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By popular demand, the Chamber of Commerce will be bringing the holiday spirit back to Wrangell's shores next week with its annual boat parade. Once a tradition every Christmas season, mariners of every stripe would string up lights and decorations on their vessels for a floating parade. The event started with physician Wayne "Doc" Davenport, who arrived to the island to practice medicine during the mid-1970s. Just before the holiday he would decorate his boat, and had afterward encouraged...
Sales tax data made available this month suggest a slight dip in local consumer spending. The news comes at a time when the region's economy appears to be fragile. Earlier this fall, Southeast Conference released its annual By the Numbers economic report, which found 2016 to have been the first time since 2007 that jobs and earnings were both down from the previous year. The labor force had declined by 434 net jobs, bringing the total number of positions to 45,260 regionally. The dip...
Wrangell delegates returned from last month's annual conference for the Alaska Federation of Natives at Anchorage's Dena'ina Center. AFN is the largest statewide Native organization in Alaska, representing 151 federally recognized tribes, 150 village corporations, 12 regional corporations, and various nonprofit and tribal consortiums. Its annual October conference, this year held between the 19th and 21st, provides AFN membership the opportunity to put forward resolutions as well as to discuss...
Wrangell Public School District has been trying something new for lunch this year, enlisting local kitchens to keep students at the middle and high schools fed. Five private food services have staked out days of the week to provide meals: J&W's Fast Foods, the delis at Bobs' IGA and City Market, Notsofamous Pizza, and the Stikine Restaurant. Secondary schools principal Bill Schwan explained the arrangement had developed in response to an in-house menu attempted last year. At the end of the...
October 4, 1917: War was declared on Wrangell Saturday night by Oscar Weston, who, after mixing drinks too freely, became enraged over imaginary offenses. Weston went aboard a gas boat tied to the slip of the Columbia and Northern dock and opened fire on the town with a 280 Ross high power rifle. Fortunately he aimed a little too high to do any harm, but the whistling of bullets overhead was not very welcome music. The officers, knowing that Weston was insane for the time being, and wishing to take him alive, permitted Charlie Olesen, who knew...
September 27, 1917: Charles Hawkesworth, superintendent of the Indian schools, was in Wrangell Saturday. He was present at the opening of the Native school at Hydaburg, which is in charge of J. P. Wells, a school man who comes from southern Oregon where he was school superintendent for nine years. The school at Klawock opened with Prof. C. E. Hibbs in charge. His three assistants are Miss Orr, Miss Sullivan, and Miss Maloney. The school at Metlakatla will open October 1. Regarding the Wrangell Native school Mr. Hawkesworth said: “The school h...
Running for unexpired two-year term on Public School Board Age: 55 About: "I've been in healthcare the past almost 30 years, and on the leadership side almost 20 of that. I've been serving on several boards, between the Chamber (of Commerce), School Board, and a number of small community boards in the past." Why do you want to serve on the School Board? "Just like health care, the school system is very crucial for the community. And with my leadership background and my experience working with...
Before summer gives way to autumn, several Wrangell business owners decided to have one more hurrah downtown with food and live music. Set for Sunday afternoon, "Warm August Nights" was thought up by Heidi Milazzo, Clay Culbert, Lucy Robinson, Brooke Leslie and Brenda Schwartz-Yeager. "All of us have been working on it together," said Milazzo. "We just wanted to have a fun family event." Culbert pointed out the lull in local activities around August, with not much by way of entertainment...
On Monday evening more than a month of hard work for two of Wrangell's July 4 Royalty candidates came to an end, with the year's queen and princess each crowned. Future high school senior Charley Seddon was crowned queen, after selling 46,463 tickets during the month of June. Named the celebration's princess, recent Wrangell High School graduate Hailie Davis sold 44,330. A tight race throughout, together the girls raised over $90,000 for the competition. A longstanding tradition for the town's I...
An updated schedule for next month's Independence Day festivities was put out this week by Wrangell's Chamber of Commerce. The big change in this year's lineup will be the return of boat racing, after a dry spell of nearly three decades. Heading up the organization of that effort were Penny Allen and Clay Hammer, who with Jay Einert and John Waddington figured out what needed to be done to get the event back into the water. Routes have been plotted out, rules drawn up and insurance secured for...
Candidates for Wrangell's annual Fourth of July Royalty Competition kicked off proceedings in an evening event at the Elks last week. Members of the Chamber of Commerce put together the May 31 presentation, catered by the lodge and which saw remarks from organizers and the competitors themselves, recent graduate Hailie Davis and incoming high school senior Charley Seddon. The contest is a big fundraiser held to support July 4 festivities and to benefit the youth who are involved. "It started as...
The competition has really been stepped up in this year's King Salmon Derby. A 64.1 pound fish was brought to the scales on May 24 by Gary Smart of Sequim, Washington. He and his wife were here visiting family friends for a few weeks, and he was on board the Rowland family's boat when the catch occurred. James Rowland explained his party of four had been fishing south of Wrangell that morning, near Found Island. The trip was one of a series since the arrival of Smart and Rowland's uncle on May...
