Sorted by date Results 1147 - 1171 of 7954
Members of the Tlingit community gathered outside the Wrangell airport last Friday while chests carrying four objects -a mudshark hat, a mudshark tunic, a blanket and a blanket with a killer whale stranded on a rock while hunting - were carefully lowered back into their hands after 91 years of separation. The objects, which belong to the Naanya.aayí clan, were taken by Wrangell police from the home of Mary Kunk, Eva Blake and Betty Carlstrom in the 1930s. In an effort to right past wrongs,...
The school district has submitted its application for a spot on the Alaska Department of Education’s list of schools in need of major repair and rebuilding grants. The department reviews and lists projects from across Alaska in order of priority, and then each year the Legislature and governor decide how much state money to commit — which has been only enough in recent years to cover less than 10% of the projects. The district is hoping for $6.5 million from the state to go along with $3.5 million from a bond issue approved by Wrangell vot...
Voters will choose two borough assembly members, a school board member and a port commissioner in the Oct. 3 municipal election — but only one of the four seats is contested. There are two candidates for the one school board seat on the ballot. John DeRuyter, a clinical psychologist, is running for a three-year term on the school board. Incumbent Esther Aaltséen Reese, tribal administrator for the Wrangell Cooperative Association, is seeking reelection to the board. She was elected to a one-year term last year. DeRuyter is a self-employed cl...
A year after an effort that failed to attract any bidders, the state is again looking to hire a shipyard to build a replacement for the ferry Tustumena. Design work is still not complete, however. The new ferry, which will mostly serve Gulf of Alaska communities, is expected to cost almost $325 million, with the federal government picking up much of the cost. It would give Alaska its first new mainline ferry in decades. In a meeting with the Alaska Marine Highway Operations Board on Aug. 25,...
Wrangell's cool, rainy climate might be ideal for banana slugs and bears, but it doesn't usually appeal to cold-blooded animals that rely on the sun's warmth to maintain their body temperatures. However, one reptile-loving resident is committed to providing a safe home for any turtles and tortoises that find their way onto the island as pets. Charity Hommel has been raising and rescuing reptiles for over 20 years now. Her lasting love for the animals began in the early 2000s, when her children...
The Nolan Center team has decided that “Cinderella” will be the perfect fit for its winter musical, and the community theater is preparing to search the realm far and wide for potential princesses, princes, stepsisters, kings and chorus members to join the cast. Auditions will be held Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 6 and 7, between 4 and 7 p.m. at the Nolan Center. “We chose ‘Cinderella’ because we were looking for another show that we thought would connect with people,” said director Haley Reeves, who also helmed the Nolan Center’s pr...
The Wrangell School District has increased its annual state travel fee for student athletes from $350 to $400 to help cover the cost of travel to state meets. It also clarified its policy in which those funds, if not used by the end of the school year, would be deposited into an account to pay for future state travel. The fee increase was implemented for this school year in an effort to catch up with increasing costs, bolster the district’s overdrawn state travel account and shore up funds for future years. District representatives said the p...
The Wrangell Convention and Visitor Bureau’s new interactive, destination-focused map pinpoints dozens of businesses, community services, recreational opportunities and more, providing useful information for anyone planning a trip or thinking of setting up their family or business in town. It’s only been a couple of months since the app was launched and the visitor bureau’s QR Code — its digital link to information — already has been scanned more than 5,000 times, steering people to the new 3D map of the community and surrounding area. The...
A Washington state resident was sentenced last week to two years in federal prison for selling fake Alaska Native artwork in Ketchikan. Cristobal “Cris” Magno Rodrigo, 59, pleaded guilty in April to one federal count of conspiracy and another count of misrepresentation of Indian-produced goods and products. Alaska U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Burgess sentenced Rodrigo on Aug. 28 to serve two years in federal prison, the longest a defendant has received for any Indian Arts and Crafts Act violation in the U.S., according to the Indian Art...
The Southeast king salmon troll fishery opened Friday, Sept. 1, for the third time this summer, though relatively few fish remain in this year’s allocation, the Department of Fish and Game announced. With only about 3,200 kings remaining in the season quota, Fish and Game said the 10-day opening will be a rare “limited harvest fishery,” with each permit holder allowed to take only nine chinook. As a limited fishery, it comes with a few additional rules as well. Fish kept for personal use will count toward the commercial harvest limit, and k...
The community helped Missy Wright celebrate her 100th birthday with a festive, purple-themed party on Friday, Sept. 1. The party took up the entirety of the Nolan Center's main event space and featured lavish decorations, live music and catered foods. Wright welcomed her guests from the comfort of a sparkly, purple throne at the front of the room....
Gov. Mike Dunleavy has vetoed a bill that aimed to minimize the use of harmful refrigerant chemicals that exacerbate climate change and also reduce the risk of spills of a different chemical that can pollute drinking water. The legislation would have banned most firefighting departments from using a type of firefighting foam that has contaminated drinking water in dozens of places across Alaska and many more in the Lower 48. The bill, originally introduced by Anchorage Rep. Stanley Wright would have allowed newly constructed buildings in...
