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The borough has been looking for a developer or long-term tenant after paying $2.5 million for the former 6-Mile sawmill property in June 2022, but now is turning its attention to short-term leases to generate income and jobs until something bigger and more permanent comes along. “The borough would like to consider making the mill property as productive as possible in the short term,” Interim Borough Manager Mason Villarma told the assembly earlier this month, asking for direction on negotiating leases for the waterfront property. His pre...
Wrangell firefighters will join the 33rd annual stairclimb competition in Seattle next month to raise money for the fight against leukemia and lymphoma. Clay Hammer, Dustin Johnson and Steve Prysunka are taking part in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Firefighter Stairclimb on Sunday, March 10. It’s the world’s largest such event where the climbers breathe through their airpacks. The contest will be held at Seattle’s tallest building, the Columbia Center. All 2,000 participants are career, volunteer or retired firefighters from all over th...
Wrangell Cooperative Association tribal citizens last week reelected two members and voted in two other members for the tribal council. Tribal citizens on Feb. 20 reelected Frank Churchill and Edward Rilatos to two-year terms on the council, said Esther Aaltséen Reese, tribal administrator. They also elected Thomas Gillen Sr. and Richard Oliver, who had previously served on the council, she said. The members were sworn in Feb. 22, and the eight-member council selected Rilatos to serve as president, Jason Clark to serve as vice president and...
Alicia Armstrong's senior project is unique in that it could change the timing of future senior projects, which are a requirement to graduate from Wrangell High School. She wants to make the concept more structured and planned so that students can start preparing for it in their junior year. "The idea would be to meet with the counselor that first semester of junior year to go over the expectations of what a senior project is ... what it looks like," Armstrong said. "And then, you would then...
The Get REAL Financial Reality Fair for high school students isn’t just about learning to balance a checkbook, manage money and handle credit cards. It’s also about learning what their parents deal with in managing the family’s finances, said Marisa Fulgham, Wrangell branch manager for Tongass Federal Credit Union, which is organizing the event. “We give each kid a life and a budget. … (Then) we threw curveballs at them.” Those include expected expenses, such as housing, groceries, medical bills and a vehicle, and maybe the unexpected,...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association has established an advisory council of clan leaders and representatives, in particular to help the tribe with a totem restoration and replacement project. Feedback from the advisory group will help WCA determine which totems to select for the project, said Esther Aaltséen Reese, tribal administrator. The tribal council received a $20,000 donation last year from the Wrangell Tlingit and Haida Community Council to pay for carving two replacement totem poles while also repairing older poles in town. “It’s look...
The board in charge of the Alaska Permanent Fund is amping up its warnings about an impending state financial crisis. Without action by the Legislature, there’s a small but growing chance that within three years, the Permanent Fund — source of more than half of Alaska’s general-purpose state revenue — won’t be able to pay for services and the annual Permanent Fund dividend. “We are facing a potential crisis, and it warrants the consideration of a change, whatever that change may be,” said Deven Mitchell, executive director of the Alaska Perman...
Borough officials are concerned that Wrangell continues to lose population, while those who stay in town grow older and leave the workforce. As a whole, the state has lost more residents than it has gained in new arrivals every year since 2013, with only the birth rate keeping Alaska from showing a population decline. However, unlike the statewide totals, Wrangell recorded more deaths than births between 2017 and 2022, adding to the community’s overall population decline. The state’s latest estimate for Wrangell’s population, as of last summe...
A majority of the borough assembly supports changing municipal law to pay the mayor and assembly a few thousand dollars a year for their work, but it would require a change in the municipal charter to adopt such a compensation plan. “If this would get one or two more younger people (to serve on the assembly) … to start giving us their ideas … I’m all for this,” Assembly Member David Powell said as members discussed the proposal at their Feb. 13 meeting. “I think it would bring in a younger wave of people,” said Assembly Member Anne Morrison...
The borough assembly has voted to proceed with an application for $25 million in federal funding to rebuild the Inner Harbor, Reliance and Standard Oil floats, including a commitment that Wrangell would come up with $5 million needed to fully fund the estimated $30 million project. “This is a little bit of a gamble,” Mayor Patty Gilbert said at the Feb. 13 assembly meeting. Still, it’s a good bet “if you can parlay $5 million into $30 million,” she said. “This is an ambitious project, but it’s very much needed,” Gilbert added. The harbor floa...
Jared Becker was new to Wrangell when he and his wife, Destiny, arrived from St. Louis Park, a suburb of Minneapolis, at the end of September. "We're Jehovah's Witnesses, so we like to help out with Bible education work," he said. "So that's what brought us here. We were just trying to find a way to sustain ourselves once we got here." As he talked with residents over the next few months, he saw there was a need in town for auto repair services. "So, I decided to give it a try and see where it...
The Parks and Recreation Department has a healthy list of work projects it wants to complete by June, including maintenance on the Mount Dewey trail, repairs to public restrooms and reinforcing the fire pit at City Park. Replacing more trash bins with new ones better able to withstand curious bears is also on the list as the department looks ahead to people using the parks, trails and green spaces come summer. The alder removal process is ongoing in various parks and trails, cutting back excess vegetation that encroach on fencing and other...
