Sorted by date Results 4274 - 4298 of 7954
In the last Wrangell School Board meeting, on May 18, several members of the public voiced concerns with how things were running in the school district. Among them were concerns that the technology department was being cut at a bad time, as well as wider concerns that the district has a hostile work environment. The Wrangell Sentinel reached out to Superintendent Debbe Lancaster to seek a response to these concerns. Lancaster said that, after discussing the matter with School Board President...
The Wrangell Borough assembly metTuesday evening, May 26, to host a workshop on the drawing-near Fourth of July. This was an initial discussion to talk about how Wrangell's famous Independence Day celebration might look this year, with the COVID-19 pandemic still ongoing. "This is obviously a fairly important topic to Wrangell, our community is known for our fantastic Fourth of July, we all look forward to it every year," Mayor Steve Prysunka said. Prysunka and Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly, between their weekly COVID-19 update and a budget workshop last Thursday, met to discuss the possibility of small cruise ships visiting town this summer. Cruise season has been a topic of some concern amongst the community. Many ships have delayed or cancelled their planned stops in Wrangell in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. A smaller cruise season means fewer tourists and will have a negative impact on Wrangell's economy. On the other hand, there are concerns...
As the COVID-19 pandemic has gone on, people have turned to technology to help stay in touch from a safe distance. The schools have been hosting lessons online, the borough assembly has been meeting via Zoom, and this coming Saturday the public is invited to see the winners of the virtual "Wrangell's Got Talent" show. The talent show has been put together by Wrangell's parks and recreation department. Lucy Robinson, with the department, said it was an idea they had to stay engaged with the...
Over Memorial Day weekend, Muskeg Meadows started up their weekend golf tournaments for another season. This first tournament of the season was sponsored by Wrangell IGA. There were 20 golfers on the first day of the tournament on Saturday. First place went to a team consisting of Kathleen Harding, Wayne Harding, Doug Nelson, and Drew Eyon. Second place went to a team consisting of Spenser Stavee, Aaron Powell, Jonathan Spitler, and Jim Brooks. Brooks had the straightest drive of the day at 38 i...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly met this week to begin their workshopping of Wrangell's budget for FY 2021. This first round of workshops looked at various city departments that are funded through the Enterprise Funds which includes the harbor, light and power, sanitation, wastewater, and water departments. There were two workshops over the past week, on May 19 and May 21. According to the meeting's agenda packet for May 19, there were several things for the assembly to keep in mind when looking...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly met Tuesday evening, May 26, for their regularly scheduled meeting. In the meeting, the assembly accepted the resignation of one of their members, Drew Larrabee. Larrabee turned in his resignation at the meeting, effective at the end of the evening, and will leave open an unexpired term on the borough assembly that lasts until this October. In his letter, he wrote that he regrets leaving his position in the middle of the budget season. However, he and his family...
More progress has been made on the Wrangell Mariners' Memorial. The memorial is an ongoing project to recognize Wrangell sailors who have been lost at sea. Jenn Miller-Yancey, with the Mariners' Memorial Board, said that the past month has been spent getting foundations for the memorial completed. She also reported that a lot of progress on the memorial's gazebo has been made. The skeleton of the gazebo is up already, and the foundations for the memorial walls are complete. The shape of the...
Though it lacked the in-person fanfare of a typical graduation, the Wrangell High School Class of 2020 officially graduated last Friday evening, May 15. A small graduation ceremony was held on May 12, with seniors receiving their diplomas. A video stream was shown publicly on the 15th including slideshows of students, speeches from the faculty and student body. A parade through town was also organized after the video aired, where people could drive by the homes of the graduating students to...
The Reopen Wrangell Task Force hosted a roundtable discussion for local businesses last Friday afternoon, May 15, in regards to state mandates and how businesses will need to operate during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the meeting, members of the task force gave brief presentations on state health mandates and safety mitigation plans. "I've been working with the local Emergency Operations Center for the last couple of months," said Jamie Roberts. "One of the duties I've been tasked with is staying...
The Wrangell Planning and Zoning Commission met last Thursday evening, May 14, to hold several public hearings on various items. The meeting opened with a discussion on the proposed relocation of a submarine cable. Communications company GCI is seeking to relocate an underwater fiber optics cable, which runs from Ketchikan to Wrangell, to a new landing location on the island. This is because the Southeast Alaska Power Agency is planning to conduct submarine electrical line work where GCI's...
The Wrangell Economic Development Committee met Tuesday afternoon, May 19, to workshop several financial assistance ideas they will be bringing before the borough assembly in the near future. With the COVID-19 pandemic ongoing, and the city expecting to receive money via the CARES Act to help with economic recovery, the committee has spent the past few meetings workshopping ways to assist people and businesses around the community. The committee had an extensive list of categories of financial a...
