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It's been 10 years since the community saw the map of a proposed new access route to the Mount Dewey Trail and its viewing platform for a scenic look at the town and harbor below. The wait ended with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new trailhead parking lot on Thursday, Nov. 14. "It's heavily used already," Amber Al-Haddad, the borough's capital projects director, said a few hours before the official opening. The trail runs from Bennett Street, starting at the new parking area on the road to th...
A 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision on sales taxes and a 2020 statewide initiative started by the Alaska Municipal League are benefitting Wrangell’s public treasury. The borough in the past fiscal year collected about $440,000 in sales taxes from purchases made online, by phone or mail and delivered to Wrangell households and businesses. That is up about 10% from the prior year and up substantially from $180,000 in revenues in 2021, the first year of the program. Before the court ruling, states and municipalities were blocked from collecting s...
In an effort to recognize the building’s impact on the town, Parks and Recreation staff will dedicate the community center to Wrangell athletes of the past, present and future. The event will take place at noon on Nov. 9 and will be sandwiched between the fourth and fifth grade all-star basketball games against Petersburg. Devyn Johnson, Parks and Rec’s recreation coordinator, said that after the department’s recent upgrades and capital improvement projects, dedicating the community center felt like the right thing to do. “We’ve been putting a...
NOLAN CENTER THEATER “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” rated PG-13, at 6 p.m. Friday, 6 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 4-6. The dark comedy fantasy horror film runs 1 hour and 45 minutes; tickets are $7 for adults, $5 for children under age 12. Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. COMMUNITY MARKET from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 5, at the Nolan Center. Check out the locally grown and handcrafted item. FALL STORYTIME for children 10 to 11 a.m. Fridays at the Irene Ingle Public Library. Stories, crafts and snacks. This wee...
NOLAN CENTER THEATER - no movies until October. RUMMAGE SALE 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28, at the Lutheran Church. COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD CELEBRATION to honor Kay Larson, founder of BRAVE, one of five Alaskans to receive this year’s Alaska Children’s Trust Champion of Kids award. At 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28, at the Nolan Center. Light refreshments provided; potluck dishes appreciated but not expected. PET BLESSING 11 a.m. to noon Sunday, Sept. 29, at St. Philip’s Church. Open to all critters and their people. FALL STORYTIME for children 10...
Staff at three borough offices saw a need and got together to do something about it. Their answer is to provide after-school activities three days a week over the next three months. “There’s always been the need for after-school care in the community … to fill that gap for parents and children,” said Sarah Scambler, director of the Irene Ingle Public Library. The activities will be free; no advance registration required. The program is open to children 7 through 13 years old, though younger children are welcome, but they must be accompa...
Medals made of pieces from the Eiffel Tower may not be up for grabs in Southeast Alaska, but the Wrangell High School swim team is just as motivated as ever. Another swim season is underway as practices began earlier this month. The team trains five days a week and will travel to its first meet of the season in Petersburg on Sept. 6. For Jamie Roberts, the team's head coach, the upcoming season has some sentimental value. After eight years on the job, this season will be her last. Roberts...
It's safe to say that City Park received quite the facelift this summer. Thanks to work from the Parks and Recreation Department, new stairs, a refurbished pavilion and even a pair of horseshoe pits are the freshest features of Wrangell's often-frequented City Park, about a mile south of downtown. Parks and Rec Director Lucy Robinson began planning the project earlier this spring with the hope of contracting out work to exclusively local contractors, as opposed to putting the projects up for...
BACK-TO-SCHOOL REGISTRATION for grades K-12. Online registration is open. In-person registration on Monday, Aug. 12, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Evergreen Elementary gym for grades K-12. Check the school district website at www.wpsd.us. Classes begin Aug. 22. BRAVE MEETING (Building Respect and Valuing Everyone) 2 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 8, at the Lutheran Church. All are welcome. To join the Zoom session, contact brave.wrangell@gmail.com for a link, or call Kay Larson at 907-209-9117. BACK-TO-SCHOOL backpacks for tribal youth who signed up for...
The assembly’s June 25 meeting produced the largest turnout of community members at a meeting all year for the public hearing on the budget for the fiscal year that started July 1. The budget item that drew the most public testimony was the proposed layoffs at the police department, which had been in the draft budget prepared by the borough manager. Though the budget, as approved by the assembly, lacks enough money to fund the entire police force for the full fiscal year, there will be no change in staffing levels for a few months and the assem...
Parks and Recreation Director Lucy Robinson has announced the elimination of several regular activities at the swimming pool, starting this month, to manage spending under a cut in the borough contribution for the department. In an email to the community on June 27, Robinson said the cutbacks at the pool will reduce spending on part-time employees. The cancellations include the open swim on Monday afternoons and all swim activities on Tuesdays and Thursdays, including lap/family swims and club/camp swims. “Please note that we have eliminated t...
