February 18, 1915: The biggest event in the upcoming week will be the Washington’s Birthday Ball given by the firemen at the Rink on the evening of Thursday, February 22. A committee of young men – all live wires – have the affair in hand and are arranging to make it a huge success. A splendid supper will be served and nothing will be left undone to make everyone have an enjoyable time. Ladies who have red shirtwaists and red skirts are requested to wear them. Firemen are requested to make an effort to obtain red shirts. Gentlemen who are not firemen are requested to wear red neckties, but no man is expected to stay away if the local stock of crimson neckwear is exhausted before he gets his gay colored neck sash.
February 16, 1940: Familiar “NSF” has fallen on the Territorial Public Welfare Department and according to report from Juneau there will be some severe retrenchment in spending for needy and indigent in the Territory until the next Legislature meets next year. In a statement to the Sentinel, Acting Governor E.L. Bartlett said: “I am informed by W.B. Kirk, Director of Public Welfare, that an extremely heavy relief load throughout the Territory since last April, when the new appropriation became available, has drastically depleted funds for relief. During the remainder of the biennium for which relief funds were appropriated, it will be necessary to grant assistance only in those cases having an emergency aspect.”
February 12, 1965: The Interstate Commerce Commission is considering whether to recognize the state-operated Alaska ferry system as a highway. The decision would involve primarily nine Alaska trucking firms which are seeking ICC certificates to truck cargoes aboard the ferry boats between Southeastern Alaska points. The expected ruling also will be watched with interest in Bellingham, Wash. Bellingham businessmen have proposed establishing service via ferry between Puget Sound and Alaska as an extension of the nation’s federal aid interstate highway system.
February 8, 1990: We’ve had a lot of snow this month in Wrangell. But is it greater than normal? While residents are talking about the great amount of snowfall – and speculating that this winter might break the previous record – officials with the National Weather Service say they can’t answer the question. At least they can’t answer it officially. “How much snow do you think we’ve gotten this year?” one Wrangellite asked another at City Market this week. “Sure seems like more this year than we’ve gotten all together in the last three,” the other responded. “I think it’s more this winter than any other since I moved to town,” a relatively recent transplant said. But official statistics for how much snow falls at Wrangell are not kept. While precipitation figures are recorded at the weather service’s station at Wrangell Air Service – it’s hard to determine how precipitation translates into accumulated snowfall. Paul Shannon, meteorologist with the weather service’s Juneau office said the only site in Southeast where snowfall is recorded officially is in Juneau. In that community, a total of 15.5 inches of snow had fallen from Feb. 1 until Monday. “We usually get about 18.5 inches of snow for all of the month of February,” he said. “We’re about there now and we’re not even halfway through the month.” But ask the same question for Wrangell, and you get another answer. Shannon said it’s
likely Wrangell is running ahead of average for snowfall, but it is difficult to translate the Juneau experience directly to Wrangell. Shannon said rough calculations of snowfall can be made, however. Generally, officials believe about 10 inches of snow falls for every inch of precipitation. With the 2.26
inches of precipitation recorded at the Wrangell airport this month that would leave Wrangell with 22.6 inches of snowfall from Feb. 1 through Monday. But Shannon said the light, fluffy quality to much of this winter’s snowfall may make the 10-to-1 ratio inaccurate. It may be more like 15-to-1 or 20-to-1.
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