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At a time of year when most students are more concerned with sunshine and playing than with academia, one class is giving them the ability to plan for their future so they don’t miss out on sunnier days. A job skills and career planning and exploration class taught by Julie Williams, the Wrangell High School counselor, teaches students how to map out a path to prosperity. According to the U.S. Department of Education, about 8.3 million high school students took some form of career and technology education (CTE) class in the 2020-2021 school yea...
An Airbus H130 helicopter takes off from the back of the Scenic Eclipse in front of Wrangell on May 15. The helicopter is one of two in the Scenic Luxury Cruises and Tours fleet and can be added to a tour package. The Scenic Eclipse, which can host up to 200 passengers for Arctic tours, is billed as the "world's first discovery yacht" by its operators and is designed for scenic luxury cruises and tours. It travels throughout the Americas, Antarctica and the Arctic. It has a crew of up to 192,...
As the school year wraps up and learning winds down, students were recognized for their outstanding achievements. The annual academic and scholarship award ceremony held on May 16 in the Wrangell High School gym highlighted the hard work put in by eighth through 12th graders. Teachers, administrators, community and business leaders gathered to present the students with certificates, plaques and checks. Awards were given in the areas of general education, shop class, finance, student government...
Malachi Harrison, left, as Scarecrow, talks to as Dorothy (Erika Jabusch) and Tin Man (Derek Heller) in the May 16 production of "The Wizard of Oz" at Evergreen Elementary. Students staged the performance of the classic story and were allowed to read from scripts to take the pressure off the actors. Tracey Martin and Kim Pogue produced the stage play, while art teacher Tawney Crowley was the set supervisor. Crowley had a background in theater, so fellow staff members took advantage of her...
Senior Devlyn Campbell slips down a makeshift soapy water slide on May 17 on the lawn at the high school courtyard. The class of 2023 took advantage of the warm weather by inviting their classmates to blast each other with squirt guns, slide across the lawn and just play. They were joined by many other students, making for extremely quiet classrooms during fifth period....
Alaska lawmakers have been spending the final days of the 121-day legislative session disagreeing over the amount of this fall’s Permanent Fund dividend. As of Monday afternoon, the House and Senate appeared unable to agree on state spending for the fiscal year that starts July 1, likely pushing lawmakers into an overtime session. This would be the fourth year of extra session time since the cost of the dividend put a strain on tight state finances in 2017. The Republican-controlled House wants a $2,700 PFD this fall and is willing to draw hund...
Like other trollers in the region, Wrangell fishermen are critical of a Seattle-based federal judge’s ruling that could shut down the Southeast commercial king salmon fishery, which supports about 40 trollers in town. Brian Merritt is a troller and a teacher at Evergreen Elementary. He estimates that 35% of his income comes from kings, but losing the fishery is more than just a financial loss. For him, kings are the smartest, biggest and the most engaging species of salmon to fish for. “Dog salmon are dumber than a stump and anyone can cat...
As the first cruise ship of the season arrived in town last Thursday, the Wrangell Cooperative Association's new tourism coordinator, Brooke Leslie, gave visitors an informative presentation inside the Chief Shakes House. After performing a song, she taught the group about matrilineal Tlingit family structure, construction of the house, traditional communal living and canoe travel. The Tlingit traveled long distances by canoe, she explained, but "how would you know that the people arriving are f...
Southeast Alaska's near-constant blanket of clouds and its frequent rains that wash nutrients from the soil make gardening in the region notoriously difficult, even for people with the greenest of thumbs. However, horticultural afficionados Lenny Peterson and Ginger Overton have learned to work around the weather to create a garden that is as abundant as it is beautiful. As green shoots begin to peek out of their garden beds this month, the pair gave a tour of their greenhouse and shared advice...
Alaska Airlines last week unveiled a new design that replaced the popular Salmon Thirty Salmon jet. The new art still features salmon, but this time from an Indigenous perspective. Crystal Kaakeeyáa Rose Demientieff Worl, a Tlingit artist and business owner from Juneau, created the new design in the style of formline art. Worl said she hopes that the plane will inspire non-Indigenous people to learn about the rich cultural history between Native Alaskans and salmon. The plane is designed in...
The borough completed its unprecedented mass review of all property values on the road system last week, with only seven of the initial 179 assessment appeals going to a formal hearing before the Board of Equalization. All the other cases were resolved without a hearing. Most of the appeals succeeded in achieving some level of reduction in the appraised value — only 24 remained unchanged after appellants met with an assessor. It had been years since the borough conducted such a comprehensive review, and the reexamination raised the overall a...
Parents looking for someone to watch their children so they can earn a living may have to keep looking for the time being. Efforts to find solutions to a lack of child care locally and statewide continue to move forward, but providing the service is taking more time than most people might like. The number of child care providers has dropped by 11% throughout the state since 2021. In Wrangell, there have been some efforts to increase the number of child care options, though only one, through the Wrangell Cooperative Association, is moving...
Alaska’s coastal communities are home to more than a third of the U.S. wastewater plants still allowed to treat their sewage at the lowest and most basic level. But six cities in Southeast Alaska, including Wrangell, may soon have to invest in improvements to better clean their wastewater before discharging it into the ocean. That is the message from draft permits that have been released or are to be released by the Environmental Protection Agency, which has determined that too much bacteria is going from the communities into marine waters. The...
