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Wordsmiths, fans of crossword puzzles, word nerds and casual spellers alike now have a place to test their knowledge and battle it out with friendly competition. A new community Scrabble group started playing the popular tile letter game last Thursday in the St. Philip's Episcopal Church parish hall. The group began when teacher Tracey Martin decided to gauge the town's interest since she missed playing. She posted in the Wrangell Community Group Facebook page and the post exploded with...
The staff, faculty and students at Wrangell’s three public schools work hard and believe in the importance of education. Parents help out with volunteer work, and the overall community pitches in, too. The borough this year is contributing the maximum amount of funding to the school district operating budget allowed under state law. During budget deliberations last May, the assembly boosted the local contribution by more than $300,000 to reach the max for the 2022-2023 school year. And while that local support is enough for this year and p...
From the start of the game, the Wrangell High School boys basketball team had their work cut out for them against Haines. The energy from both the Wolves and the Glacier Bears was evident from tipoff in Friday and Saturday games, leading to one loss and one win on Haines' home turf. Right off the bat in the first period of the first game, Haines took possession of the ball and sunk a 3-point shot. Ethan Blatchley answered with Wrangell's first 2-pointer just moments into play. He would add...
Bad luck on Friday the 13th bled into Saturday the 14th for the Lady Wolves as they traveled to Haines to take on the Glacier Bears last weekend. In the first competition of the new year, the Wrangell High School girls basketball team played against Haines in two games last weekend. Haines proved to be a formidable opponent from the start of Friday night, taking an early lead and never letting go of it. The triple-threat of MacKenzy Dryden, Grace Long-Godinez and Ari'el Godinez-Long kept Haines...
Christine Jenkins passed away peacefully surrounded by her family on January 4, 2023, at the age of 94. She was a lifelong Wrangell resident and a much-loved and respected member of the Wrangell community. Cecelia Christine Feller was born October 12, 1928, in Wrangell to Otto and Susie (Cooday) Feller. She was the youngest of seven children. She was Tlingit Raven/Frog, Kiks.a'di of the Sun House in Wrangell and was a tribal citizen of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. Christine...
As part of its ongoing review and update of the schools’ mitigation plan, the Wrangell School District has dropped the COVID-19 testing requirement for athletes traveling for games. The requirement was dropped at the start of the year. Schools Superintendent Bill Burr announced the decision at the December school board meeting, during review of the plan. Though student-athletes no longer need to test before going out of town for games, the district still encourages it. “We are still doing optional testing at all schools on a request bas...
Jan. 4, 1923 A record crowd witnessed the opening game of the basketball tournament Thursday afternoon between Wrangell and Ketchikan and got their money’s worth of thrills without a doubt. Kayhi played a fast game from the beginning and drew first blood, the lead alternating with regularity, the score being 7-5 at the end of the first half in favor of the visitors. In the second, Wrangell tightened up and local fans cheered them lustily as they kept Ketchikan from making more than two baskets while they were getting four points on fouls and t...
Dec. 21, 1922 Wrangell basketball fans had an opportunity to see the high school team in speedy action last Friday night when they met the Kake town players. The Kake boys were a stalwart bunch, but they were unaccustomed to the latest rules and had been practicing outdoors instead of in a hall, according to a statement by their coach prior to the game. They were distinctly outclassed. The speed of the Wrangell high team, their teamwork and their superior ability to connect with the baskets made it impossible for the visitors to get more than...
The Wrangell Wolves had a preview of what's to come in this season's basketball tournaments, and the team has its work cut out for them. In competition that spanned three days, the Wrangell High School boys basketball team traveled to Sitka to take on three different teams. They won two games and lost two games in fierce opening play. On Thursday, the team was supposed to compete against Kodiak High School, but the Bears were canceled by foul weather. Instead, the Wolves took on the Sitka...
Everything you could possibly want to know about fish, from their biological characteristics to the commercial fisheries that harvest and sell them to the governmental entities that regulate them, is available through the University of Alaska Southeast applied fisheries program. Catering to high schoolers, recent graduates and seasoned professionals alike, the school’s online and in-person programs prepare students for jobs in the industry. Applied fisheries is a workforce development program housed in the UAS career education department in S...
An incredible run of wins took the Wrangell High School girls volleyball team all the way to the state championship playoffs at Palmer High School last Thursday and Friday. Even with their signature ability to come back from losses and overcome the competition to win matches, it wasn’t enough for the Lady Wolves, whose bid for the state title ended after three hard-fought games. Wrangell versus Dillingham Play started Thursday morning with Wrangell facing the Dillingham High School Wolverines. Early on, it was evident the kind of competition W...
It’s been seven years since Wrangell had a spring sports offering for high school students. Baseball was canceled in 2015 due to a lack of participation, but now a proposed track program might be in the works. At the Nov. 21 school board meeting, Mason Villarma, the district’s activities director, said a survey was in process to gauge student interest in a modified track program. “It’s just so good for those kids to have some outlet, and you can see the benefit in the classroom,” Villarma told the board. “I would propose track because there see...
Nov. 23, 1922 J. Stockley Ligon, who was sent to Alaska by the U.S. Biological Survey to investigate wolf attacks, came to town this week, having caught six wolves – four on Kupreanof and two on Zarembo. Ligon is not so much concerned in actual trapping as in making an investigation and working out plans and developing methods that are applicable in Alaska. The $150 that has been raised locally could be spent in no better way than by sending out some reliable local man with Ligon to learn how wolves can be most successfully trapped. Nov. 21, 1...
