Sorted by date Results 1827 - 1851 of 7954
With its gorgeous landscapes and wide array of recreational opportunities, Wrangell offers a wealth of attractions to would-be tourists. However, due to the day-to-day demands of municipal government, borough officials have been unable to devote as much attention as they would like to marketing the community as a vacation destination — until now. The borough assembly unanimously approved adding a marketing and community development coordinator to the staff at its meeting Jan. 12. The coordinator will work under the economic development d...
Check in on your omelet-loving friends and comfort your quiche-consuming relatives because the global egg shortage has reached Wrangell stores. An outbreak of avian flu has affected poultry around the world, causing many farmers to kill off, or "cull" their birds to prevent the disease from spreading. A similar outbreak occurred in 2014, but this one has already lasted longer and shows no sign of subsiding. As the nation's flocks dwindle, egg prices have risen nationwide. Wrangell IGA has been...
In a room decorated with bright, quilted wall hangings and filled with stacks of quilting pattern books, the Stikine Stitchers discussed upcoming projects, swapped tricks of the trade and displayed recently completed work at their monthly meeting last Saturday. Lisa Torgramsen unfolded a few of her massive, colorful quilts, covered in twisting vines, bright flowers and complex geometric designs. Chris Ellis shared work that was smaller but just as intricate. Her hand-pieced cloth coasters...
For decades, Alaska’s economy has depended on the harvest of natural resources — industries like pumping oil out of the ground and cutting timber. Now, Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy wants the state to make money by leaving trees standing, and by pumping carbon emissions back into the ground. Investment is currently flooding into those kinds of projects, driven by the increasing urgency to slow global warming by cutting human-caused carbon emissions. Dunleavy has long rejected the scientific consensus that those emissions are causing cli...
During his presentation to young readers at the Irene Ingle Public Library on Jan. 14, Alaska author Paul Greci shared the formula that helped him produce his first novel, "Surviving Bear Island" - experience plus imagination equals story. Inspired by his personal outdoor experiences, he imagined the gripping narrative of Tom Parker, who is stranded on a remote island after a sea kayaking accident separates him from his father. The middle-grade adventure story was chosen as the Alaska Center for...
Basketball and Jacen Hay go together like 3-point baskets and, well, Jacen Hay. It's no surprise then that the student-athlete chose to integrate basketball into his senior project, helping to coach the middle school basketball program. Hay has been playing the game since he was about 5 years old when he started in the peewee program. He and his core group of friends played together growing up, and he played on all the school teams and has made a name for himself on the Wrangell High School...
The Alaska Marine Highway System has released its draft summer schedule for coastal communities, proposing a similar level of service to Wrangell as last year. The largest vessel in the fleet, the Columbia, coming out of a three-year tie-up, is scheduled to make weekly voyages between Bellingham, Washington, and Southeast Alaska, stopping in Wrangell northbound on Sundays and southbound on Wednesdays. It is replacing the Matanuska, which is out of service indefinitely for extended repairs. Wrangell would see a second ferry the second week of ea...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — After tidal surges and high winds from the remnants of a rare typhoon caused extensive damage to homes along Alaska’s western coast in September, the federal government stepped in to help residents — largely Alaska Natives — repair property damage. Residents who opened Federal Emergency Management Agency paperwork expecting to find instructions on how to file for aid in Alaska Native languages like Yup’ik or Inupiaq instead were reading bizarre phrases. “Tomorrow he will go hunting very early, and will (bring) nothing,” r...
Alaska’s backlog of untested sexual assault examination kits has all but disappeared after a five-year, multimillion-dollar effort, according to a report presented to the Alaska Legislature. The kits, also known as “rape kits,” are used to collect physical evidence after a sexual assault. Figures published by the Alaska Department of Public Safety and dated Nov. 1 show only 75 untested kits, all at the state crime lab. In 2017, a statewide survey found almost 3,500 untested kits across the state, many held by local police departments. That...
Thanks in part to an influx of federal money, the borough’s sanitation department staff will soon be saved the treacherous task of hauling trash bales up and down a slippery, frozen ramp. The borough assembly accepted the terms of a $250,000 grant from the Denali Commission at its meeting Jan. 10, which will partially fund the borough’s solid waste transfer station loading dock project. This project aims to improve the safety and efficiency of the community’s trash disposal processes. Since installing solid waste baler equipment in Novem...
A monthslong backlog in processing food stamps applications is now the responsibility of a new director. Shawnda O’Brien, who had served as director of Alaska’s Division of Public Assistance, departed with no explanation or indication of moving on to another position, according to an email sent Jan. 9 by Department of Health Commissioner Heidi Hedberg to department employees. Hedberg did not mention the food stamp problems that have received widespread media coverage in recent weeks and stated twice in her message that staff transitions within...
It took several years after Abigail Armstrong first had the idea, but a three-day conference to train musicians, artists and others in sharing and spreading a religious message is planned for Feb. 3-5 in Wrangell. “It’s a Southeast-wide conference,” she said. Actually, it reaches farther than that. About 10 Hawaiians are coming to town to help lead the sessions, Armstrong said last week. She met the Hawaiian teachers at a 2021 conference of the University of the Nations’ Youth with a Mission, which started Armstrong’s planning work to bring...