A board appointed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy has decided in favor of a new state regulation that would ban transgender girls from participation in high school girls sports. The decision by the state board of education on Thursday, Aug. 31, came less than six months after the board passed a resolution indicating its members were interested in such a policy. All seven Dunleavy-appointed board members voted in favor of the new policy, which says that only girls whose sex assigned at birth is female will be able to participate in girls sports. The only...
On a visit to Alaska last month, the leader of the national community service agency AmeriCorps said the group plans to increase its investment in the state. AmeriCorps received an additional billion dollars for its nationwide budget as part of the American Rescue Plan in 2021. Last year, more than 400 people worked or volunteered with AmeriCorps in Alaska. The federal program spent more than $4.3 million in the state by funding community-led initiatives in schools, youth centers, health clinics and shelters. AmeriCorps CEO Michael Smith said...
Ketchikan’s police chief returned to the job last month after a felony assault charge against him stemming from an off-duty altercation at a restaurant was dismissed by a Ketchikan Superior Court judge in mid-August. Jeffrey Walls, 47, was indicted in December on six criminal charges including assault. He spent more than eight months on paid administrative leave as the case proceeded, and as city officials conducted an internal review. Walls remains charged with five misdemeanors for assault and reckless endangerment. The altercation took p...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy spoke publicly Thursday, Aug. 31, for the first time about his decision to endorse Republican former President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential race. In a Fox Business interview, Dunleavy said Trump has been “the best president for this state in its short history,” citing Trump’s actions in issuing oil drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and removing roadbuilding restrictions for logging in the Tongass National Forest. Dunleavy’s endorsement of Trump was first reported by Politico on Aug. 22, but he di...
Staffing problems at the payroll division are causing many of Alaska’s 14,000 state employees to be paid late or for the wrong amounts and have caused the state to temporarily stop using one of its main tools for hiring and retaining workers. In an August letter to the commissioners in charge of state departments, Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s chief of staff told them that the problems “are primarily due to excessively high vacancy rates at payroll (over 40%).” Thirty-one of 67 budgeted positions are vacant, said officials at the Department of Adminis...
President Joe Biden will visit Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage on Sept. 11. Biden will participate in a ceremony at the base with members of the military, first responders and families, commemorating those who died in the 2001 terrorist attacks. He is scheduled to travel to India from Sept. 7-10 to attend a summit with other world leaders, followed by a stop in Vietnam, and will stop in Anchorage on his way back to Washington, D.C. Biden landed in Anchorage in May for a brief refueling stop en route to the G-7 Summit in Japan but...
Advocates of the longstanding effort to create five new Southeast Alaska Native corporations say it's about ancestry, economic value and correcting a five-decade-old wrong. This year, legislation before Congress would grant each of the five corporations, including Wrangell, about 23,000 acres of land from the Tongass National Forest. The proposed land selections for a Wrangell corporation are spread over about a dozen blocks around the area, as far south as Coffman Cove on Prince of Wales...
Margaret "Missy" Wright is an elegantly dressed woman with a bright white coiffure and a loud, infectious laugh. The long-term care resident has been a fixture of the Wrangell community since she moved to town in the late 1980s and now, as she prepares to turn 100, is likely the island's oldest inhabitant. She has invited the entire town to celebrate her birthday on Friday, Sept. 1, with a massive party at the Nolan Center at 4 p.m. The party theme is purple - Wright's favorite color - and...
The Wrangell School District has received the green light to buy an electric school bus through a federal clean energy grant. In his report to the school board on Aug. 21, Schools Superintendent Bill Burr said the Environmental Protection Agency approved the district for a grant that will go toward a newly built electric bus and charging station. The grant was almost a no-go just a few months ago. Working with the district’s contracted bus company, Taylor Transportation, Burr submitted the grant to the EPA about a year ago. The program r...
A new generation of runners is preparing to follow in the footsteps of Wrangell High School’s state championship-winning cross country team. For the first time this fall, a middle school team will lace up their sneakers and get ready to race. Laura Davies, a teacher at Stikine Middle School, is organizing and coaching the program. She hopes that it will support the existing high school team by improving young runners’ endurance and preparing them to race at the regional level once they become freshmen. “If you look long-term, we have a high...
Evergreen Elementary School principal Ann Hilburn, left, and Leighetta Debord stop to commemorate the first day of school on Thursday, Aug. 24. Staff greeted students at the door with smiles as parents dropped off their children, many smiling and waving goodbye while others were visibly not thrilled to be back at school after their summer break....
A newly formed group of automotive afficionados called the "Differentials" are volunteering to help the community rid itself of junked vehicles. So far, the Differentials boast two sets of two-person teams that to remove tires and drain fluids from cars and trucks so that they can be shipped off the island by scrap metal recycler Channel Construction. As of Thursday, Aug. 24, the group had prepared two cars and a bus for transport. Two more car-draining duos are slated to join the group soon,...
The deadline to file for a seat on the borough assembly, school board or port commission in the Oct. 3 municipal election is 4 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 31. And for residents not registered to vote in Alaska, the deadline to register to vote is Sunday, Sept. 3. Two seats on the assembly and one each on the school board and port commission will be on the ballot. As of Monday, Aug. 28, incumbent Anne Morrison had filed for reelection to the assembly, as had challenger Michael J. Ottesen; assembly incumbent Ryan Howe had not yet filed or announced his...
