Week of December 11, 2024
A Washington state-based bioenergy company is exploring potential development of the borough’s 6-Mile mill property. Next week, Dale Borgford and other members of Borgford BioEnergy will fly to Wrangell ahead of a Wednesday, Dec. 18, public workshop with borough officials. The workshop will explore whether Borgford is a good fit for the property and vice versa. The meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at City Hall. Since purchasing the mill site for $2.5 million in 2022, the borough has wanted to cater the property toward economic...
Five, four, three, two, one - wooooooooooo. And just like that, the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree was alit. Adorned with 10,000 Alaskan-made ornaments and glistening with the power of 5,000 LED bulbs, the 80-foot-tall spruce will remain lit from dusk to 11 p.m. through Jan. 1. While the tree obviously headlined its own lighting ceremony, the Dec. 3 event was equally a celebration of Wrangell and the state. Members of Alaska's congressional delegation, Rep. Mary Peltola and Sens. Lisa Murkowski...
For the first time since it shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, Wrangell's indoor shooting range is up and running. One might even say it's ready to go - lock, stock and barrel. The range's first day of operation was Dec. 3, and it will be open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5 to 7 p.m. (dependent on the availability of range safety officers). Eventually, the range, located in the basement of the Public Safety Building, will open on Saturdays from 2 to 4 p.m., but that will not begin until...
After more than five years of work, Wrangell's newspapers going back to the Fort Wrangel News in June 1898 (when the town was spelled with one l) are now available in a searchable online database. And it's free. The website, which went live on Wednesday, Dec. 11, is owned and managed by the Irene Ingle Public Library. "This incredible resource brings over 6,000 issues together in one convenient location, providing a powerful tool for researchers, families and anyone curious about Wrangell's...
Alaska Airlines has received a federal subsidy since 1976 to provide Wrangell with twice-daily jet service, and the mayor and chamber of commerce are rounding up community support to urge the government to issue a new contract after the current agreement expires in 2025. “I want to ensure it stays around,” Mayor Patty Gilbert said of her petition drive to show community support for Alaska Airlines under the U.S. Department of Transportation Essential Air Service program. Wrangell is one of 65 communities in Alaska — which includes 10...
This fall, social studies teacher Jack Carney hosted a mock election for his junior and senior students. The kids learned about the issues, ballot measures and candidates, asked questions and eventually cast mock ballots of their own. A newly updated school board policy will ensure such classroom efforts can continue in the future. “In social studies classes, for example, we want things about the election and about political parties,” Superintendent Bill Burr said. “We wanted to make sure that was allowed.” The new policy ensures...
Now concluding its third year, the Wrangell Mariners’ Memorial at Heritage Harbor has 71 plaques honoring people who were part of the community’s maritime industry. The nonprofit organization is accepting applications through Jan. 31 for new plaques that will be installed in the spring. Each application should include the name of the deceased, a brief tribute that will be featured on the plaque and a story about the life of the mariner, which will be stored and available on the memorial’s online server. The memorial’s mission “is to...
A seasoned group of Wrangell birders will be the primary volunteers for this year’s Audubon Society Christmas Bird count on Saturday, Dec. 14. Coordinator Bonnie Demerjian has developed a group of experienced volunteers for this essential reporting, which samples the variety and number of land and seabirds in the area. The bird count is an annual event nationwide. While there is often a call for wider participation among community members in Wrangell, this year the reporting teams are set, including two boat teams, captained by Dan Rak and...
According to Clark Griswold, you have two choices when it comes to selecting your Christmas tree. Your first option is to go to a tree lot: “They invented Christmas tree lots,” Griswold says in the 1989 movie “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” “because people forgot how to have a fun old-fashioned family Christmas and are satisfied with scrawny, dead overpriced trees that have no special meaning.” Instead, he advises, “to do what your forefathers did.” Which is, “walk into the woods, pick out that special tree and...
Though this year’s Dove Tree public ceremony was canceled due to weather and dangerous driving conditions on Dec. 1, Hospice of Wrangell has hung paper doves on the tree at the Nolan Center for 52 residents, family and friends who have passed away. “It includes several people who died more than a year ago, but obituaries or gatherings happened later. Some of these people had no obituary in the Sentinel,” explained hospice volunteer Alice Rooney. The public event has been rescheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 15, at the Nolan Center. The...
In 2012, Kimberley Szczatko bought a sign that reads "Open, Come On In" in anticipation of one day hanging it on the door of her own store. That sign now greets you at Cooper's Corner, which celebrated its grand opening on Nov. 29 in the Front Street space recently vacated by Midnight Oil. Szczatko has made the space uniquely hers, filling it with antique trunks and bookcases, enormous moose and caribou mounts, and a wide product mix. While she has retained some goods from Midnight Oil, like...
The five men lost in the sinking of a commercial fishing boat west of Hoonah early Dec. 1 had just delivered a load in Juneau and were making a last run before the fishing season ended. The Sitka-based Wind Walker was transiting out to North Pacific fishing grounds when the boat capsized about 25 miles southwest of Juneau, according to several fishing industry representatives. The National Weather Service had forecast gale-force winds in the area, as well as freezing spray and snow. The Coast Guard said the boat issued a VHF radio mayday call...