Graduating students of Wrangell High School, school staff, and other community members came together via web conference last week for senior awards night. During the web conference, graduating seniors were informed of scholarships they had won. "I'm excited to see who wins the awards today, and I want to remind you guys that even if you haven't applied for any scholarships yet there's still millions of dollars out there," Interim Principal Jack Carney said. "So if you don't win anything tonight...
The Wrangell School Board met via web conference last Monday, May 18 and heard of several unethical and potentially illegal things happening in the district. Another person said the district had a hostile work environment. David Macri was one of the speakers that evening. Macri was the district's former secondary school principal, before his resignation and being put on administrative leave in March of this year. Macri spoke in the meeting to say that there were several problems in the school...
A trailer at Panhandle Trailer Court caught fire last Saturday morning, May 16. The fire department received the call at approximately 10:10 a.m. The trailer's resident, Norm Canaday, was reportedly inside the building when the fire broke out. Panhandle resident Duke Aitken said he and another neighbor, Dan Flickinger, helped Canaday escape the trailer by having him jump out the back door onto a mattress. The fire was put out around 11 a.m. Fire Chief Tim Buness said that Canaday was unharmed,...
A fire was reported at Panhandle Trailer Court at approximately 10:10 a.m. Saturday, May 16. The residence belonged to Norm Canaday, according to Fire Chief Tim Buness. Panhandle resident Duke Aitken reported that he and another neighbor, Dan Flickinger, helped Canaday escape the building out the back door when the fire broke out. The fire was put out around 11 a.m. Buness said that Canaday was alright, but he was taken to the hospital for an evaluation. He also said that he was not sure if the...
Three Wrangell High School graduates will be heading off to college a little more financially secure, thanks to the awarding of some scholarships this past week. Laura Helgeson, Kaylyn Easterly, and Jing O'Brien were chosen to receive the Alaska Pulp Corporation scholarship this year. On top of that, Helgeson has also received a scholarship from the Friends of the Wrangell Museum. Frank Roppel, part of the selection committee for the Alaska Pulp scholarship, explained that every year three...
Construction of Wrangell's new hospital is continuing, despite some impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. According to an update supplied by Sondra Forrester, with SEARHC, the project has suffered from some small delays due to state and local travel mandates. Dawson Construction and SEARHC have worked with the city government to implement a "Coronavirus Site Response Plan" to help address community concerns. The plan was approved on April 3, and work crews began traveling back to Wrangell on April...
It was a relatively light meeting of the Wrangell Port Commission last Thursday evening, May 7. There was only one agenda item for the commission to consider, a request by GCI to relocate the landing for a submarine cable. The telecommunication company currently has a submarine cable come onto the beach next to the community garden area, near City Park. From there, according to the meeting's agenda packet, the cable hits aerial lines and goes to its hub building, and also leaves the beach area a...
Wrangell's Unified Command participated in their weekly conference call on Wednesday, May 6, to provide organizational updates on COVID-19 developments and changes in respective protocols. The City and Borough of Wrangell (CBW) mayor and manager were joined by Wrangell Medical Center (WMC) and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) leadership, as well as Tribal and Public Health representatives, to discuss Borough Assembly allocations, testing initiatives, and available community resources. Borough...
The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) recently administered COVID-19 tests on all staff at Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center (MEMC) and Wrangell Medical Center (WMC). Both hospitals utilized Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS) tents outside the respective facilities to safely conduct staff tests off-site. SEARHC recently received additional COVID-19 testing supply kits from the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage. Along with the recent addition of rapid test kits...
The Reopen Wrangell Task Force met last Monday afternoon to discuss ways the group can help local businesses make it through the COVID-19 pandemic. This was the first "in person" meeting of the task force, held out in the lawn by City Hall. Participants stayed socially distanced and wore face masks, while other members of the group participated via web conference. During the meeting, Jamie Roberts led a discussion about current state guidelines for reopening Alaska. The state announced "Phase...
Wrangell's Economic Development Committee met last Wednesday, May 6, to hold a brainstorming session on how to best meet the needs of the community through the COVID-19 pandemic. There are several groups trying to help the community and share information, Economic Development Director Carol Rushmore said, such as the Convention and Visitor Bureau, the Reopen Wrangell Task Force, and the Emergency Operations Command. In Rushmore's mind, she said, the biggest problem facing Wrangell is the lack...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly met Tuesday evening, May 12, to adopt some amendments to the FY 2020 budget. The city recently received both its Secure Rural Schools funding, as well as a grant for COVID-19 mitigation efforts. The SRS money came in on April 28, according to the meeting's agenda packet, in the amount of $883,646.51. The SRS is a federal program that assists municipalities that have federal lands that cannot be taxed, allowing them to recoup some of the funding that is "lost" by hav...
PALMER, Alaska (AP) – An Alaska school board postponed a vote over rescinding a ban on selected English course books after taking public testimony on the issue that attracted national attention when a Grammy-winning rock group pledged to purchase the banned books for students. The Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District board heard three hours of testimony Wednesday on a proposal to rescind last month’s vote to remove five American literature classics from high school English elective courses. The board is scheduled to vote on the pro...
