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United States ocean territory could expand by an area more than twice the size of California, with most of that in ocean areas off Alaska, under a claim being prepared by the federal government. The U.S. State Department in December announced results of a two-decade program to map the extended continental shelf areas beyond the nation’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone. Much of the focus was on the Arctic Ocean, where bathymetric and geologic surveys by federal agencies produced the first detailed maps of a complex seafloor with a series of c...
The dumpsters at Wrangell’s public harbors are for boat owners only and for their household trash only — but that hasn’t stopped people from tossing in waste oil, fishing nets, appliances and even a Volkswagen Beetle cut into pieces. “It’s been bad forever,” Harbormaster Steve Miller said last week. In an effort to stop or at least reduce the illegal dumping, the port commission on Thursday, Feb. 1, voted unanimously to recommend assembly approval of a new ordinance to explicitly prohibit throwing non-harbor and non-port related trash into the...
A group of Southeast Alaska tribes has petitioned Canada to recognize their right to have a voice in how transboundary lands and waters are treated — they’re asking to be recognized as participating Indigenous nations in Canada’s review process for resource development. The latest issue is the proposed reopening of the Eskay Creek open-pit gold and silver mine near the headwaters of the Unuk River, which empties into open water about 55 miles northeast of Ketchikan. The mine site is about 80 air miles east of Wrangell. Vancouver-based Skeen...
Sitka’s Mount Edgecumbe volcano is wired. On Jan. 26, the Alaska Volcano Observatory announced the completion of a new instrument network intended to measure the activity of a volcano that could be awakening after a period of dormancy. The network includes four seismic stations and four sites that measure the way the ground is deforming as magma moves deep below the volcano. Since April 2022, the movement of that liquefied rock has caused hundreds of small earthquakes and raised concerns that Sitka, 15 miles away, could soon be near an e...
A new Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly resolution urges residents to own weapons and ammunition to compensate for limited local law enforcement in Alaska’s fastest-growing region. The action, which doesn’t have the power of law, reflects ongoing discussion in the region about the lack of borough policing powers as the state troopers struggle with continued staffing issues that have left the local trooper detachment with roughly 20% of its positions unfilled. Unlike Anchorage, which has lost residents overall for the past nine years, Mat...
The Tlingit & Haida Community Council and Alaska Native Sisterhood Camp No. 1 are co-hosting an event to commemorate Elizabeth Peratrovich Day on Friday, Feb. 16, at the Nolan Center. It’s been several years since a communitywide event was held in Wrangell to honor the Tlingit civil rights advocate who successfully pushed for the nation’s first anti-discrimination law in Alaska in 1945. Though events were held at the schools in past years, Sandy Churchill, ANS Camp president, said she has been wanting to do more to honor and remember the late c...
Though the initial estimates have come in higher than the maximum grant amount, the borough will proceed with seeking $25 million in federal money to rebuild the Inner Harbor, Reliance and Standard Oil floats. The cost estimates for the entire project range from $26 million to almost $34 million, mostly depending on whether the work includes heavier-duty, custom-designed floats. The borough will seek the maximum $25 million available under the federal grant program — Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity, or R...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy invited Mayor Patty Gilbert to attend his State of the State speech at the Capitol on Jan. 30, introducing her during his annual address to a joint session of the Alaska Legislature. His remarks follow: "This past fall, just before Thanksgiving, tough times came to Wrangell. On the evening of Nov. 20, a massive 450-foot-wide landslide engulfed homes, blocked the road and cut off power lines. "Despite the wind, the rain, the cold and the dark, the community sprang into action....
TK's Mini Mart, located near the Wrangell Medical Center, now has two 15-foot U-Haul trucks for rent. Owner Alesa McHolland said she had been approached by a U-Haul sales representative who wanted to rent space at her store's location to park the trucks; the arrangement to offer rentals evolved from there. On Jan. 31, McHolland walked across the parking lot to show where the U-Hauls are stationed next to the freight vans that the Mini Mart uses for storage. "I actually rented (one truck) out for...
A bill before the House Resources Committee would tighten residency requirements for Alaska sportfishing, hunting and trapping licenses. Community groups have raised concerns that a gap in state law allows people who don’t live year-round in Alaska to claim residency to harvest fish and wildlife with cheaper licenses and higher catch or bag limits. The measure, introduced by Sitka Rep. Rebecca Himschoot, would align requirements to renew those licenses with requirements to get a Permanent Fund dividend. Like the dividend, applicants would n...
In 2017, two high school seniors worked together to help create outdoor artwork meant to educate and forge a lasting bond with participating younger students. Now, almost seven years later, another high school senior will strip it away. Nate Rooney chose for his senior project to remove the weathered mural at the Parks and Recreation community center outer stairwell opposite the swimming pool. The wall art features hand-crafted cutouts of salmon fastened to a painted wall resembling the ocean....
Alaska’s Department of Health risks losing federal funding for its food stamp program, warned a letter from the United States Department of Agriculture on Jan. 30. It said the department is out of compliance with federal standards for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) due to what the letter described as “inefficient and ineffective administration.” The Department of Health has struggled to manage a backlog of crisis proportions that began in 2022 and has left tens of thousands of Alaskans waiting months for critical food...
