Sorted by date Results 4332 - 4356 of 8063
In early June, the Wrangell Sentinel received several emails regarding one of the city's police officers, Paul Jay Huerta. One of these emails linked to a news article and video, alleging that Huerta left his previous job in California for harassing a suspect. Recently, city officials informed the paper that Huerta was no longer employed by the Wrangell Police Department. However, the city has not provided information as to why he resigned. A July 9, 2018 article by the Desert Sun shares a...
We at the Pilot and Sentinel admit to including the occasional pink-tutu sighting or pooch-on-the-loose as some comic relief in the police report. But the real intent of the weekly police and court reports is not to fill empty space. Nor is it so that the Petersburg Pilot gets mentioned in Dave Barry's national humor column, as it was several weeks ago. Instead, the police and court reports are intended to briefly summarize legal matters and illegal activity in town. We have an established list...
The Wrangell School District held another SMART Start meeting last Wednesday, June 24, to continue discussing ways the district can safely reopen and operate during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Department of Education has come out with recommendations to determine what constitutes different risk levels for operation in Wrangell, according to the meeting's notes, so the group of school board members, district faculty and staff, and parents mostly concentrated their discussion around the possible...
Matt Gore has been with the Wrangell School District since 2011, and has been the technology director since 2015. In his time as technology director, Gore said he has worked to give the school district faster and more reliable internet access, to put better technology in students' hands, and help the district use all the tools they had available. It is time for him to move on, however. Gore has left his Wrangell position to take a new job with the Southeast Island School District, on Prince of...
As Wrangell residents may remember, the borough assembly held a vote early in June to appoint Ryan Howe to fill an empty assembly seat. There was some question about this vote and whether or not it violated the Open Meetings Act, as assembly members chose their candidate via text message. Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen said in a June 18 article for the Wrangell Sentinel that the assembly does not believe anything incorrect occurred, and that she ran the idea by the city's attorneys before...
Several local fishermen have been volunteering their time and energy, more so than usual, at Wrangell's sole operating seafood processor. With the decision by Trident Seafoods to not operate this summer, Sea Level Seafoods has been the only local option available for fishermen to process their catches. However, thanks to a number of factors brought on by COVID-19, Sea Level has been shorthanded. This has led to a number of fishermen volunteering to help process crab, as well as catch them....
City officials organized an online town hall meeting last Thursday evening, June 18, to try and answer some community questions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. The town hall also saw some special guests from the state level take part in the Q&A session: Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink and Dr. Joseph McLaughlin. Representative Dan Ortiz also participated in the web conference. As the doctors had a limited window of time to take part in the town hall meeting, city officials spent previous...
The number of COVID-19 cases in Wrangell has increased since last week's edition of the Wrangell Sentinel. As of Tuesday, June 23, there are eight total cases of the virus in town. The fourth case was announced on Wednesday, June 17. According to a joint press release from the city and SEARHC, the patient was an unnamed traveller. He was identified through the airport testing program and is currently in quarantine. "So far, the State's airport testing program has proven to be effective," Borough...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly held one of their last budget work sessions last Wednesday evening, June 17, to finalize next year's budget for the city. For FY 2021, Wrangell is looking at revenues of $4.48 million in the general fund, but expenses of $4.78 million. Much of the discussion in this workshop revolved around the general fund, and how to handle its deficit. The workshop lasted for about three and a half hours. In the end, the assembly directed city administration to move forward with...
Wrangell School District staff, school board members, and parents have been holding weekly meetings to discuss the safe reopening of Wrangell schools, under the new Smart Start outline provided by the state. The group held their second meeting Wednesday, June 17, to try and look at some of the bigger questions surrounding getting kids back into school during the COVID-19 pandemic. Superintendent Debbe Lancaster explained, back in a May 18 school board meeting, that Smart Start is meant to be a...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly met Tuesday evening, June 23. While the adoption of the FY 2021 budget was the primary topic of discussion, and is covered in another article, there were several other important items covered in the meeting. One such item was the resignation of Assembly Member Mya DeLong. DeLong submitted her letter of resignation on June 8, but it was only formally accepted by the assembly in this meeting. According to her letter of resignation, DeLong has served as a member of...
The Wrangell Convention and Visitor Bureau met last Wednesday afternoon, June 17, to finish up a proposed marketing plan to bring before the borough assembly. In the time of COVID-19, the bureau was hoping to receive funding from the city to address the impacts the pandemic has had on the visitor industry. According to their list of proposals, provided by Economic Development Director Carol Rushmore, the CVB is seeking a total of $146,516 for various projects. First of all, the CVB would like...
After multiple workshops, rewrites, and edits, the borough assembly met Tuesday evening to finally adopt a budget for FY 2021. This budget, overall, barely breaks even between revenues and expenses. However, despite recent concerns of a deficit in their general fund, the budget brought before the assembly this night actually had a general fund surplus. The general fund now has revenues of about $4.95 million, and expenses of roughly $4.91 million. After transfers, Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen...
