Week of December 4, 2024
The borough assembly has taken the first step toward assisting WCA’s purchase of land just south of the Wrangell Medical Center, where the tribal council plans to build a cultural center. Though Tribal Administrator Esther Aaltséen Reese said any ribbon-cutting ceremony would be at least a few years away, Borough Manager Mason Villarma said the borough and WCA hope to have the rezoning and borough land sale finalized by the end of the year. The new cultural center will be built behind the WCA offices on Zimovia Highway, and Reese said the...
Tidal Network is operating in its test mode, with about a dozen Wrangell households trying out the new wireless internet service provided by the Central Council Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. Wrangell is the first location in Southeast to get the new service, which is funded by a federal grant for construction and later will be expanded across the region. During the testing phase, technicians will be “breaking it to fix it,” looking to maximize the signals’ range and finding the best system for managing the fiber optic and...
After distributing over 120 Thanksgiving food baskets — 20 more than last year — The Salvation Army has shifted into Christmas gear to share even more food, plus presents for children. “It’s a shame that we have to do it,” Salvation Army Capt. Chase Green said of the growing need for food assistance in town. But the community has responded with donations to fill the need, he said. Plans for fundraising and community assistance this month include a dinner Saturday, Dec. 7, at the Stikine Inn; the annual Red Kettles donations...
Mikki Angerman just wants everyone to feel included. She isn’t an esports fanatic. She doesn’t even call herself a gamer. Instead, she’s a special services educator who is passionate about promoting inclusion and acceptance. “Our world right now needs empathy more than anything else,” she said. Angerman wants the middle and high school esports team to be a conduit for just that. She hosted preliminary and casual esports practices last spring, but after realizing what was needed to both expand the team and possibly compete against...
When See Stories brought its documentary filmmaking program to Wrangell two years ago, most of the students who participated hadn't picked up a camera outside of what was on their phones. Now, Laura Davies, a teacher at Stikine Middle School, is carrying on what she and her students learned by creating Stikine Stories, producing more documentaries and podcasts. One of her former students who participated in the original program even plans to make filmmaking a career. Alaska-based See Stories, a...
'Twas the weeks before Christmas and time for the annual tree lighting ceremony, set for 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6, next to the Elks Hall. Caroling will begin at 5:30 p.m. The annual chamber of commerce Midnight Madness sales event at downtown shops also will be held Friday evening, with hot cocoa and popcorn at the chamber’s downtown pavilion — and a chance to roast marshmallows — sponsored by the Wrangell Fire Department. The community market is scheduled to run from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday at the Nolan Center, featuring Santa Claus jolly at...
There’s still time for people to donate items for the American Legion Auxiliary’s Santa for Seniors program Gifts should be turned in by Dec. 16 for the annual sharing event, now in its fifth year. Auxiliary volunteers will deliver the gifts to residents at the long-term care facility at Wrangell Medical Center, most of the residents at Senior Apartments, and the town’s other older citizens who don’t have any family or are shut in at home and unable to get out, said Marilyn Mork, who helps to organize the program. “We want to help...
Maybe Clark Griswold would have been able to get those lights working a little quicker if he was motivated by the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce’s hefty prize packages. The chamber’s annual Christmas home decorations contest begins soon, and if your home has the best decorations, you could win $300. Second place will win $200, and third place will win $100. There will be $50 prizes for two additional honorable mentions as well. There is a separate category for businesses. The business with the best window decorations will win the...
Jeremy Bynum is transitioning from being a member of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly to his new job as state representative for Ketchikan, Metlakatla, Wrangell and Coffman Cove. He has a lot to do in the seven weeks before he is sworn in as a member of the state House when the Legislature convenes in Juneau on Jan. 21. He is looking for housing and for office staff; there will be orientation and training sessions for new lawmakers; there are legislative rules and procedures to learn; and...
The Wrangell school district will not purchase an electric school bus this year. Business Manager Kristy Andrew informed the Environmental Protection Agency that the district would return the $370,000 federal grant it received in 2023. After the school board voted down the purchase on Sept. 9, the district had until Nov. 22 to inform the EPA of its decision, which it did ahead of the extended deadline. This concludes a four-month long saga in which the school board initially expressed optimism about the bus purchase before flipping on the...
It took three rounds of bidding but the borough is on its way to installing a new, 300-foot-long float system at Meyers Chuck. The assembly last month awarded a $445,000 contract to Bellingham Marine Industries for the Washington state contractor to construct the 10-foot-wide wooden-decked floats, gangway and connection to the existing seaplane float in Meyers Chuck. The work includes building and shipping everything to Wrangell, where the 50-foot-long sections will be stored at the Marine Service Center until a separate contract is issued...
Alaska’s minimum wage workers will get a tiny bump in pay starting on Jan. 1 before a larger increase becomes effective six months later. The state’s minimum wage will increase by 18 cents to $11.91 an hour at the start of the new year, the result of a ballot measure passed 10 years ago, the Alaska Department of Labor said on Nov. 21. The bigger increase will be on July 1, when the minimum wage is set to rise to $13 an hour, the result of a ballot measure approved by voters in November. The minimum wage is set to increase again in 2026 to...
