower level. Wrangell Cooperative Association’s Indian Environmental General Assistance Program (IGAP) staff have been collecting samples of mussels and other bivalves from the beach on a weekly basis, which then get tested at a Sitka lab for several different toxins. In August the program reported elevated levels of s...
Wrangell Senior Center is conducting a survey this month tracking Native elder health and social issues. The local surveying is a cooperative effort between Southeast Senior Services and Wrangell Cooperative Association. The results go to the National Resource Center on Native American Aging, which assesses the quality of life for elders across the United States. NRCNAA helps compile and prepare the results of the assessment, as well as provide assistance on how to best use that data. The survey focuses on individuals aged 55 and older, and...
A new bus has been added to the fleet serving Wrangell, the Public School Board learned Monday. Etolin Bus Company has acquired a new Thomas Saf-T-Liner C2 model bus, which will be used for transporting middle and high school students on daily routes. Etolin operator Greg McCormack brought it and the previous Blue Bird model down to Evergreen Elementary to demonstrate the differences. “The new bus we have is what I consider the world’s most modern school bus,” he commented. Compared to the older vehicles, the Thomas sports a number of added...