Members of Wrangell's Unified Command reconvened on June 17, through teleconference to consolidate the community COVID-19 response. Talks were largely focused on recent efforts by the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to implement community testing and changing the culture surrounding positive cases. EOC Manager Dorianne Sprehe filled the group in on discussions which would allow the EOC to provide relief to the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium's (SEARHC) COVID testing efforts. Sprehe...
After suffering a stroke while on vacation, the community has joined to show their support for Wrangellite Dani Lewis and her family. Lewis and her family recently traveled to Florida for a family vacation with her father, according to a GoFundMe page organized by Brittani Robbins. While there, she was cleaning her sister’s oven when there was a short, and she was electrocuted. This triggered a massive stroke, according to the page. “She has made very slow progress, and if she wakes up she will have months of rehabilitation before she can ret...
KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) – A person who didn’t follow quarantine procedures after arriving in Alaska has created the possibility of broad community spread of the coronavirus after going to social gatherings and public places in Ketchikan while awaiting results of a COVID-19 test that turned out positive, officials said. The person arrived in Ketchikan Saturday and underwent testing for COVID-19. The state says anyone tested on arrival is to quarantine until they receive a negative test result. Under the state rules, one is not to leave a quaranti...
PETERSBURG – An employee with Trident Seafoods has tested positive for COVID-19 on the individual’s tenth day of quarantine after arriving to the community, according to a press release from the Petersburg Emergency Operations Center. All Trident Seafoods employees that travel to Petersburg are tested for the virus prior to arriving in town and are quarantined in a bunkhouse upon arrival, according to the press release. The workers are then tested again on the tenth day of a 14 day quarantine. The individual’s roommate was also tested on the...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Alaska’s government has announced that child care providers will receive an additional $10.5 million from the state’s portion of federal coronavirus relief funds. State Department of Health and Social Services Commissioner Adam Crum said in a statement that the department and Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy directed the additional funding to businesses providing child care, The Anchorage Daily News reported Saturday. “We found that the funding available to this sector was not coming fast enough,” Crum said. Child care is...
After last week's announcement of the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Wrangell, two other cases were confirmed shortly after. Wrangell now has three total cases of the virus. One case has been declared recovered. However, there is some question about the source of the third case. Public Health officials state that Wrangell's third case was a contact with the first case, but the first case said she does not know how that could be. The first case was announced on Sunday evening, June 7. A join...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly hosted a public hearing on next year's budget Tuesday night, June 16. This was an opportunity for members of the public to voice their opinions and concerns regarding FY 2021, and how Wrangell's money is going to be allocated. Thanks in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, like many other communities, Wrangell is facing a lean financial year. There were several people who called in to the meeting, or wrote emails to the city, who wanted to state their support for...
In one of their final budget workshops for FY 2021, the borough assembly gave guidance to city administration to do as much as they can to close Wrangell's general fund deficit. According to the agenda packet for the June 10 meeting the FY 2021 general fund was facing a deficit of $801,451. However, city administration is anticipating that roughly $350,000 in wages for the upcoming financial year will be eligible for reimbursement through the CARES Act, "due to time spent on COVID-19 by...
The Wrangell Planning and Zoning Commission met last Thursday, June 11. During this meeting, they heard a request to purchase city land, continued their ongoing discussion of rezoning the old Institute property, and held a public hearing on a conditional use permit. The request to purchase city land came from Jim and Sue Nelson. They were seeking to buy 1,600 square feet of triangular land adjacent to the switch yard near the Public Works Department. They wanted to buy this land, according to th...
Wrangell is home to many locally-owned businesses. One of the community's newest businesses, Lover Bear Candle Co., is really thriving in the locals-supporting-locals environment. "My husband and I were getting married last September, and we wanted to do something personalized ... for all 150 of our wedding guests," said Anna Angerman, one of the company founders. "We wanted to make a party favor that people would enjoy." Anna and her then-fiancé, Cody Angerman, were batting around ideas for...
Wrangell's Economic Development Committee met Monday, June 15, to workshop various grant programs to assist Wrangell businesses. The EDC has put together three local grants that businesses could apply for to get some financial assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of the discussion revolved around eligibility requirements and dollar amounts for these grants. The first grant they workshopped was for small businesses. This grant program, according to a draft application the EDC rev...
During the June 9 meeting of the borough assembly, Wrangell resident Ryan Howe was appointed to fill a vacant position. A seat on the assembly was left empty after Drew Larrabee announced his resignation, brought about by his plans to move to pursue a new career opportunity. The unexpired term, now filled by Howe, comes to an end this October. However, the appointment of Howe has led to some question of whether or not the city violated the Open Meetings Act. The Open Meetings Act, section...