Seven out of 10 Alaska adults are overweight or obese, and large percentages of adults in the state have chronic conditions like high blood pressure and high cholesterol that are linked to the leading causes of death, according to a report by the state Department of Health. The 2024 Alaska Chronic Disease Facts summary, published by the department’s Division of Public Health, also showed that 33% of high school students were overweight or obese. Large percentages of adults and teenagers are sedentary, according to the report. Among adults,...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy said he isn’t planning to take a job with President-elect Donald Trump’s administration at the start of his second presidential term in January. Dunleavy, in the middle of his second term as governor, was mentioned by political observers and in media reports in the days after the Nov. 5 election as a candidate to lead the Department of Interior. When Trump selected North Dakota’s governor for the job, Dunleavy was listed by some as a possible Cabinet member for the departments of energy or education. But the governor,...
"The only thing that exists is that edge and the wood that it's moving through," Haines luthier Rob Goldberg said as he worked with a chisel, carving the braces that will hold a guitar's sound boards together. "You can't be thinking about what you're going to have for dinner or thinking about your girlfriend or thinking about anything else." He speaks from decades of experience, building world-class custom instruments at his Mud Bay workshop, several miles south of downtown Haines. That...
Alaska is losing its residents to Texas, Oregon, Washington state and Florida. That’s according to 2023 American Community Survey results, an annual demographics survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. From 2022 to 2023, Alaska lost more residents than it gained, continuing a trend that has existed since 2012. Though Alaska has long led the nation in annual population turnover — typically, about 45,000 people moved both into and out of the state annually, said Alaska Department of Labor demographer Eric Sandberg — “what has...
The U.S. Coast Guard on Monday morning suspended the search for survivors from a Sitka-based commercial fishing boat that capsized early Sunday morning with five people aboard. The Coast Guard said the search for the 52-foot seiner Wind Walker continued for nearly 24 hours and covered more than 108 square nautical miles. The boat’s crew issued a mayday call at 12:07 a.m. Sunday “reporting they were overturning,” the Coast Guard said. Watchstanders in Juneau received no additional response, but the boat’s emergency beacon signal...
A giant female chinook salmon flips on her side in the shallow water and wriggles wildly, using her tail to carve out a nest in the riverbed as her body glistens in the sunlight. In another late-October moment, males butt into each other as they jockey for a good position to fertilize eggs. These are scenes tribes have dreamed of seeing for decades as they fought to bring down four hydroelectric dams blocking passage for struggling salmon along more than 400 miles of the Klamath River and its tributaries along the Oregon-California border....
Dec. 4, 1924 A second cold storage plant for Wrangell is scheduled to be in operation within three months after the beginning of the year. E. A. Albright, representing F. Klevenhusen, arrived in Wrangell on Tuesday evening for the purpose of putting the Columbia & Northern cold storage plant into shape to operate again after being shut down for six years. Mr. Albright is the engineer who constructed the Columbia & Northern plant at Wrangell more than 12 years ago. He will make a thorough inspection of the plant and dock and will make an...
Monday, Nov. 25 Theft. Tuesday, Nov. 26 Agency assist: Museum. Domestic violence: Assault. Debris in the roadway. Parking complaint. Agency assist: Hoonah Police Department. Traffic stop. Wednesday, Nov. 27 Dog at large. Gas leak. Thursday, Nov. 28 Motor vehicle accident. Dog at large. Stranded motorist. Agency assist: Line crew. Friday, Nov. 29 Traffic stop. Traffic stop: Citation issued for no proof of insurance. Saturday, Nov. 30 Parking violations. Found property. Inmate check-in. Traffic stop: Verbal warning for equipment. Traffic stop:...
Sometimes, the best explanations are the simplest. Especially when it comes to economics. The complicated way to describe the consequences of Alaska losing population, particularly working-age residents, is to explain that fewer people have moved north than have moved out of the state in each of the past 12 years. That net outmigration is making it hard for employers to fill jobs, which means reduced hours of operation, longer waits for services and less money in the economy. The decline in working-age residents — ages 18 to 64 — is...
No matter what President-elect Donald Trump may think about the far reach of his powers, only Santa is allowed to make the list of who is naughty or nice. Yet just as Santa Claus is coming to town, so is Trump. And while I expect most people can live with whichever one of Santa’s lists they fall into for holiday gifts, I suggest they’d better not cry and better not pout about Trump’s lists — I doubt it would matter. He seems determined to serve a holiday feast covered in a thick sauce of sweet revenge. The president-elect spent much...
As if the American public needed another reason to be cynical about their elected leaders. As if people needed one more reminder that justice isn’t equal, or that politicians can go back on their pledges. President Joe Biden on Sunday pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, wiping away federal criminal convictions on income tax and gun charges. That’s even though the president and his spokesperson said repeatedly this year that he would do no such thing. Donald Trump’s multiple pardons of crooks, cheats and liars in the final weeks of his first...
