In the Sentinel 100, 75, 50 and 25 years ago.
August 7, 1913: Hank Summers, who arrived a chechaco in Juneau during the year 1886 but passed on to the watershed of the great Yukon during the summer is again in Juneau, says the Empire. Mr. Summers has been in the reaches of the White river near the Shushana for the past several months. He says the Shushana will turn out to be a great producer. That section of the country in which Mr. Summers has been since last April is, he says, the greatest mineral belt in the world. All kinds of minerals abound. Gold is found both in placer and quartz. And there is a lot of it. The only way to reach the country at the present time is by way of Whitehorse.
August 5, 1938: A lighter volume of business than usual was before the city council at its meeting last night. The Fire Committee by Cunningham reported two fires during the past month, one being the city's road grader. Repairs to the former city hall, occupied for the past five years by Miss Margaret Weightman, field nurse, Bureau of Indian Affairs, were authorized in the extent of $40 for papering, plumbing and a new window. The city clerk was instructed to attend to the following matters: To confer with H. Wellons, city light plant operator, regarding information required by Fairbanks, Morse and Company, to enable them to lay out a distribution system improvement program for Wrangell; to confer with Wrangell Garage regarding two disputed claims; to request F.S. Barnes, president of the school board, to furnish the information required by the Department of the Interior.
August 2, 1963: Thirty residential lots located along the Wrangell highway southward from the City were a complete sell-out at the public auction held here Wednesday afternoon by the state Division of Lands. The lots, with a total list “Fair Market Value” of $15,500 were disposed of at the spirited auction for $20,054. The sale was conducted by Fred Serrara, Realty Officer for Southeast, and Richard Richards of the land disposal section of the Division of Lands. All but six of the lots were sold for above the market value set by the state.
August 4, 1988: The City Council has given initial approval to new fines to accompany arrests under the municipal curfew law, but Mayor Fern Neimeyer is encouraging elected officials to reconsider whether the town even wants the curfew on the code books. The council at its July 26 voted 5-2 to accept on first reading a proposed ordinance that would impose gradually increasing fines on parents whose children are found violating the city's curfew law. Neimeyer and Councilwoman Donna Galla voted against the measure. Neimeyer, in casting her “no” vote, encouraged the council to not only defeat the fine ordinance but to also repeal Wrangell's entire curfew law. She said she would prefer to see police concentrate their efforts on adults who supply drugs and alcohol to the community's youth. Neimeyer also questioned the constitutionality of the curfew law- and this week provided the council with copies of a letter and a legal opinion from the Alaska Civil Liberties Union to back up her views. “We wish to avoid legal action. But I stress that we will consider suing the city if absolutely necessary,” ACLU Executive Director Jamie Bollenbach said in a July 28 letter to Neimeyer. “Wrangell's curfew is not only grossly overboard but is heavily enforced, and so it is a great threat to freedom. It has no place in a free society.” Police Chief Brent Moody has proposed the fine system for curfew violations, maintaining the existing curfew law makes police merely a taxi service to take youths home. Imposing fines will toughen the law and encourage compliance, he said.
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