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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – A young Alaska Native woman left an impression on Alaska's territorial Senate in 1945, delivering a speech that led to the passage of the nation's first anti-discrimination law. Now, the late Elizabeth Peratrovich is leaving her impression on a $1 coin. The U.S. Mint unveiled the design of the coin Oct. 5 at the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Alaska Native Sisterhood convention in Anchorage. The 2020 Native American coin will go on sale early next year. The coin will feat...
With the final votes tallied by the canvass board earlier that morning, the Wrangell Borough Assembly met last Thursday, Oct. 3, to confirm this year's local election. There were several positions open for election on the assembly, school board, and an open seat on the port commission in the election on Oct. 1. The public also voted on a proposition to remove the Wrangell Medical Center Board from the city's charter. In total, there were 365 votes cast on election day, plus an additional 41...
Kicking off last Monday, Oct. 7, Evergreen Elementary School has begun a Read-A-Thon to see if their student body can spend a total of 80,000 minutes reading. This would be roughly 55 and a half days doing nothing but reading. With 158 "readers" listed on the school's webpage for the competition, that is only roughly 506 minutes per student. Librarian Jen Gerald said that if the students can hit the 80,000 minute goal, they will have a "pirate day" at the school. If they go above and beyond...
This Saturday, Oct. 12, the Wrangell Ministerial Association will be holding an Operation Christmas Child event. The annual program, operated by the Christian organization Samaritan's Purse, sends shoeboxes full of Christmas gifts, school supplies, toiletries, and other items to children in need around the world. The Wrangell Ministerial Association has played a role in Operation Christmas Child for many years. According to the event's Facebook Page, Wrangell started packing and collecting...
The Wrangell Parks and Recreation Advisory Board met last Wednesday, Oct. 2, to discuss the increasing use of trails and parks by tour groups, as well as beginning to lay the groundwork for the next Helping Our Parks project. Tourism has been steadily increasing in Wrangell, with approximately 22,000 tourists expected to visit town via cruise ships next year. As locals may have noticed this spring and summer, tour groups could be seen being led around Wrangell's popular sites, including the...
The water level at Tyee Lake was at 1,344.9 feet on Sept. 30, which is roughly 60 feet higher than it was this time last year. As part of the Southeast Alaska Power Agency, Tyee Lake dedicates its power to Petersburg and Wrangell, while Swan Lake produces power for Ketchikan. While the 1,345 foot water level is lower than the norm for Tyee Lake, it is still higher than the 1,285 foot water level in September 2018, said Petersburg Borough Utility Director Karl Hagerman. If water were to stop...
Monday, Oct. 7, members of the Forest Service and high school oceanography students, boated over to the east side of Wrangell, near Channel Island, to retrieve the remains of a gray whale that washed up back in June. The whale, a 30-foot male, was one of the victims in a UME, or "unusual mortality event" that has seen numerous gray whales die. According to NOAA, as of Sept. 30, there have been 47 gray whale strandings in Alaska, or 212 across the whole American, Canadian, and Mexican west...
SITKA, Alaska (AP) – New technology distributed in an Alaska community is expected to help detect and study conditions that lead to landslides, a researcher said. The landslide detection system in Sitka will monitor soil moisture levels and help residents and scientists understand landslide patterns, the Sitka Sentinel reported Thursday. University of Oregon postdoctoral researcher Annette Patton introduced the system at a Sitka Chamber of Commerce event Wednesday. Patton helped install the system funded through a $2.1 million grant from the N...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – A federal agency has rejected an iconic Alaska tree for listing as a threatened species due to climate warming. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Friday that yellow cedars do not warrant additional protections because trees affected by warming grow in areas representing less than 6 percent of the overall area where they can be found. A spokeswoman for the Center for Biological Diversity calls the yellow cedar decision reckless. Shaye Wolf says yellow cedars f...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Alaska’s alcohol regulatory board has voted to oust its director, though the law also gives the state’s marijuana regulatory board a say. The boards share Erika McConnell as director. The Marijuana Control Board this summer held a vote of confidence in McConnell, a motion board chairman Mark Springer says he stands by. The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board on Thursday voted to boot McConnell. Chairman Bob Klein praised her work ethic and administrative skills but said he sees a disconnect between the board’s wishes and how...
The body of a hunter who went missing this morning after his skiff capsized in Duncan Canal has been found, according Amanda Norcross, a spokesperson with the United States Coast Guard. The man was confirmed to be Doug Larson, 50, of Petersburg, according to Tim DeSpain, public information office supervisor with the Alaska State Troopers. The body was found 400 yards east of his last known location by an MH-60 Jayhawk dispatched from Coast Guard Air Station Sitka sometime between 11 A.M. and...
Southeast Conference, a regional organization consisting of 185 member organizations and people, was founded in 1958 to help promote the creation of the Alaska Marine Highway. On top of promoting the state ferry system, according to their website, Southeast Conference also advocates for economic development, local business, and healthy communities, among other things. The Southeast Conference held its annual meeting Sept. 18-20 in Sitka. For Assembly Member Mya DeLong, who attended the...
