The Way We Were

Sept. 18, 1924

The old system of giving exams and grading papers under which it was possible to earn a grade on mere popularity, or where the mood that a teacher happened to be in had more to do with the grade than the actual work accomplished, has been discarded in Wrangell schools. The new system, which was put into operation with the beginning of the school year, makes it possible to have uniform grading throughout the entire system regardless of whether some teachers may give hard exams and others easy exams. The new system provides that exams be given in such a form that each question or statement on the exam sheet may be answered by a single word. The result is that it will be either right or wrong.

Sept. 16, 1949

Through a generous offer of cannery operator A. R. Brueger, Wrangell institutions and various other groups will receive about $12 worth of canned salmon, free of charge, this year. Brueger offered the use of his canning facilities and his skilled employees to put up the salmon if the town would furnish workers to process the fish. Four boats, operating under a special permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, brought in about 12,000 fish, enough for 600 cases this week. Volunteer workers helped in slimming and canning this week and other volunteers will case up the pack.

Sept. 20, 1974

City police will begin using the four-cell jail facility in the Federal Building on Oct. 1, according to Chief William Klein. A contract between the city and the federal General Services Administration office in Anchorage was reached recently for a city takeover of the virtually new-condition jail above the post office. The Federal Building jail has not been used since Alaska was a territory, Klein said. He said the city’s rent for the jail amounts to $349 a month, but virtually all of this cost is being recovered through agreements between the city and the state troopers and state Department of Corrections for housing state prisoners in the jail.

Sept. 16, 1999

The city held its gala ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new state-of-the-art, first-of-its-kind in Alaska water filtration plant. Gone is the muddy, red-tinted water familiar to all those using city water. The water now is much clearer (not muddy at all), and will become clearer over time as the pipes themselves are cleaned by use. The new plant uses a combination of ozone and sand filtration in a gravity-fed system. It sits on a hillside overlooking the city not far from the water supply. It consists of two surface reservoirs with a combined capacity of 64 million gallons. According to Bob Caldwell, public works director, “The water runs through an ozone contact chamber, then is processed through a roughing filter before finally passing through a slow sand filter. The ozone reacts with the iron in the water and removes the brownish color. Because the system requires 90% less chlorination, it greatly improves the taste.”