Director Lucy Robinson has announced there will be changes to Parks and Recreation hours and services coming soon, due to a pending cut in borough funding for the department. Recreation Coordinator Devyn Johnson said last week the details were still being worked out. As proposed in the draft budget for the fiscal year starting July 1, the borough contribution to the Parks and Recreation Department would drop from $640,000 last year to $554,000. Borough funds cover more than 70% of the budget for the department’s programs and maintenance, i...
Kids of all ages will have a chance to check out some big rigs at the popular Touch-a-Truck event, from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, June 23, at the parking lot by Volunteer Park. Attendees will get to see many kinds of work vehicles, including fire trucks, police cars, bulldozers, dump trucks and more. This is the seventh such event held in Wrangell, with one year staged as a parade due to COVID restrictions. While it’s normally held on a Saturday, Parks and Recreation Coordinator Devyn Johnson said she wanted kids to be able to come to this event a...
Sales tax revenues came in under projections for the first three months of the year, an indication of a weakening economy and a worrisome sign for the community, Borough Manager Mason Villarma said last week. “We’re at that point we’re going to have to trim things down,” he told the assembly at a budget work session Wednesday, June 5. Mayor Patty Gilbert called the manager’s draft spending plan “the leanest budget” she has seen. In addition to proposing laying off two of the police department’s seven-member force of certified officers, Villa...
Wrangell kids will have a heads-up opportunity next month: Not only can they get free helmets to wear when riding bicycles and four-wheelers, but the offer also includes free paint, brushes and other supplies to decorate their new headgear. It’s a thoughtful giveaway to protect the center of kids’ thought process. Southeast Alaska Independent Living (SAIL), which provides help and support services for people with disabilities, particularly brain injuries, will provide the helmets. Wrangell’s Parks and Recreation Department will put on the e...
The SEARHC community wellness team is using a mobile kitchen to hold classes on healthy cooking in Wrangell and around Southeast. A session is available to the public at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 14, at the Wrangell Medical Center. Seating is limited. "It was bought to just be another resource to talk about health and wellness," department case manager Kathryn Nuckols said of the mobile kitchen. "A fun way to participate in some education (on healthy eating)." Over the past week, she has hosted...
With some coordinating help from Parks and Recreation, bike mechanic Pat Blair with Wheelhouse Bikes in Petersburg will be in Wrangell Monday through Wednesday, June 3-5. Anyone with a bicycle in need of repair needs to call Blair at 907-772-2453 in advance to schedule an appointment. Bikes should be dropped off before the scheduled time at the community center multipurpose room by entering via the ramp on the north side of the building; using the same entrance for pickup after the work is...
The nondenominational TouchPoint Alaska Ministries has reopened the roller rink on Bennett Street, with the first public skate night set for 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Friday, May 3. Georgianna and Richard Buhler, of TouchPoint, are focused on seeing how things go the first night, which they are calling "Roll on the Rock," but they hope to eventually have regularly scheduled skate nights every Friday and Saturday. "That's still the plan," Georgianna Buhler said. "Right now, we're starting small."...
KSTK SPRING ON-AIR FUNDRAISER ends Friday, April 26. Help KSTK raise $21,000 for broadcast services. All donors are invited to KSTK Friday evening, April 26, for the spring grill-out, with burgers, hotdogs, side dishes and beverages. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT will host a pre-season tourism stakeholder meeting at 9 a.m. Thursday, April 25, at City Hall. The meeting is intended for businesses and organizations that provide services to the tourism industry. For those unable to attend in person, a Zoom link is available. h...
The chamber of commerce at its annual awards dinner last weekend honored several members of the community for their service, including the fire department and emergency medical services crew, municipal electric line crew and borough employees for their response to the deadly Nov. 20 landslide that hit Wrangell. “Nowhere was the ‘I can help’ spirit more evident than in November of last year when a tragic landslide befell our community. For weeks, volunteers and first responders showed just what an amazing place Wrangell is,” said Carolin...
One of Wrangell's two teams placed second in the Stikine Middle School Invitational Volleyball Tournament, losing to Klawock in the final, while a Petersburg team took first place in the other bracket after defeating a different squad from Klawock. The two-bracket competition of 13 teams from middle schools across Southeast was held at the Wrangell high school and community center gyms on Friday and Saturday, April 12-13. The teams included two from Wrangell, one from Craig, one from...
Wrangell has a lot to offer people who live here and those who visit. Certainly the river, Native history and culture, Petroglyph Beach, the museum and fishing are on the list. So, too, is an attractive downtown. It’s spring, which means it’s time for volunteers to pitch in with a rake, a shovel, pruning shears or weeding gloves to keep downtown looking good through the summer months — when everything looks better and greener than the recently departed winter. The Parks and Recreation Department is running an adopt-a-garden program again this y...