Assembly members agreed that a port commission proposal to require boat owners to carry marine insurance — or pay a monthly fee in addition to their stall rental — needs a lot more work. The port commission has been discussing since 2022 the financial risk to the borough when an uninsured vessel catches fire or sinks in the harbor, requiring cleanup and removal. The commission last month voted unanimously to recommend assembly approval of an ordinance requiring boat owners show proof of insurance or pay an additional monthly fee so that the...
KSTK is accepting donations of artwork for its annual fundraising auction, set for Friday evening, March 22, at the Nolan Center. “We have artwork from all kinds of different artists from around Alaska,” said KSTK Development Director Kimberly Ottesen, adding that past auctions have showcased a wide variety of artwork. Any medium will be accepted, including photography, paintings, sculptures and crafts. Ottesen said it all began in 2000, when the station invited residents to compete with their favorite chilis. Around 2002, an over-the-air art...
Site prep work is finished and concrete foundation work has started on a new multimillion-dollar treatment plant to improve water quality and quantity for Wrangell. “We’re actually pouring our first footings,” Amber Al-Haddad, the borough’s capital facilities director, said Feb. 14. The metal building that will house the water treatment system is scheduled for mid- to late-March arrival, she said, with the equipment to follow later. Completion is planned for June 2025 under the terms of federal funding for the project. The new plant will re...
The public will have a chance to voice their opinions Feb. 27 on a pair of proposed municipal ordinances that would limit the use of harbor dumpsters to boat owners only and for their household trash only — with a $150 fine for violations. The public hearing will be part of the evening’s borough assembly meeting, which will start at 6 p.m. at City Hall. Assembly members voted Feb. 13 to advance the ordinances to the Feb. 27 hearing. The assembly could take action on the measures after the hearing — either approve, reject or amend. The first...
What began about a year and a half ago as a side project for high school student Spencer Petticrew would eventually evolve to become his senior project: the livestreaming video setup at Wrangell High School for events, including all sports games, musical concerts and graduation ceremony. "Basically, if it takes place in the gym, and people want to watch it, I'm the guy that handles the livestreaming of it over platforms like YouTube," he said. Petticrew credits the high school's former IT...
I’ve never seen market conditions as bad as they are now,” Doug Vincent-Lang, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, told a conference of Southeast business, community and municipal government leaders last week. “Last year we said we reached rock bottom,” Jeremy Woodrow, executive director of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, said of low prices, weak markets and reluctant consumers. But then he added, “we’ve scraped off more levels,” reaching deeper to the bottom. All of the participants in the fisheries panel discuss...
After five years, a once-popular community gathering place may finally make a comeback. Georgianna and Richard Buhler, founders of the nondenominational TouchPoint Alaska Ministries, recently purchased the old Church of God property, which has been shuttered for the past five years. Although one of their long-term goals is to eventually have a day care center at the Bennett Street property, their first priority is to bring back the adjoining roller rink. "There's a lot of memories in this...
Jackie Hanson has resigned as principal of Wrangell High School and Stikine Middle School, effective at the end of the school year. Hanson started with the Wrangell district in August. She was the third principal for the schools in the past three years; each served just one school year. She responded via email that she was offered a position as superintendent for the Craig City School District. Since most of her family lives in Craig, her parents are getting older and she already has a house there, she decided to accept. “I plan to finish the s...
Crew shortages continue to plague the Alaska Marine Highway, the ferry system’s director told a gathering of Southeast officials last week. “Our biggest shortage is in the engineering department,” where the 54 ship engineers on the payroll as of Jan. 26 were far short of the 81 needed for full staffing, Craig Tornga told a gathering of community, business and government leaders at the Southeast Conference on Feb. 7 in Juneau. “We’re short in the wheelhouse,” he added, down eight from a full contingent of 79 in the master, chief mate, secon...
State geologists were able to more accurately measure the movement and damage from massive landslides that poured across roads in the middle of the island in November because just a few months earlier the state and U.S. Forest Service had collected detailed images and data — literally laser-focused — of the terrain. The Forest Service and the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys partnered in July to conduct an aerial survey of the entire island, using airborne lasers to map out ground cover, geology and slopes for future ref...
“At least once a week I get a call from someone who is interested” in the upcoming borough subdivision land sale of 20 lots, said Kate Thomas, Wrangell’s economic development director. To help those callers, and everyone else who might be interested in anything about buying land, building and owning a home, or buying an existing home, the borough is putting together an information fair for 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Feb. 24, at the Nolan Center. The borough plans to offer to the public 20 residential-zoned lots at the new Alder Top Village (Keish...
After Lillian "Lily" Younce had knee surgery in September due to past injuries from wrestling, she couldn't resume her sports activities. "I missed out on wrestling this year, which was kind of a bummer," she said. "With me just sitting around and trying to recover from my knee, I ended up gaining weight." Inspired by her planned course of study of exercise science in college, Younce decided to put together a healthy weight-loss program for her senior year project, in partnership with her father...
Hospice of Wrangell will give out 16 “Hospice Hearts” next week to people who have helped the nonprofit organization in the past year. The hospice group started providing services in Wrangell in 2002, and each year honors volunteers for their services. This year’s event is planned for noon Monday, Feb. 19, at the Father Jerry Hall at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, starting with a light lunch. The community is invited. This year’s Hospice Hearts will go to Kathie Angerman, Michael Bania, Jim Bailey, Cathy Carson, Artha DeRuyter, John DeRuyte...