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It was a long meeting for the Wrangell Borough Assembly on the evening of Oct. 23. Nearly reaching two hours long, a large portion of the meeting was devoted to a proposed amendment to the municipal code, which would remove the invocation as a mandatory part of assembly meetings. Mayor Steven Prysunka explained that this has been brought up because of a recent ruling by the Alaska Supreme Court, when they found that the invocation policy of the Borough of Kenai Peninsula was unconstitutional. The court recently ruled that an assembly cannot...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly met Tuesday night for its regularly scheduled meeting. A public hearing was held to discuss the city’s application for funding through the Community Development Block Grant program. Economic Development Director Carol Rushmore said that the grant program was a difficult one to successfully apply for, as there is only $2.6 million dollars to go around the entire state of Alaska each year. The purpose of the CDBG program, she said, is to give low-to-moderate income communities funds to help enhance life in their a...
In a draft plan outlining action on borough-wide nuisance abatement, Wrangell manager Lisa Von Bargen advised a cautious approach to the City and Borough Assembly. Since last September assembly members have had tidying up the stacked junk and discarded vehicles around the island in their sights. Municipal ordinance proscribes such eyesores, whether on public lands or private property, and enforcement was something members wanted to see done. Meanwhile, letters were issued to around 20 residents who were out of compliance, while the city waste...
The city is inching toward a planned purge of the island’s abandoned vehicles and assorted clutter. The unsightly problem has been a longstanding issue in public parking spaces such as at Shoemaker Bay Harbor, with unroadworthy vehicles left there to the elements. But under municipal code junk vehicles on private property are also not allowed, and the rule extends to other collections on display deemed to be a “nuisance” by authorities. This means disused vehicles like cars and boats, rusting piles of scrap or broken equipment, and other items...
The Borough Assembly revisited its policy on nepotism during Tuesday evening’s regular meeting, at the behest of a resident who had lost his new position because of it. Max Dalton took the lectern to make his case. He had last month begun work as a part-time custodian with the Parks Department. During the hiring process he had been one of several candidates for the post, and after interviews had been selected as the top candidate. Dalton is the son-in-law to Mayor David Jack, he explained, and is related by marriage to another city employee. D...
Wrangell Medical Center passed its annual financial audit without complaint, though its cash flow situation is still not in the best of health. Financial officer Doran Hammett ran down the numbers for members of the hospital’s governing board during their monthly meeting December 20. Revenues for the past five months still are lagging behind expectation, around eight percent below budget. Expenses have also been lower than expected, by about six percent, but the hospital is nonetheless running at around a $224,460 loss for the 2018 fiscal y...
In an effort to curb roadside eyesores around town, Wrangell Public Works announced at last week’s meeting of the Borough Assembly its intention to allow people to dispose of their excess scrap metal for free through the end of December. The twice-extended arrangement was initially meant to last through mid-November, when a construction firm was expected to bring a barge to retrieve the city’s scrap. Channel Construction of Juneau had previously removed tons of the stuff earlier this April, in an arrangement where it charged no fees for the...
At its regular meeting Tuesday, the Borough Assembly approved moving ahead with seeking a consultant on the hospital’s future, while members also learned city computers had been targeted by a hacking attack. A letter recommending hiring a consultant had been submitted to the city by the Wrangell Medical Center governing board last month. Currently the hospital is a municipal service, but recent cash flow troubles and sizable costs for a replacement facility have had administrators and elected officials alike considering other alternatives. A...
At last week’s meeting of the City and Borough Assembly, a number of ongoing infrastructural needs made the agenda. One item of interest was acquiring a new backup generator to support one of the city’s recently upgraded sewer pump stations. The pump station on Case Avenue is one of two primary stations servicing Wrangell’s waste that were upgraded last year. In the event of a power failure, Public Works has requested permission to purchase a 175 Kilowatt backup generator capable of running the pump. Currently the department has one smaller gen...
Wrangell Public Works announced Monday it will be extending a window for free disposal of metal waste at the local scrapyard through the month’s end. The department had initially opened a month-long period for residents to get rid of household scrap without fees on October 11. An expectation of a barge arriving in mid-November to take excess salvage off the city’s hands had prompted the move, with the hope that residents might be encouraged to clean house a bit. Following a lengthy, expensive and still unresolved cleanup of severely con...
The Sanitation Department announced it will be waiving fees for disposal of scrap metal for the next few weeks, ahead of a planned arrangement to remove salvageable scrap from the island next month. Beginning last week at the recommendation of the Wrangell Assembly, the free disposal period will be running through November 11. People can bring their household scrap metal to the solid waste transfer station during that time without the usual disposal fee. The decision follows news of a deal with Juneau-based salvaging firm Channel Construction,...
In its Tuesday evening meeting this week, the City and Borough Assembly decided to shift focus for block grant funding to remodeling the Public Safety Building. Sited centrally to town at the start of Zimovia Highway, the aging facility has already neared the top of the city’s capital improvement priorities. In its project outline, city staff recommended putting the building forward as a candidate for Community Development Block Grant funding, a competitive program sourcing $2.4 million of Housing and Urban Development funding each year into A...
