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The Wrangell birthday calendar is reborn for 2025. After a one-year hiatus the chamber of commerce — under new leadership from executive director Tracey Martin — is bringing back the printed birthday calendar, which had been a community tradition since the 1950s until it was dropped for 2024. It costs just $1 to reserve a date on the calendar. Anyone can reserve a listing for a birthday, anniversary or to memorialize someone’s passing. Families do not need to pay more than $15 for listings, meaning that if a family wants to reserve 20 or 30 spo...
It doesn’t matter the value of what people toss in the trash, it’s all expensive to ship out of town to a landfill. The borough sends out about 60 to 65 40-foot-long containers filled with trash every year, at a cost budgeted for this year at $360,000. That’s up from $239,000 just three years ago. Wrangell is not alone in paying increasingly higher costs for hauling and dumping trash at an approved landfill in eastern Washington state. The trash travels by barge and then rail to the landfill. Petersburg has been hit with similar price incre...
Most Wrangell students are insufficient in English language arts, math and science, according to the state standardized test scores that the Alaska Department of Education released over the summer. The results are an amalgamation of two tests: the Alaska Science Assessment, which assesses fifth, eighth and 10th graders science skills; and the AK STAR, which assesses third through ninth grade students in their English and math proficiency. The Wrangell school district’s proficiency levels are 10 percentage points above state average in both m...
“I’m picturing a fall Fourth of July,” Borough Manager Mason Villarma told staff during a planning meeting for the event. Last week, the borough released the schedule of events surrounding the harvest of the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree, also known as “The People’s Tree.” Festivities will begin on Friday, Oct. 25, and will continue for three days over the weekend. The borough, the Nolan Center, chamber of commerce, U.S. Forest Service and many local businesses all are helping to organize the weekend’s activities. The tree, which comes from a...
It could be that only two commercial tour operators that brought customers to the Petroglyph Beach State Historic Site this summer bothered to purchase the state permit required to provide tours. This was the first year the state directly asked operators to acquire the mandatory permit and collect the $6 fee. Though it had not been enforced in Wrangell, the law regarding commercial use of public property has applied to the Petroglyph Beach since it was designated a state historic site in 2000. Tour operators would be more open to buying the...
Damon Roher is transforming the old gym from a place of swishes and buckets to a chamber of skeletons and bats. Roher, an officer for the Wrangell Police Department, is organizing a haunted house that will run from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 11-12, in the community gym. There is no required admission fee, but Roher recommends a $5 donation. All proceeds will go to the Wrangell Salvation Army’s youth programs. For the haunt, Roher and his team of volunteers are going all out. He custom built two 10-foot spiders, an eight-foot grim r...
Though it was important to pinpoint the exact location and extent of damage to the community’s wastewater outfall pipeline into Zimovia Strait, officials also discovered that the 12-inch plastic pipe and the seabed around it have become home to hundreds of sea cucumbers. “Over the years and years, wildlife has figured it out,” Tom Wetor, the borough’s Public Works director, said Sept. 26. Sea cucumbers, a bottom-dwelling invertebrate, proliferate around the nutrient-rich waters near the diffuser end of the outfall line, he said. “I bet there ar...
A state agency is offering for sale half a dozen parcels on the Back Channel side of Wrangell Island, averaging about 3.6 acres in size, with auction bids due by Nov. 4. The starting bid for each parcel ranges from $15,500 to $60,500. All but one of the lots are on the water of the Eastern Passage. The $15,500 parcel is about 800 feet from the shoreline. Of the six lots up for bid to the highest offer, half are about three miles south of the end of the airport runway and the other half are about three miles farther down the channel. There is...
In House District 1, which includes Ketchikan and Wrangell, there is a three-way race to replace Rep. Dan Ortiz who served as the district's House member for a decade. The race is between Republican Jeremy Bynum and independents Grant EchoHawk and Agnes Moran. All three candidates are Ketchikan residents, as is Ortiz. A Wrangell resident has not held the House seat since Peggy Wilson a decade ago. Ortiz is not seeking reelection, citing health reasons. The former educator caucused with the...
The Alaska Children's Trust, a statewide nonprofit that works to prevent child abuse and neglect and advocate for children, youth and families, honored Wrangell resident Kay Larson with its Champion for Kids Award Saturday evening, Sept. 28, at the Nolan Center. Kaila Pfister, the trust's director of community engagement, who has worked with Larson the past four years, talked about the need for positive role models in the lives of children and how the award honors the contributions of such...
Voters by almost a 3-to-1 margin Tuesday approved a $3 million bond issue for repairs to the water-damaged Public Safety Building. Residents re-elected Patty Gilbert as mayor over challenger David Powell; re-elected incumbent school board member Angela Allen and elected newcomer Dan Powers over incumbent board member Brittani Robbins; and re-elected Chris Buness to the port commission along with newcomer Eric Yancey over challengers Antonio Silva and Tony Guggenbickler. Voters rejected a ballot proposition to amend the municipal charter, which...
Borough Manager Mason Villarma stopped his truck at the top of St. Michaels Street when a car driving down Church Street whizzed by him going 40 miles per hour - 15 mph over the speed limit - in a school zone, nonetheless. "We need to slow things down here," Villarma thought to himself this summer. In response, he reached out to other borough officials to see what could be done. The result is a four-way stop at the intersection of St. Michaels and Church streets, next to the Stikine Middle...
