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The Wrangell Planning and Zoning Commission held a special meeting last week, June 4, to review the borough’s hazard mitigation plan. The plan, according to Economic Development Coordinator Carol Rushmore, is meant for city and other governing entities to better understand what kind of natural disasters it may be vulnerable to, the potential costs of those disasters, and ways that the risks can be lessened. Wrangell’s plan was first created in 2010, and was in need of an update. She also sai...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly gave a second reading of the proposed FY 2020 budget during their meeting on Tuesday, June 11. This year's budget season has been a challenge for local governments across the state, thanks in part to an ongoing battle over the state budget in the Alaska legislature. City governments and school boards are all looking at financial challenges in the near future, and Wrangell is no exception. The proposed budget for the borough has revenues set at about $16.62 million,...
At approximately 4:20 p.m. last Friday, June 7, the power went out in the towns of Wrangell and Petersburg. Both islands completely lost power for about 40 minutes, before diesel generators were fired up around 5 p.m. The outage occurred due to a problem with a breaker at Tyee Lake, according to Rod Rhoades with Wrangell Municipal Light and Power. According to Rhoades, around 4:20 p.m. Breaker No. 10 at Tyee Lake opened up, shutting off power to the two towns. Tyee Lake provides hydroelectric po...
In last week’s story on the borough assembly agreeing to a $1.3 million contribution to the Wrangell School District, it was reported that an amendment proposed by Assembly Member Patty Gilbert was dropped after discussion. Instead, the amendment was voted on and rejected....
Everybody, especially families with children, are invited to the eighth annual Kids' Fishing Day at Pats Lake this Saturday, June 15. Corree Delabrue, with the Forest Service, said that the fishing day was originally put together by Wrangell's scouting troops, but that the Forest Service had taken over in recent years. This year, the Wrangell Rod and Gun Club, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and the Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition are all involved. The event is designed to encourage...
The Wrangell Elks Lodge will be hosting a Flag Day ceremony tomorrow, June 14, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Flag Day is a national holiday, celebrated annually on June 14. The holiday was established in 1916, by President Woodrow Wilson, in honor of the flag of the United States, and also to give recognition to other historical events occurring near the same time. According to a 2018 article on history.com, Congress first established the Continental Army in June of 1775, during the Revolutionary War....
With old-time music playing in the background, and friends and family all talking and laughing together, Pastor Kem Haggard of Harbor Light Assembly of God welcomed everybody to the Diamond Club Celebration. The party, hosted at the Nolan Center, brought together eight Wrangell couples who were the guests of honor for the evening. A married couple's sixtieth anniversary is also known as the "diamond anniversary," as the couples are traditionally supposed to buy each other diamond jewelry....
There was a long and, at times, tense meeting over a single issue at city hall last Friday, May 31. The Wrangell Borough Assembly had called a special meeting to make a last-minute decision on how much money to give to the Wrangell School District this year. The assembly had planned to cover the item in their previous meeting on May 28, but opted to table the item to wait for extra financial information from the school. Over the course of two-and-a-half hours the assembly and several school...
A brown bear has been killed by Wildlife Troopers and Forest Service personnel after a run-in with a group of Alaska Crossings campers just north of Berg Bay, across the narrows on the mainland near Wrangell. According to information provided by Public Information Officer Ken Marsh, with the Alaska State Troopers, the encounter occurred on Sunday, May 26, around 3 a.m. A brown bear wandered into the Crossings camp and began rummaging through the group's food. The group had a bear fence,...
A groundbreaking ceremony was held next to the AICS clinic on Wood Street last Thursday, May 30, signifying the official beginning of construction of Wrangell's new hospital. Wrangell has been seeking a new hospital to replace the Wrangell Medical Center for some time now. The Southeast Alaska Health Consortium, SEARHC, acquired the medical center in 2018. Part of this acquisition deal was the construction of a new hospital. The new medical center, which will connect with the existing clinic,...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association held a "meeting of the association" last Wednesday, May 29. The cooperative association is Wrangell's governing body for tribal citizens. The meeting held a dual purpose: To introduce the public to the new tribal council, and to let the public know about several projects that are in the works. The WCA elected five new members to the tribal council in April. These are Christie Jamieson, Michelle Jenkins, Cori Robinson, Richard Oliver, and Lu Knapp. After introducing the council, and a prayer by Virginia...
May 16 - Dylan Franks pleaded guilty to charges of violating conditions of release, while charges of unlawful contact and resisting arrest were dismissed. Judge Kevin Miller sentenced him to four days of imprisonment and a $150 fine. Corey Wayne Torgramsen pleaded guilty to charges of reckless injury, while charges of criminal mischief and another count of reckless injury were dismissed. Judge Kevin Miller sentenced him to 365 days of imprisonment, with 270 suspended. He is also ordered to make restitution to the victim(s), will undergo a...
rangell went on a water watch for a few weeks back in March. Due to a forecast of insufficient rainfall, and ongoing drought conditions across Southeast Alaska, a water watch has been declared once again. As part of the water watch, there will be a town hall meeting to discuss conservation efforts at the Nolan Center on June 12, at 6 p.m. This is a Stage I water watch, the lowest that city officials can declare. In a statement on the borough's website, city officials have requested that...
