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Nothing unlucky about the number 13 for Kim Lane, who is in her 13th year as borough clerk. She was honored as Clerk of the Year by her colleagues in the Alaska Association of Municipal Clerks. Lane was at the association's annual conference and dinner in Anchorage on Dec. 10 when the announcer started talking about the 2024 award winner, without spilling the name and spoiling the surprise. "And then I realized, it's me," she said in an interview after returning to Wrangell. "It makes you feel...
After missing last year, the chamber of commerce has resumed the decades-old tradition of assembling, printing and selling a calendar of community members’ birthdays and anniversaries. The calendar, which started in the 1950s, is a fundraiser for scholarships for high school seniors. People who preordered a calendar should come by the chamber office in the Stikine Inn to pick up their copy, said Tracey Martin, the chamber’s executive director. Copies also are available for people who did not preorder — the cost is $15. The calendars are a lim...
Buyers picked up five of the eight lots in the borough-developed Industrial Park Subdivision land sale last month, with the three remaining parcels listed for sale online at minimum bids. The borough is putting in street access to the parcels, extending Fifth and Sixth avenues to serve the lots just off Airport Loop Road, a little past the turnoff to Ishiyama Drive. If the three remaining lots sell at the minimum prices of $31,400 for each for the two 16,500-square-foot parcels and $51,700 for the 25,849-square-foot lot, the borough will have...
The borough has contracted to finish the design work so that it can go out for bid to stabilize the earthen dams that hold back the community’s two water reservoirs. A $5 million state grant will pay for the project. The assembly last month approved spending an additional $114,450 to finish the design and engineering work for the project. Borough officials have been meeting with representatives of the engineering firm Shannon & Wilson and the state’s dam safety office to advance toward the final design plans. The design and engineering wor...
The Alaska Marine Highway System is now accepting summer travel bookings. The summer season for the state ferries runs from May 1 to Sept. 30. The schedule, which was released on Dec. 23 and opened that same day for online reservations, shows the same level of service to Wrangell as in recent years: A northbound stop in the afternoon or early evening every Sunday and a southbound morning stop every Wednesday. Wrangell will be served on the weekly run by the Columbia between Bellingham, Washington, and Southeast Alaska. Fares are the same as...
The port commission is considering whether it can attract more boat owners to keep their vessels in the water during the winter if the monthly moorage rates were discounted. The idea is to generate revenue from unused moorage spaces. Even with a discount, the monthly short-term moorage rates would still be more expensive per month than the rate for boat owners who reserve a space for a full year. A seasonal discount to entice more owners to keep their boats in the water in the winter might work, said Winston J. Davies, port commission chair....
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...
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 help tell...
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 tree — an...
'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 the r...
Participants in the nationwide Elks Hoop Shoot have to be a lot younger than the event itself. The free-throw contest is more than 50 years old, but it’s open only to kids 8 through 13 years old. The annual Hoop Shoot will be held Saturday, Nov. 30, at the Wrangell community center gym. The times are 10 a.m. for ages 8 to 9; 11 a.m. for ages 10 to 11; and noon for ages 12 to 13. Kids’ age as of April 1, 2025, will determine which group they will shoot in. They will each get five warm-up shots at the hoop, followed by a round of 10 throws and a...
The music is almost 300 years old, and it’s been at least 20 years since it’s been performed at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Wrangell, but George Frideric Handel’s “Messiah” is timeless and the community is invited to a sing-along Sunday, Dec. 1. “We decided to try to revive it,” Bonnie Demerjian said of the community sing-along event. “We’re just going to sing along with the recording” of “Messiah” by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, she explained. “They’re our backup.” It’s “classical (music) karaoke.” It will be a much shorter version tha...
Hospice of Wrangell is planning its two biggest events of the year, including its only fundraiser of the year. The Dove Tree Ceremony is set for 2 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 26, in the Nolan Center lobby. The tree, decorated with paper doves in memory of those who have died, will remain up through the new year. The annual remembrance started more than 20 years ago. Volunteers will prepare a dove for each community member who died in the past year, and blank doves will be available for people to add their own remembrances. People can add a dove to the...
Wayne Johnson, the Georgia real estate developer who made a run earlier this year at buying the former Wrangell hospital property to build half-million-dollar condominiums, lost his bid for a U.S. House seat in his home state. Johnson, who pulled out of a deal with the borough in June, lost in the Nov. 5 election to 16-term U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop. As of Nov. 8, Johnson had 136,399 votes to 175,773 for Bishop. Johnson was endorsed by former president Donald Trump. It was the Republican’s second try at Congress. He failed to get past the R...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association is working with the borough to put together a commemoration and remembrance event for 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20, at the Nolan Center, marking the one-year anniversary of the deadly landslide that hit the community. More details about the remembrance and potluck will be announced this week. The slide started about 1,500 feet up the hillside the evening of Nov. 20, 2023, and flowed down the steep slope, destroying two homes at about 11.2-Mile Zimovia Highway and killing six people: Otto Florschutz, and Tim...