Registered voters in Wrangell have several decisions to make in this year’s municipal election — not just deciding their choices for seven elected offices and two ballot propositions, but when they want to vote. The polls will be open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 1, at the Nolan Center. But for people who like the convenience of voting early, or will be out of town Oct. 1, they can choose to stop by City Hall weekdays between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. though Monday, Sept. 30, to cast an early ballot. All of the ballots will be tabulated at the sam...
In January, the School Advisory Committee (SAC) asked the school board to provide an explicit and direct pathway of communication between the two entities. The school board responded with a proposed policy that limits the committee's access to exclusively working through the secondary school principal. The SAC is a community-run group that provides recommendations and suggestions to school administrators. Membership is open to the public, allowing parents, families and community members to ask...
U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer James Nelson was honored at the 2024 Law Enforcement and Investigations Director's Awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 11, for his actions responding to the deadly landslide in Wrangell last November. Nelson was presented with the Award for Bravery, Valor or Heroic Act. "It was well earned and he's very deserving of the award," said Patrol Captain Bill Elsner, Nelson's supervisor out of Ketchikan. Nelson, who will have been with the Forest...
Wrangell is trading in the stormy skies of Seattle and heading east, hoping for favorable tourism trade winds in Chicago. For the first time in two decades the borough will not send any representatives to the Seattle Boat Show. Instead, the Economic Development Department has elected to attend the Travel and Adventure Show in Chicago. The two-day event kicks off on Feb. 1 of next year. Economic Development Director Kate Thomas said she expects an audience as large as 19,000 travel enthusiasts and an additional 2,000 to 3,000 attendees who work...
The Oct. 1 election ballot asks voters whether they want to remove a provision in the municipal charter that prohibits any payment to the mayor and assembly members for their work as an elected official. If voters approve the change, the assembly, at a future date, could propose, consider and vote — after a public hearing — on an ordinance to adopt a compensation plan. Supporters of the proposed change say the intent is to attract more people — including younger people — to run for office and serve on the assembly, rather than continue to rely...
The borough assembly is making a second try at winning voter support for borrowing money to start repairs at the water- and rot-damaged Public Safety Building. Voters defeated a 2022 bond issue proposition by a 65-vote margin, 324-259. The 2022 proposal was to borrow $8.5 million. The Oct. 1 municipal election ballot asks voter approval of a scaled-back plan to issue $3 million in bonds. The borough also is hoping for a $2.4 million federal grant to add to the local funding, though that will require congressional approval and the House and...
Chris Buness, who is finishing up her first term on the port commission, is running for reelection to another three-year term. One thing she would like the commission to take on is an in-depth review of every provision in the municipal code governing the port and harbors. "Some sections need a deep dive" and some are out of date, she said. A thorough review could answer the question for every section of the code: "Does this still make sense for doing it this way in Wrangell." It's all about...
Port commission candidate Eric Yancey would like to see a second boat launch ramp constructed at Heritage Harbor, "right alongside the one that is there." The ramp can get busy and backed up, he said. "One thing would be nice during the summer over at Heritage ... a second boat launch." The 20-year-old harbor has a large parking area and is popular with people who trailer their boats in and out of the water. It's much closer to town than the launch ramp at Shoemaker. Another pinch point for...
Antonio Silva is running for port commission - his first try at public office - and says he looks forward to representing the next generation of fishermen. "We have a great younger fleet of fishermen here. It would be awesome to keep that fleet here," said the 38-year-old candidate. While appreciative of all the successful work by past and present port commissioners, Silva said, "it's important to have someone younger" representing the next generation of the fleet on the commission. He is one...
Tony Guggenbickler has owned seven boats and spent time in harbors from Seward on Alaska's Prince William Sound to Puerto Vallarta on Mexico's west coast over the past 60 years. He retired from commercial fishing earlier this year and said he now has time to serve on the port commission. He is not completely out of the water. He has a small boat for sportfishing. "That is going to help out with the crab salad and help keep the smokehouse going," he quipped. Almost as long as he fished for...
After much public scrutiny, the school board voted against accepting an Environmental Protection Agency grant that would fund the purchase on an electric school bus. The board voted 3-2 against the purchase at a special meeting Sept. 9. The district had selected Georgia-based manufacturer Blue Bird for the electric vehicle, which would have arrived in town next year. The bus’s $423,000 price tag exceeded the $378,000 in federal grant money, meaning the school district would have had to dip into its reserve fund to cover the remaining $...
State health officials have recorded 234 cases this year of whooping cough — also known as pertussis — through Sept. 9, more than were reported over the past seven years combined. About three-quarters of this year’s cases came in the past three months. Of the statewide total, SEARHC reports 11 in Southeast from June through early September, Lyndsey Y. Schaefer, communications director for the health care provider, said in an emailed statement Sept. 12. Privacy rules prevent SEARHC from disclosing the communities with whooping cough cases...
A contractor using a remote-operated underwater camera was able to locate and video the community’s damaged wastewater outfall line on Sept. 11, with the borough hoping to put together a game plan this week to repair the damaged pipe. The six- or seven-foot section of damaged 12-inch-diameter plastic pipe is in 77 feet of water, about 1,500 feet from shore, said Tom Wetor, the borough’s Public Works director. Before a boat hooked the pipe when it was pulling up its anchor on Aug. 30, the outfall pipe carried flow from the wastewater tre...