The Sentinel and the Wrangell Convention and Visitor Bureau are joining together to put out a more comprehensive booklet to help draw visitors to town, guide them when they are here, and help promote the community’s businesses. The Sentinel has been publishing a free annual visitor guide for decades. The Convention and Visitor Bureau, which has published its own, smaller guide for years, is almost out of copies and needed to print a new version this year. Rather than continue with two separate publications, the borough’s advisory board dec...
As the old saying goes, “Variety is the spice of life,” and Wrangell must have made a good impression for Holland America to change its menu for 2024. The cruise line made a late-scheduled stop near the end of the 2022 season, bringing more than 2,300 passengers and crew members to town aboard the Noordam. Now, Holland America has added two stops in Wrangell for the 2024 season for a more “diverse itinerary.” It’s the first time the company has included Wrangell in its pre-season advertising. The cruise line runs six ships on its Alaska to...
The halibut charter boat fleet in Southeast and the Gulf of Alaska will be able to collectively buy quota shares from commercial fishermen under a provision in the federal omnibus budget bill passed at the end of December. The program would be funded by a fee charged for every angler aboard a halibut charter. Seward’s Andy Mezirow is on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and has been a champion of the program for a while. He said it’s a long time coming. The program was vetoed by President Donald Trump in his final weeks in office and...
Whether you want to incubate a godlike physique during the winter months, brush up on your weightlifting form or just enjoy an early morning sweat session with friends, the community gym's new structured workouts are available to encourage you, regardless of your fitness goals. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 6 to 7 a.m., Chadd and Sabrina Yoder have volunteered to guide patrons through a series of lifts and other workouts that they and Recreation Coordinator Lucy Robinson designed...
From impressive athletic successes and community celebrations to business closures and painful losses, Wrangell's 2022 was full of engaging stories, both triumphant and tragic. Last January was a month of new beginnings. Issabella and Tawney Crowley welcomed Wrangell's first baby of the year, Ryleigh Rowan Crowley, into the world on Jan. 4 at the Ketchikan Medical Center. The Decker family established a memorial scholarship fund to honor Sig and Helen Decker, two former Wrangell residents who di...
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...
Juneau saw record-breaking levels of rainfall in 2022, but National Weather Service measurements and the observations of local amateur meteorologist Bill Messmer suggest that Wrangell was spared the worst of the deluge. Juneau's 2022 precipitation totaled 88.31 inches according to measurements taken at the airport. This was three inches wetter than the previous record set in 1991. The National Weather Service hasn't recorded official stats for Wrangell precipitation in years, leaving the measuri...
Shoppers who have items shipped via FedEx can probably assume higher charges come the end of the month. On Jan. 30, a surcharge of $13.25 per package will be added to any delivery the company has deemed “remote.” The fee applies to FedEx Express and FedEx Ground services and covers Wrangell and most of Alaska outside of Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau and Ketchikan. Rival delivery company UPS last year instituted its own remote-area surcharge, which increased to $13.05 per package in the Lower 48 on Dec. 27, up from $12 last year, and as much as...
It's an ambitious senior project that doesn't involve building something, volunteering, painting or reading to the sick or elderly. But it could help make Wrangell a better place to live. Will Ashton, 18, wants to gather the community's thoughts on the economic and social well-being of the town and use the collected data to help borough leaders improve the quality of life. He hopes to survey as many residents as possible covering the areas of subsistence economy, cash economy and the social...
Whether locals or visitors, newbies or experienced sportsmen, recreational fishers who cast their lines in the Petersburg-Wrangell management area have a new resource for all things sportfishing. After spending the past 18 years working in the commercial fisheries division, Jeff Rice has accepted a new position as the Alaska Department of Fish and Game area management biologist for sportfishing in Petersburg and Wrangell. Despite his considerable experience with Fish and Game in Petersburg, Rice has found his new role “very interesting” sin...
The Southeast Alaska Power Agency (SEAPA) has approved an electricity rate hike of a quarter of a cent per kilowatt hour. The additional charge went into effect for its three municipalities — Ketchikan, Wrangell and Petersburg — on Jan. 1, but Wrangell Borough Manager Jeff Good will not consider increasing retail electricity rates until spring, during the annual rate revaluation period. “I don’t plan on bringing it before the assembly until we do our normal rate evaluations coming up,” he said. “When we do our other rate adjustments...
Health care services for Native Americans and Alaska Natives will be bolstered by a provision included in the government spending bill approved by Congress in the final hours of the 2022 session. The measure provides more certainty for a federal agency that delivers health care to more than 2.5 million people. A coalition of lawmakers from Kansas, Arizona, New Mexico, California, Alaska and elsewhere fought to include advance appropriations for the Indian Health Service in the bill, marking a first for the chronically underfunded agency as a...
A demonstration project wood-pellet mill is scheduled to be built on Gravina Island, across the Tongass Narrows from Ketchikan, in mid to late 2023 by the region’s economic development organization, the Southeast Conference. The nonprofit organization, which holds $1.8 million in grant funding from various sources for the project, is in the planning process toward constructing the mill. More than half the money is from a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant. Southeast Conference will own and operate the mill. However, it may partner with a p...