A total of 365 ballots were cast on Wrangell's election day, Oct.1, plus an additional 40 absentee ballots. There were several positions up for election on the borough assembly, school board and port commission. The public also had the opportunity to vote to make a minor amendment to Wrangell's charter, removing the Wrangell Medical Center Board as the hospital is no longer operated by the borough. The following is the preliminary election results (* indicates preliminary winner): Borough...
For many years, Alaskans have enjoyed a special sales tax exemption in the state of Washington. One Petersburg resident explained that when traveling in Washington, Alaska residents could show their driver's license and be exempt from sales tax on their purchases. According to the Washington state Department of Revenue, this exemption was open to nonresidents who were purchasing "tangible personal property, digital goods, and digital codes, for use outside this state [Washington]." The...
This year's moose harvest looks to be above the five- year average with the moose count at 64 just 17 days into the season. Between 2014 and 2018, the average moose count for this time of the season was 58. There was a dip in the moose harvest this time last year, with only 42 being taken. Fish and Game Area Biologist Frank Robbins said the warm weather last fall may have been a factor in the low number of moose being taken. In 2017 and 2016, the moose harvest was 64 about 17 days into the seaso...
In last week’s edition, we reported that Wrangell’s two new generators were purchased from the city of Nome. According to Assembly Member Jim DeBord, the generators were given to the borough. Wrangell only paid for shipping and handling....
The Southeast Alaska Power Agency Board approved $97,750 to replace the backup battery bank at the Tyee Lake hydro facility at a regular board meeting last Thursday. Early last month, Petersburg and Wrangell were providing their own power for about a week while the Tyee Lake Hydro facility was offline for annual maintenance. During the maintenance period, SEAPA conducted a battery capacity discharge test of the hydro project's nickel-cadmium batteries. Three hours into the test, one of the...
PACE, the statewide homeschool program, held a meet and greet at the Stikine Inn last Wednesday, Sept. 25. Jen Whicker, a contact teacher for PACE, said that the program has been around since 2001 and is one of 15 homeschool providers in the state. Currently, she said they serve about 310 students across Alaska. About 22 of those kids live in Wrangell. There are several reasons a family might consider homeschooling, she said. "Sometimes the schools have overcrowding, or kids feel bullied, or...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association held an award ceremony at Wrangell High School Monday evening, Sept. 30. Tribal Administrator Esther Ashton, along with several members of the WCA board, organized the ceremony to officially give several local organizations a check from the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium's "Healthy Is Here" grant. In total, $10,600 was given to 17 organizations. "The reason we're here today is that we received from SEARHC a Healthy Is Here grant," Ashton said....
Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) Wrangell Medical Center’s (WMC) Cathy Gross, Registered Health Information Technician and WMC Performance Improvement Manager, has been named the 2019 winner of the Front-line Staff Outstanding Performance Award by the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association (ASHNHA). Gross was honored during the September 26 ASHNHA Annual Conference for her years of dedication to patient safety improvements at WMC. She was notified of the award on the first-ever World Patient Safety Day, S...
While the role of superintendent is always busy, it has been especially so for Debbe Lancaster this past week. Lancaster, superintendent of the Wrangell Public School District, recently attended the Alaska Superintendents Association conference in Fairbanks, from Sept. 25 to 28. The Alaska Department of Education and Early Development also recently released a new website, "The Compass," that lets people more easily compare schools across the state. The ASA Conference was an opportunity for...
The Wrangell Municipal Light & Power Department spent most of their day last Thursday, Sept. 19, moving one of their new generators into the power plant. Wrangell recently purchased two generators from the city of Nome to reinforce the department's power generation capabilities. Rod Rhoades, director, said that all of the city's generators are basically the "plan B" for emergency power. Wrangell's power needs sit between 8-9 megawatts, he said. The borough typically draws its power from Tyee...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly held a work session on top of their regular meeting Tuesday, Sept. 24. The work session was to discuss the Alaska Municipal Sales Tax Authority, a statewide entity that the Alaska Municipal League is currently working to organize. The tax authority is meant to act as the "clearinghouse" for tax collection from remote retailers, according to the agenda packet. For towns like Wrangell, only large online retailers like Amazon meet certain thresholds to collect and...
Sabina Schlotzhauer, at one month old, is one of Wrangell's newest residents. Born to Kassee and Curtis Schlotzhauer, Sabina is facing some medical issues. Kassee said in a Facebook message that Sabina suffers from HIE, or Hypoxic-ischemic Encephalopathy. According to the HIE Help Center, it is a form of brain damage that can occur in newborns when there is a shortage of oxygen in the bloodstream and a shortage of blood flow to the brain. There are a wide range of causes for HIE, according to...
The City and Borough Assembly: Three Year Tearm Julie Decker is seeking re-election to the Wrangell Borough Assembly for a three-year term. There are several reasons she wants to sit for another term on the assembly. The current borough assembly has been making some good decisions on behalf of the city, she said, and she would like to see that continue. As a member of the assembly, she said that she has tried to stay informed and lead in a way that benefits the city as a whole. She added that...