A new borough manager for Wrangell will be arriving in the middle of July. Lisa Von Bargen was selected from a pool of candidates by the City and Borough Assembly earlier in April, finally hired following several weeks of negotiations over terms. She has been the director for community and economic development in Valdez since 2001, and has worked for the city’s Chamber of Commerce and its Convention and Visitors Bureau prior to that. “I was born in Anchorage. My father was transferred to Valdez when I was eight,” Von Bargen explained. Graduatin...
Culminating Wrangell’s Independence Day celebrations each summer, this year the fireworks show will be rescheduled to the night of July 3. The Wrangell Chamber of Commerce made the announcement after consulting with Wrangell Volunteer Fire Department, which conducts the pyrotechnics. The department has long supported the explosive display, with volunteers donating time to make sure it goes off safely. Work has to be done the day of the display for safety reasons, and those putting it together are busy for 11 or 12 hours. “Since the pyr...
With the department heads scrambling to prepare budgets before the month’s end, rate discussions and spending plans seemed inevitable at the City and Borough Assembly’s Tuesday evening meeting. High up on its agenda was a continued discussion of the city’s residential and commercial water rates, which have lagged well behind covering costs. In light of looming supply problems (see water plant story), significant capital investments ahead for a new plant, and prospective development at the Institute and former mill sites, every penny count...
A pair of high schoolers announced plans to run for the crown in this year's Fourth of July Royalty competition. Each spring the competition raises funds for Wrangell's Independence Day celebrations, with candidates holding fundraisers and selling tickets. Last year's competition between Kyla Teat and Alex Angerman broke records, with the pair selling 126,408 tickets. Thirty percent of what contestants raise goes back to them as a scholarship, helping to pay for college or some other form of...
May 19, 1917: Miss Mary Louise Bihler, teacher of primary department of the Wrangell public school, gave an exhibit of the children’s work in her room last Friday afternoon. The four walls of the room were covered with written exercises, drawings, free hand cuttings, tablemats, caps, and various other articles made by the children. A number of miniature hammocks made by the different pupils were all so nearly alike, and the weaving so perfectly done, that they looked more like a factory product than the work of school children. May 22, 1942: T...
The month-long King Salmon Derby will get to a start on Saturday, the 65th in Wrangell's long-running competition. Wrangell's annual derby is organized by the Chamber of Commerce, and during its month long run draws close to 1,000 participants. Last year's grand prize winner was Malia McIntyre, who brought in a 46.7 pound king salmon toward the end of the derby. As with last year, first prize for 2017 will yield a $6,000 jackpot. Additional prizes for second through fourth place are $4,000,...
Wrangell's elementary school gardening program is getting its future greenhouse off the ground, hoping to have it ready before next year's growing season. E.A.T.S. Garden program coordinator Jenn Miller explained the new greenhouse will be bigger and more efficient than the school's old one, a longstanding structure that has seen better days and is now being used primarily for storage. The high school construction class last year assembled the structure's framing, and this year a group of...
With the arrival of the Wilderness Adventurer on Tuesday, a sunnier outlook for the local economy breaks the clouds of Wrangell's off-season. The 160-foot vessel is operated by UnCruise Adventures in Seattle, and can carry up to 60 passengers. Early in the season, on Tuesday it was carrying 28 en route to Juneau. According to the latest cruise ship schedule, Adventurer will only be making the one stop into Wrangell this season, but its larger sister vessels Wilderness Explorer and Wilderness...
The allotted 90 days of the Alaska Legislature’s 30th session has passed by with two leading bills on the coming year’s budget still awaiting reconciliation. The House last week passed a version of Senate Bill 26, which among other things allots 75 percent of Permanent Fund earnings to the state’s operating funds and ties earning computations to a market value model. The House version differed from that initially put forward by the Senate, notably eliminating an appropriation limit of $4.1 billion and reducing the draw from the earnings reser...
A public meet and greet has been scheduled for next week to allow residents the opportunity to see the front-running candidates for city manager. Candidates Gene Green and Lisa Von Bargen will be coming here for in-person interviews with the Borough Assembly on April 5, an executive session which will be closed to the public. Following that, at 6 p.m. at the Stikine Inn an open event is planned to include interested residents, complete with light refreshments. The candidates were selected during a second round of searching, in the effort to...
Wrangell’s City and Borough Assembly interviewed a pair of top candidates to replace the city manager next month. Jeff Jabusch announced his plans to retire last September, after serving as manager for nearly four years. He will be finished at City Hall on March 31, after which economic director Carol Rushmore will step in as interim manager until the transition is completed. Steps to hunt down a replacement for Jabusch were taken shortly after his announcement, and a months-long interview process yielded four candidates by mid-February. Three...