Wrangell Sentinel publisher Larry Persily is part of a new nonprofit, the Alaska News Coalition, which formed this summer to help newspapers around the state find ways to adapt and survive in the changing world of online media, digital delivery and tightening finances. “As the landscape for news and information continues to change and evolve, it’s imperative for the well-being of our communities that local newspapers in Alaska stay alive. The Alaska News Coalition is committed to bringing together news outlets from around the state to fig...
Wrangell resident Sandy Churchill was elected Alaska Native Sisterhood grand president for 2024-2025 Outgoing ANS Grand President Daphyne Alby and President Emeritus Millie Schoonover visited Wrangell to bestow the honors in ceremonies Oct. 24. Virginia Oliver was elected second grand vice president. Both are from Wrangell ANS Camp No. 1, where Churchill is president and Oliver is secretary. The Wrangell camps of ANS and the Alaska Native Brotherhood are scheduled to host the organization's...
Wrangell’s strong support for Republican Jeremy Bynum helped push him over the 50% threshold as the apparent winner for the state House seat to represent Wrangell, Ketchikan and Metlakatla. As of early Wednesday morning, across the district, Bynum had 3,153 votes, 51.57%, to Agnes Moran’s 1,503 votes, 24.58%, and Grant EchoHawk’s 1,448, 23.68%. Though there are still more absentee and early votes left to count, it does not appear they would change the outcome of the race. In Wrangell, Bynum had 424 to EchoHawk’s 144 and Moran’s 89. Bynum, a...
The state primary election is Tuesday, Nov. 5, but Wrangell voters who would rather cast their ballots early can come to City Hall between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. weekdays starting Monday, Oct. 21, through Monday, Nov. 4. Just walk back to the assembly chambers and, if the state elections staff does not recognize you, present a drivers license, voter ID card or other form of identification to get a ballot. On election day Nov. 5, the polling booths will be set up at the Nolan Center from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voters are reminded that state law prohibits...
The school board on Oct. 7 reelected Dave Wilson as president, defeating John DeRuyter in a 3-2 vote for the position. DeRuyter was elected vice president after board member Liz Roundtree nominated him for the position. Sophomore Kalee Herman will join the board as the student representative. The meeting was the first with newcomer Dan Powers in attendance. He replaced Brittani Robbins, who lost her reelection bid in the Oct. 1 municipal election. Along with Wilson, DeRuyter, Roundtree and Powers, the other school board member is Angela Allen,...
Voters by almost a 3-to-1 margin Tuesday approved a $3 million bond issue for repairs to the water-damaged Public Safety Building. Residents re-elected Patty Gilbert as mayor over challenger David Powell; re-elected incumbent school board member Angela Allen and elected newcomer Dan Powers over incumbent board member Brittani Robbins; and re-elected Chris Buness to the port commission along with newcomer Eric Yancey over challengers Antonio Silva and Tony Guggenbickler. Voters rejected a ballot proposition to amend the municipal charter, which...
Jim DeBord is running unopposed for election to a second consecutive three-year term on the borough assembly. He declined a Sentinel request for an interview. In addition to winning election to the assembly in 2021, DeBord served a one-year term 2018-2019....
Southeast Alaska subsistence users who want current information on sockeye escapement numbers, deer seasons and detailed maps now have a single website providing all the information. The U.S. Forest Service on Sept. 2 went live with its new subsistence dashboard. “This tool was created in response to feedback and requests by tribal organizations and subsistence users throughout Southeast Alaska,” Tongass Subsistence Program Manager Robert Cross said in a prepared statement. “We heard how difficult it was to find subsistence data and under...
Wrangell’s only home cross-country meet of the season, scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 31, was canceled the night before due to forecasts for heavy rain. Earlier on Friday, a tentative plan to run a boys 5K and a girls 5K at the same time as cross country was put in place, but eventually it was decided that even this would have been untenable in the weather. Head Coach Mason Villarma hopes to reschedule the cross-country meet later this season. The cross-country team will race next at the Craig Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 7...
A state geologist walking the landslide area on Sunday morning heard whimpering noises from a collapsed home. He called Ketchikan firefighters, who responded and pulled out two dogs from the debris, reuniting them with their owners. "After an emotional week of recovering from the aftermath of the Third Avenue landslide, Ketchikan - and most specifically, James and Bill Montiver - got some very good news," the city's emergency operations center announced on Sunday. "During the landslide the Monti...
