The Way We Were

Dec. 15, 1921

J. P. Ludwig has opened a shoe repair shop in the Pioneer Building opposite the Wrangell Hotel. Mr. Ludwig is an experienced shoemaker whose work is of a high order of excellence and speaks for itself. Mr. Ludwig is now equipped to do all kinds of repairs and in a short time he will receive additional machines and will be ready to make shoes to order. Watch for his ad next week.

Dec. 13, 1946

The city council announced today that it had set two streets aside for coasting. Great danger to the lives of children has been experienced since the arrival of snow and youngsters using the hills haphazardly for sliding. Several already have had narrow escapes from collisions with cars. The city council announced that the hill below the Episcopal church, down to Front Street at the location of the old fire station, will be set aside for sliding, and also the hill from Bidwell’s corner, down across Church Street to just back of the bank. Stop signs will be put up at intersections of these streets and vehicles must come to a dead stop before making the crossing. Also, children are warned to confine their coasting to these two streets -- the best hills in town.

Dec. 7, 1971

Wrangell’s unpopular and hard-to-collect personal property and automobile tax was axed by the city council on Tuesday. The council voted unanimously to have the ordinance drafted striking the 18-mil-per-dollar of valuation collected under city statute. City Clerk Joyce Rasler said the city estimates personal property and automobiles in town are worth a combined $600,000, which would raise almost $11,000 a year – but the city manages to collect only about 60 percent of the taxes due. City Manager Kester Dotts said Wrangell is one of the last cities in Alaska which has the personal property tax. He indicated that the levy is hard enough to administer and collect, and that the municipality would be better off without it. Dotts said he expects the revenue the tax has been bringing in will be made up by increased sales taxes generated by new businesses.

Dec. 19, 1996

After months of debate, the Wrangell city council unanimously agreed at a special meeting last Friday to suspend the city’s 7 percent sales tax on food and utilities. The measure goes into effect on food Jan. 13, 1997, and on utilities starting with the February billing. It is estimated the cut will cost the city some $400,000 of revenue each year, but will save the average family $70 per month. Councilmember Fern Neimeyer moved to amend the measure to remove the “sunset clause” that would let the city council reinstate the tax Dec. 31, 1998, without a vote of the people. Councilmemer Zo Herriges-Sherman moved to amend the measure to exempt heating oil from sales taxes. Both amendments failed 5-2.