The average hourly wage in Alaska was $33.60 in 2023, putting the state in 11th place among all 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to the Alaska Department of Labor. The median hourly wage — which is calculated in a way that reduces the influence of the highest and lowest numbers — was $26.99. Alaska has been among the top states for wages since the oil pipeline boom almost 50 years ago, and was No. 1 as recently as 2013, but has been falling and was eighth in 2022. Wage and job statistics were detailed in a pair of...
Nobody was injured in a small landslide in Ketchikan that dropped from a Hillside Road property on Dec. 1, unearthing approximately 4,000 square feet of a family’s backyard and sweeping about 200 feet down a steep, forested slope into Carlanna Creek. The landslide did not cause any structural damage to the family’s home or outbuildings, but yanked a kayak, a canoe and some fishing buoys from their yard to the creek below. Portions of unstable land on the family’s Hillside Road property continued to fall Dec. 2 and 3, although the house...
Mexico’s Senate has voted to charge cruise ship passengers $42 per person for port calls, drawing sharp criticism from the tourism industry. Mexican business chambers say the immigration charge — from which cruise passengers used to be exempt — may hurt the country’s half-billion-dollar-per-year cruise industry. The measure approved Dec. 3 has already been passed in the lower house and will go into effect in 2025. The changes were part of a bill that also increases airport immigration charges and entry fees for nature reserves....
The shrinking size of Alaska salmon, a decades-long trend linked in part to warming conditions in the ocean, is hampering the ability of chinook in Alaska’s two biggest rivers to produce new generations needed to maintain healthy populations, a new study shows. The University of Alaska Fairbanks-led study shows how the body conditions of chinook salmon, combined with extreme heat and cold in the ocean and freshwater environments, have converged in the Yukon and Kuskokwim river systems to depress what is termed “productivity” — the...
Hilcorp is set to host a new project that will test the idea of using plentiful natural gas from Alaska’s North Slope oil fields to generate electricity for data centers — the digital infrastructure that keeps the internet running and is essential to the emerging artificial intelligence economy. Privately owned Hilcorp, one of Alaska’s biggest oil producers, is working with a Texas-based firm to place a small, pilot data center at its Endicott field, inside a shipping container on a gravel pad, according to a permit application filed...
The Southeast champions' season came to a close at the hands of Susitna Valley on Dec. 6 at the state tournament. The double elimination, three-day tournament was held in Palmer. After plowing their way through Southeast competition the weekend prior, Wrangell had high hopes going into state. However, due to some injuries, illnesses and struggles to close out games, the Wolves were forced to settle for fourth place at the tournament. "Fourth at state is nothing to hang our heads about," head...
"You have to do hard better." That's what high school girls basketball coach Christy Good keeps telling her players. It's a phrase that she likes to fall back on, a mantra of sorts. Though those six words may not have any tangible meaning, they encapsulate Good's understanding of the game of basketball: Do the hard stuff and results will follow. Good, who is now in her fourth season as head coach, sat down with the Sentinel on Dec. 5 to discuss the upcoming season, her mindset as a coach and...
Wrangell asserted its wrestling dominance over 10 Southeast rivals at the Viking Invite held in Petersburg on Dec. 6-7. While the competition was not organized like a traditional bracket-style tournament, the scramble-style play gave Wrangell wrestlers plenty of opportunities to get back on the mat after a week of rest. On the first day of competition, Wolves won 27 of their 32 matches and led the 10-school invitational with 17 pins. On day two, they picked up right where they left off, winning...
Dec. 11, 1924 E. Albright, who came north last week on business connected with reopening of the Columbia & Northern cold storage plant, leaves for Portland on the Northwestern. When seen by the Sentinel reporter, Mr. Albright said he is highly gratified over finding the plant in such excellent condition and that comparatively little work will be required to put the plant in shape to resume operation. “The building is 95 percent as good as new, and the piling under the building is sound and good. The machinery is in A-1 condition. I could...
Monday, Dec. 2 Agency assist: Public Works. Civil dispute. Agency assist: Search and Rescue. Tuesday, Dec. 3 Arrest: Bench warrant. Wednesday, Dec. 4 Found property. Thursday, Dec. 5 Assault: Domestic violence. Debris in the roadway. Summons service. Friday, Dec. 6 Dog complaint. Traffic stop. Found property. Saturday, Dec. 7 Fire alarm. Sunday, Dec. 8 Traffic stop. Bar check. Civil standby. There were four ambulance calls during this reporting...
A Washington state developer with ideas of turning organic waste into new products is coming to town to look over the former mill property near 6-Mile, lay out his ideas and answer questions from community officials. The borough plans to assemble most everyone from City Hall with an interest in development of the property, including members of the assembly, planning and zoning commission, port commission and economic development board. Officials will hear from Borgford BioEnergy, which set up a new company this year, Alaska BioEnergy. The...
Unbelievable as it may sound, the state is preparing to burn up more public dollars in the fire pit of the mythical Alaska North Slope gas pipeline. But unlike a real fire pit, which warms those who gather around, spending more money on a gas line dream will leave Alaskans in the cold and the state a little poorer. The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) last week decided in a bout of fiscal foolishness and pro-development fervor to put up $50 million to ensure the completion of engineering work on the line. It’s...