How many times can you tell your kid to go play in the ocean and mean it? At least once a year for U.S. Forest Service and school staff. On May 9, teachers, parents and Forest Service employees taught 82 kindergarten through third grade students about tidepool sea life, tree identification, animal skulls and fur, digging clams and more at Shoemaker Bay during low tide. "Today, you guys are going to help me get some clams and we're going to send them out to have them tested (for toxins). Who's...
Since 2019, Caitlin Cardinell has worked as the liaison between members of the Stikine River Jet Boat Association and cruise lines to schedule tours and advocate for the organization. After 10 years in Wrangell and seeing the SRJBA through the COVID-19 pandemic, Cardinell is resigning her position as executive director and returning to Minnesota. Though the position has been a challenge, her reasons for leaving are to spend more time with her aging parents. She will maintain a home in Wrangell...
After 12 years of studying, paying attention, taking notes, playing sports and, in some cases, goofing off, Wrangell High School's senior class will receive their diplomas on Friday night. The final two weeks of school for the graduates have been filled with finishing their senior projects, making sure other work is complete and taking time out for a sanctioned skip day up the Stikine River. Nineteen students will walk to the pomp and circumstance at 7 p.m. Friday at the high school gym, make...
Stacey Wayne, Wrangell High School class of 1982, said it was an honor and a blessing to work as drama and debate coach with Sitka students for a quarter-century. The Alaska School Activities Association added to the honor this month when it inducted Wayne into the Alaska High School Hall of Fame. "Wayne started coaching and teaching drama at Sitka High in 1987 and took two students to the state championship event in that inaugural year," the May 7 awards ceremony program said. "The next year...
Wrangell High School graduate Kayla Hay was always interested in learning German. Her great-grandparents emigrated from Austria to Alaska in the 1920s, she said, and she was intrigued by different cultures and wanted to be able to communicate with her relatives who remained in Austria. Hay didn't have the opportunity to take German as a student in Wrangell (class of 2018), but when she enrolled at Montana State University in Bozeman that fall, she signed up for a basic German language class her...
One thing Ethan Blatchley did not want to do for another four years was sit at a desk to earn a degree. A recent trip to Western Welding Academy in Gillette, Wyoming, reaffirmed the graduating high school senior’s choice to pursue a welding certificate, finishing up in six months. Since he started learning how to weld in shop class last year, Blatchley has been following the academy’s social media posts. He shared them with shop teacher Winston Davies, who was inspired to pursue his own certificate. “(The academy has) a huge social media prese...
SEATTLE (AP) — A ruling from a federal judge in Seattle could effectively shut down commercial king salmon trolling in Southeast Alaska — a valuable industry that supports some 1,500 fishermen — after a Washington state-based conservation group challenged the harvest as a threat to endangered killer whales that eat the prized fish. The state and the Alaska Trollers Association filed a notice of appeal on May 3, the day after the judge’s decision. The state is asking for a stay of the ruling, pending the appeal. Wild Fish Conservancy, which b...
A simple 30-minute trip by jet boat could be the outing of a lifetime for many Wrangell and Petersburg youths, and if they pay attention, it could mean extending that lifetime. On May 2, a mix of fourth and fifth graders from Evergreen Elementary and Petersburg's Stedman Elementary traveled up the Stikine River on a warm, sunny day to Cottonwood Island to learn about everything from identifying wildlife to surviving the elements. Field trips up the river have been going on for about 23 years,...
Want to fly in and out of Wrangell but don't feel like dealing with TSA, long lines and checking baggage? Now you can from the comfort of your home cockpit (aka, couch). Northern Sky Studio, a software developer based in Kharkiv, Ukraine, recently released a Wrangell expansion pack for the popular Microsoft Flight Simulator, and it's just like being here. Flight Simulator, like many long-running video games, had humble origins. Rather than the hyper-realistic detail of modern games, the...
At its special meeting May 1, the borough assembly unanimously approved $266,920 for engineers to assess the condition of Wrangell’s three school buildings, in hopes of making the list for millions of dollars in state funding to repair and refurbish the decades-old structures. The borough is hoping to get the repairs on the Alaska Department of Education’s list of major maintenance projects at school buildings throughout the state. However, making the list is a highly competitive process that requires districts to demonstrate their need. The...
After the chamber of commerce received an anonymous tip two weeks ago that elements of its ongoing $10,000 raffle were against state law, the organization is taking steps to bring the fundraiser into compliance. The chamber held an emergency meeting May 2 to establish an end date for the raffle and discuss its financial needs in advance of the Fourth of July celebration, which it funds and organizes. As originally designed, the chamber’s raffle did not have an end date. Tickets would have been drawn and the $10,000 prize would have been a...
The first cruise ship of the season is scheduled to tie up in Wrangell on Thursday, and borough crews have been working to get new restrooms ready for visitors — and locals — who need another option while walking around downtown. The borough has installed two portable units just off Front Street, next to the 56° North shop, near the intersection with Campbell Drive. These are not your routine porta-potties with holding tanks; they are portable units set in place and hooked up to municipal sewage and water lines — sinks included. One of the fa...