Described on their website as "a small, woman-owned gift shop and handmade bath and body store," ownership of River's Mouth Trading Co. recently changed hands. One of its employees, Elizabeth Johnson, who has been with the store for about six months, has taken over the business. Since opening in the fall of 2022 in the Churchill Building on Front Street, the shop has become a popular destination for residents. "We have lots of locals that come in regularly for the products that we make," said...
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has joined 24 other Republican governors in support of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to ignore a U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing federal agents to remove razor wire installed by Abbott’s administration along the U.S.-Mexico border. The statement was published hours before Dunleavy spoke to a joint meeting of the Alaska and Juneau chambers of commerce and called for more immigration to Alaska. He said the arrival of Ukrainian immigrants to Alaska has been a good thing. “I know there are some folks that belie...
Robb Arnold has withdrawn his candidacy to represent Ketchikan, Wrangell and Metlakatla in the state House. Arnold wrote in a statement to the Ketchikan Daily News on Thursday, Feb. 1, that he had ended his campaign. Under state law, Arnold could not continue in his job as a chief purser for the Alaska Marine Highway System and run for state office for the same time. It appears he was unaware of the law when he announced for the Legislature in December to challenge incumbent Rep. Dan Ortiz in District 1. Alaska statute says that, with some...
The National Forest Foundation, working with the U.S. Forest Service, has issued a contract to rebuild the popular Anan Bay cabin, which was taken out by a fallen tree in a February 2023 storm. “It is conceivable that we will have a cabin again this summer,” said Tory Houser, recreation staff officer for the Forest Service Wrangell District. The new cabin will include a big upgrade — a large, covered deck — Houser said last week. The $525,380 contract went to Rainforest Contracting. The Petersburg company rebuilt the observation deck and she...
The borough assembly has declared as “hazardous” and assigned a property value of zero to the two lots owned by victims of the deadly Nov. 20 landslide at 11-Mile Zimovia Highway, making the owners eligible to possibly receive state land as replacement for their unusable property. The owners or their estate could build on their new lots, hold them undeveloped or sell them and keep the proceeds, explained Hannah Uher-Koch, who runs the land grant program at the Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Mining, Land and Water. “There are no...
After coming up with no viable candidates in the first round of applications, the borough assembly has decided to readvertise to fill the manager job. The borough received seven applications after posting the job last fall, but the only applicant who was selected for an interview already had accepted another job before Wrangell called back, Mayor Patty Gilbert explained last week. Jeff Good resigned as borough manager last fall to take a civil engineering job with the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs; he has three college degrees in...
An unused U.S. Forest Service building in Kake may soon be a healing center for the community to move forward from generations of trauma after a boarding school harmed members of the Alaska Native population. When Joel Jackson, president of the Organized Village of Kake, saw the building on an access road outside of Kake, he said he was surprised. "A cultural healing center has been on my mind for decades," he said. "I said to myself, 'Hey, there's our cultural healing center.'" Now, with...
In early January, many Wrangell residents were startled to find workers from the U.S. Census Bureau knocking on doors, collecting information on behalf of the American Community Survey. Some residents felt reluctant to participate, unfamiliar with the relatively new survey which is different from the more widely known 10-year census. While the full census provides up-to-date population counts for the purpose of redrawing congressional and state legislative district maps nationwide, the community survey is designed to assess social and economic...
John Florschutz was surprised to learn that his parents’ homeowner’s insurance policy did not cover the loss from the Nov. 20 landslide that destroyed their home and killed his father, Otto Florschutz. “I think it’s a shock to everyone I talk to,” he said last week. “What’s the point of home insurance. … You would expect flooding to be on the policy.” But floods, landslides, mudslides and other “earth movements” are not covered by standard home insurance policies. “There’s not a lot of people who know that,” commented Florschutz, who s...
Some of the items donated this week at Petersburg’s seventh-annual Project Connect Resource Fair will make it to Wrangell for a community clothing and household goods distribution. “It’s nice to have a change of clothes from another town,” Joan Sargent said of the fourth-annual Recycle Event sponsored by the Wrangell community service organization BRAVE, Building Respect and Valuing Everyone. If all goes on schedule, the U.S. Coast Guard will bring the donated goods from Petersburg to Wrangell on Wednesday, Jan. 31, barring an emergen...
Raised in Wrangell then later moving to Illinois, where she now lives with her husband and two sons, Jennifer Weekley recalled it was her friend and Wrangell resident Walt Maenhout who encouraged her to write a book. "I thought about it," she said. "And I've always heard if somebody's going to write, you should write what you know about, and I thought I knew about deep, meaningful friendships. Having grown up in Wrangell the way we did, we have these bonds that people in the Lower 48 oftentimes...
For high school seniors Kayla and Mindy Meissner, basketball has been part of their lives since they were very young, starting when they both participated in the annual Elks Hoop Shoot in first grade, later taking part in youth basketball programs and middle school basketball teams. Now, both are experienced players on the Lady Wolves varsity girls basketball team. Since they both share a passion for the sport and work well together, they decided to approach it from a different perspective than...
After almost six years, Josh Blatchley is resigning as facilities and maintenance director for the Wrangell School District. He submitted his resignation the first week of January, effective at the end of April. The job opening is being advertised. Blatchley said he felt the time was right. “My kids have all graduated, and I think that another job will give me a little more free time, so I’ll be able to come and go as I choose.” “I’ve enjoyed my time here, and the people I worked with. I’m just looking for a change.” Blatchley said Jan. 24...