At last week’s Borough Assembly meeting, members discussed stepping up abatement of public nuisances around the island. The item came up as a priority during last month’s goal-setting workshop with recently hired city manager Lisa Von Bargen. Returning to the Assembly last Tuesday, she put it to members that she would like to see removal of junk vehicles management take higher priority. She called back to the borough’s recent experience with the former Byford property, a privately managed junk site which after several decades of use was signi...
At its regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday night, members of the City and Borough Assembly pondered different options for participating in the Community Development Block Grant program. In discussion notes, city economic development director Carol Rushmore explained grants are distributed statewide through a highly competitive application basis, based on an applying community’s income level. Wrangell has since 2015 been considered ineligible due to its population falling beneath the l...
Overshadowing other agenda items for Tuesday evening’s Borough Assembly meeting, voices were raised and the rare gavel was used during the persons to be heard segment as several residents and representatives of the Wrangell Tribe aired concerns over proposed placement of a monofill site near Pats Creek. (see Monofill article) Under ceremonial matters, Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) environmental program manager John Halverson updated the Assembly on the cleanup at the 4-Mile former junkyard site, which had been extensively c...
Wrangell's Assembly reviewed a first draft of its Fiscal Year 2018 budget Tuesday evening, during a workshop and public hearing session. Finance director Lee Burgess presented the 43-page document, prefacing it with an overview of the city's financial situation and upcoming budgetary needs. Burgess notes that this year's draft budget is not a balanced one, in terms of revenues versus expenditures. Some critical capital projects are anticipated, the largest being Shoemaker Bay Harbor's facilities replacement. More than $6 million that will have...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly chose its new city manager on Tuesday, bringing to an end a search to replace recently retired manager Jeff Jabusch. Lisa Von Bargen, currently the community and economic development director for Valdez, was chosen for the position after meeting with residents and city staff last week. She has served in that capacity since 2001, and before that had served five years with the Valdez Convention and Visitors Bureau as its director and tourism manager. Continuing its...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly passed on first reading several ordinances related to marijuana, including an additional excise on that cultivated on the island. Under one proposed code change, a new section would affix a $10 tax per ounce on "the sale or transfer of all marijuana from a marijuana cultivation facility ... to a retail marijuana store or a marijuana product manufacturing facility." "The cultivator pays the tax," explained city clerk, Kim Lane. It and the other ordinances were put...
In its meeting December 13, the City and Borough Assembly approved issuance of a new sewer revenue bond. Amounting to $91,000, the 40-year bond will finance a portion of the cost to acquire, construct and install additions to two of the borough’s main sewer pump stations. The work includes new piping and control systems for the stations, which together service about 80 percent of the city’s waste. As of this month, Public Works estimated the city’s sewer system has treated 112,994,910 gallons of wastewater, while maintaining 1.5 emplo...
At its regular scheduled meeting last Tuesday, the Borough Assembly signed on to a letter opposed to adoption of an amended timber plan for managing the Tongass National Forest. The letter, written by Juneau attorney Jim Clark, petitions recently reelected Sen. Lisa Murkowski to support delaying the implementation of the Tongass Transition Plan amendment, which the Department of Agriculture is looking to apply to the 2008 Amended Tongass Land and Management Resource Plan. The intent of the amendment is to transition over to a young-growth...
Sales tax returns indicate the spring and summer of 2016 to have been one of the best on record for the local economy. From April through the end of October Wrangell collected more than $1,659,000, which is the most ever brought in during those two quarters – historically the city's busiest. When adjusted for inflation, only 2011 was a better season, but by only 0.7 percent. The 2016 fiscal year as a whole came to a close on June 30, and returns for the year neared $2.65M. This made it second o...
The city is currently working on ways to reduce the number of autos, boats and other items abandoned or else improperly stored around the island. Chief Doug McCloskey with the Wrangell Police Department explained there currently are many derelict vehicles on the city's radar, about a dozen in all. In municipal code, junk vehicles by definition are those which are stripped, wrecked or otherwise inoperable due to mechanical failure. Currently it is against the law for a junk vehicle to remain in... Full story
At its Sept. 8 meeting, the Planning and Zoning Commission approved a new draft of the local code pertaining to zoning categories. Specifically, changes were made which would update Title 20 to include reference to the legalization of cannabis, as well as when and where state permitted activities would and would not be allowed in the borough. An ordinance containing the updates will be headed to the Wrangell Borough Assembly for first reading at its next meeting. The commission's proposal would... Full story
At its Tuesday night meeting, the Borough Assembly continued to keep up on its various utility priorities. In his regular update, city manager Jeff Jabusch reported most paving projects around town have been completed, including the barge ramp lot. Surfacing work at Wood Street is still on schedule, with new curbing being set in place. Work on that project is expected to wrap up in mid-October. For the water treatment plant, Public Works Department staff are working on a plan to clean out the sand in its filtration units. An emergency shortage...
Two more people have put forth their names to be included on October’s municipal elections ballot. As of press time Tuesday, schools superintendent Patrick Mayer expressed interest in running for a vacancy on the Wrangell Medical Center Board, while WMC head Robert Rang will be running for a position on the Public School Board. The city clerk’s office is inquiring with its attorney on retainer about whether having the two officials serve on each others’ boards would represent a conflict of interest. While unusual, the possibility is not prohi...