Back in March, I wrote a column about being a converted sports junkie. It detailed my appreciation for high school sports, and I believe it’s what spurred me to get more involved in the community since people still remark on it nearly nine months later. On Nov. 15, the last session was held for the I Toowú Klatseen group. Before the final meeting, a make-up run took place for the kids who had missed the previous week’s 5-kilometer fun run. It was the culmination of around 10 weeks of meetings and practices — and I nearly missed all of it. So...
It's becoming a tradition in communities across the United States, and Wrangell is no exception. Every Thanksgiving Day morning, several hundred thousand walkers and runners across the country brave cold temperatures to race in turkey trots, footraces to help burn lots of calories before lots of calories are consumed. The amount of people can vary. The Buffalo, New York, turkey trot averages about 14,000 participants a year. Run to Feed the Hungry in Sacramento, California, attracts 27,000 per y...
Nov. 9, 1922 At a public meeting at the city hall Thursday evening, the Alaska Game Protective Association of Wrangell was organized. Officers elected were: Chas.Benjamin, president; J.G. Grant, vice president; Dr. R.J. Diven, secretary-treasurer. John E. Worden served as secretary pro tem. At this meeting, the association endorsed the Alaska Game Bill, with two changes recommended, and passed a resolution asking that there be undertaken an extensive program of stocking lands with furbearers and game. This work had already been started by the...
An art teacher has created art for teachers. Tawney Crowley, the art teacher for Evergreen Elementary School, embarked on a logo design project over the summer for the Alaska Science Teachers Association, incorporating elements that each region of the state is known for. The background of the logo is a silhouette of Alaska overlaid with items like glaciers and salmon in Southeast, volcanoes and a mammoth skull in the Aleutians, the aurora borealis over the northernmost portion of the state, a...
Years of flat state funding create budget stress for schools across Alaska By James Brooks and Lisa Phu Alaska Beacon The Anchorage School District, which is considering the closure of six elementary schools amid a projected $68 million budget shortfall, isn’t the only district facing a major fiscal problem. At the end of the last school year, Fairbanks closed three schools. In Juneau, the school board is considering whether to fire specialists intended to help students recover reading skills lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. In rural A...
With voter approval of a $3.5 million bond issue, the Wrangell School District wasted no time in moving ahead with its plan to go after a state grant as it works to fully fund needed repairs at its buildings. But before the district starts any work, it first must determine exactly what needs fixing so it can set priorities and assemble cost estimates. To that end, the school board voted Oct. 11 to appropriate up to $385,900 from the district’s major maintenance fund to pay for condition surveys of all three buildings. The fund has a current b...
Patty Gilbert was sworn in as mayor last Thursday, and in her first days in office plans to “(continue) the heavy work.” She hopes to revitalize the borough’s economic development committee, support local businesses and promote new ones. “It’ll be a full agenda,” she said. The borough assembly certified the election results last Thursday. The ballot proposition to issue $8.5 million in bonds for Public Safety Building repairs failed 259 to 324 in the Oct. 4 election. Since the building is still in need of costly repairs, the assembly wi...
No less than 100 people turned out on Sept. 26 right before sunset for the dedication of the Wrangell Mariners' Memorial at Heritage Harbor. What some said has been in the works for decades has finally been completed, honoring those who have lost their lives at sea and those who made their lives from the sea. "It's amazing (that it's finished)," said Jenn Miller-Yancey, president of the memorial board. "We stand out here and can't believe it sometimes." Miller-Yancey, who's late husband Ryan...
Josh Fish would like to see kids win at the game of life across the board rather than be pawns, so he took a gambit with a classic game. The first chess club will start after school next Monday at Evergreen Elementary, with Fish and helpers teaching students the rules of the game, with the hope of developing social skills and critical-thinking skills in the young players. Fish, 25, learned to play chess in Fayetteville, North Carolina, when he was a freshman in high school. The game turned his...
A Republican Ketchikan Gateway Borough assembly member is challenging the four-term incumbent to represent Ketchikan, Wrangell, Metlakatla, Coffman Cove and other communities of southern Southeast Alaska in the state House. In Jeremy Bynum's first time running for state office, he got 44% percent of the votes in the August primary to Rep. Dan Ortiz's 52%. Both live in Ketchikan. About 4% of voters chose Wrangell resident Shevaun Meggitt, who has since withdrawn and will not appear on the...
Patricia Gilbert is the likely winner in Tuesday’s mayoral election against Terry Courson, leading the in-person vote tally 275-219. With slightly more than 100 absentee and early votes still to count, Courson would have to win those votes by more than a 3-to-1 margin to overtake Gilbert’s 56-vote lead. Voters approved by a wide margin, 311-to-170, approved borrowing $3.5 million for repairs to all three school buildings, but a proposed $8.5 million bond issue for repairs to the Public Safety Building appears headed to defeat. That ballot pro...
It’s been 12 years since Wrangell voters were asked to approve the borough taking on debt, and next Tuesday’s municipal election ballot will include two such proposals to repair worn-down public buildings. The Oct. 4 ballot also will include the election of a new mayor, two borough assembly members, two port commissioners and three school board members. In addition, the ballot asks voter permission for the borough to sell or lease the former sawmill property at 6-Mile. The borough bought the property this summer for $2.5 million, and is loo...