Wrangell Bible Baptist Church will be hosting their first annual "Kidz Blitz" this coming week, from June 10 to 14. The event is being organized by Tim and Missy Helton, the two Wrangellites behind the church's Eagle's Nest after-school program. The Heltons are putting together another children's event because, they said, they both feel like its an area they are especially called to. "We've been in ministry since 1995 with children," said Missy. "So it's been kind of one of our things." "We...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association and the Administration for Native Americans will hold a workshop for the community to discuss ways to improve healthcare, housing, and economic development in Wrangell. Ruby McMurren and her assistant, Talea Massin, have been working on creating an action plan tocombat the out-migration of tribal citizens since 2018, thanks to a grant from the ANA. Through a series of meetings with various community members, they determined that healthcare, housing, and...
During their second-to-last day of school, on May 22, Evergreen Elementary School held an awards ceremony to recognize several of their students. All of the classes, from first to fifth grade, gathered in the school gym for the ceremony. Principal Virginia Tulley gave the first award of the day to student Kasey Whitaker for having perfect attendance all year. "We only had one student who's attended every single day," she said. "Give him a round of applause, I mean that is something." After Whita...
The Rasmuson Foundation was created in 1955 as an organization to support Alaskan arts and culture, health, and social services, among other things. They do this through a number of different ways, including offering financial support to Alaskans in the form of grants and fellowships. According to their website, since their founding the foundation has made $400,000,000 charitable payments. Earlier this month, the Rasmuson Foundation brought together several creative Alaskan artists for their...
Sixteen students from Laura Davies' fifth grade class came together at the Nolan Center last Tuesday evening, May 21, to read persuasive speeches they had spent the past month working on. Communication and learning how to formulate and defend opinions is an important part of her classroom, Davies said in a previous interview. Each of her students were tasked with creating a persuasive speech, on a topic of their choice, and give an in-class presentation. She also allowed the kids to volunteer to...
Walking onstage to Queen's "We Will Rock You," 27 Evergreen Elementary's "rockstar" kindergarteners held a graduation ceremony of their own last Tuesday afternoon, May 21. The class of 2031, the year these kids will graduate from high school, is a fairly large group. The kindergarteners showed off what they had learned through the year, such as their ABCs, the days of the week, and months of the year. Kindergarten teacher Mikki Angerman talked about some of the things the kids learned beyond...
The local Forest Service Resource Advisory Committee (RAC), which covers the areas of Wrangell, Petersburg, and Kake, held a meeting last Saturday to discuss a variety of projects the Forest Service is considering in the near future. Among these projects is a Kaatslitaan culture camp. The idea for the culture camp was brought before the RAC by Wrangell resident and Alaska Native Virginia Oliver. The camp, she said, would be held in the summer where everybody could come together and learn sustainable harvesting practices, as well as native...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced May 23, sport fishing regulations for Alaska hatchery-produced king salmon in areas near Petersburg and Wrangell. Wrangell Narrows/Blind Slough Terminal Harvest Area Described as that portion of Wrangell Narrows south of 56° 46' N. latitude (Martinsens's dock) and north and east of the northern tip of Woewodski Island and includes the freshwaters of Blind Slough upstream of a line between Blind Point and Anchor Point. The following regulations...
Pat Creek Watershed is located on Wrangell Island in Southeast Alaska, about 12 miles south of the community of Wrangell. It supports Coho, Pink, Chum, and Sockeye salmon, Dolly Varden char, and cutthroat trout, and is an important recreational fishing area for locals. The valley bottom, including most of the riparian area, was logged in the 1960’s and ‘70’s. This has resulted in stretches of over-widened stream nearly devoid of large woody debris that is important for fish habitat. From May 20 to July 15, large woody debris will be added...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly held a long meeting last Tuesday evening, May 28. The meeting covered a wide variety of topics, from the city’s water management strategy to budget matters. First there was a workshop on the water management strategy. Wrangell and other communities faced a power crisis recently due to low water levels at Tyee and Swan Lake. Wrangell briefly went on a water watch in early March, as the reservoirs dropped to low levels. The U.S. Drought Monitor reports that the majority of Southeast Alaska is currently facing d...
Southeast Alaska construction company SECON has returned to Wrangell to do some road work. They were working in Wrangell last summer to renovate Evergreen Avenue, which runs from the ferry terminal past Petroglyph Beach, before transitioning into the Airport Road. These renovations included resurfacing the entire street and constructing a sidewalk along the road. This year, according to Project Manager Ralph Vigilante, SECON will be doing some extensive work on the other side of the airport loop, on Bennett Street and Airport Road itself....
Wrangell High School was packed with students, family, and friends of the class of 2019 last Friday night. Another school year had come to a close, and so had the high school careers of 16 seniors. The school's commons was filled with poster boards covered in pictures of the graduating students, and the gym was decorated in school colors and filled with extra seating. The commencement began rather traditionally, as most high school graduations do. The students walked out onto the stage to "Pomp...