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The last ballots were cast and polls closed Tuesday evening on the 2017 municipal elections. Turnout was low in a relatively low-key election, with no ballot measures to consider and candidates running for six of the eight available seats uncontested. No letters of interest were put forward to be considered as a write-in candidate, and one unexpired term on the Wrangell Medical Center Board garnered no interest. The only race in contest was for an unexpired two-year term on the Public School...
Polling booths and complimentary cookies are being prepared for next week’s municipal elections, set for October 3 inside the Nolan Center from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Absentee voting has already been underway, and early ballots can still be submitted inside City Hall until 5 p.m. Monday. Most of the seats up for election have at least one candidate, with a two-year position on the Wrangell Medical Center Board attracting no interest. In the event it passes the election cycle unfilled, clerk Kim Lane explained the city will advertise for the position...
Students at Evergreen Elementary were invited to bring along their elders to school last week during a pair of events. Students of Mrs. Miller's third grade class headed to the museum inside the Nolan Center on September 12, tasked with an historical scavenger hunt. Grandparents and adoptive chaperones helped them navigate the displays, answering questions on different elements of local history. On the morning of September 15 the school opened its doors to other students' grandparents,...
A steering committee for a proposed memorial is seeking out public support for the project. A memorial dedicated to Wrangell's lost mariners has been a longstanding ambition for a number of residents. The current project took off over a decade ago, after a group of high school seniors worked on identifying a location and a design for a memorial. Their effort was prompted by the death of Ryan Miller, a local fisherman whose vessel capsized while in Clarence Strait back in 2005. Wrangell's Port Co...
For the first time, Wrangell will host the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska’s (CCTHITA) annual environmental conference. Hosted at the Nolan Center, the Southeast Environmental Conference will begin the afternoon of September 5, continuing through the middle of the 8th. Since its inception, the conference’s focus has been on building collaboration between the region’s tribes, corporations and other agencies. “This is something we have been doing since the early, mid-2000s,” said Ray Paddock, environmental coordinat...
More than just focusing on the local wildlife, Wrangell's annual Bearfest is also an opportunity to focus on the creative arts. Whether it is judging photographs and paintings at the Nolan Center, a "Bear-oque" classical concert and fundraiser lunch for the Wrangell Chorale, local girls playing their violins during the Saturday market, or judges selecting their favorite pies, there were varied ways last week to highlight the beauty and inspiration that comes from living in rural Alaska....
With activities for Alaska Bearfest 2017 already underway, running enthusiasts are gearing up for its finale on Sunday. This year’s Bearfest Marathon-1/2-5K will be featuring three separate but concurrently run events, with participants taking on either the five-kilometer (3.1 miles), 13.1-mile or 26.2-mile runs. The start time is at 8 a.m., outside the Nolan Center, but day-of registration opens up at 7 a.m. Becca Rice has been organizing this year’s event, which has been a component of Wrangell’s bear-related celebration for its past eight...
A full complement of events is being arranged for next week's Bearfest, the eighth held since the festival's inception. It was started in 2010 by Alaska Vistas operator Sylvia Ettefagh, in order to highlight Wrangell's robust bear population. One of the prime places to see the area's brown and black bears together in one place is at Anan Wildlife Observatory, a short jump south of the island on the mainland. Several thousand visitors come to the island each summer in order to visit the Forest...
The Nolan Center is giving inquisitive locals someplace quiet to research, with Wrangell Museum staff setting up a station inside its office. Speaking Tuesday, Nolan Center director Terri Henson said the nook is now open to the public. It includes a cozy desk, a laptop computer, bookshelves and filing cabinets. It was set up by museum staff, and makes it easier for people to access their still-expanding digitized collection. "What we did was created a little research center," Henson explained....
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...
The governing board for Southeast Alaska Power Agency has approved a draft for next year's budget, as well as a hefty rebate to its member communities' utilities. The decision was supported by a fair financial position for the agency, which supplies hydroelectric power to Ketchikan, Wrangell and Petersburg. In a meeting held at Wrangell's Nolan Center Tuesday afternoon, SEAPA chief executive Trey Acteson explained sales revenues had come in higher than expected. Power sales to Ketchikan, Wrangel...
John Buness holds up the 31.1 pound fish that won him the fourth and final weekly prize in Wrangell's King Salmon Derby. All wrapped up, the competition's award night is set for this evening at 6:30 p.m. in the Nolan Center, where over $30,000 in cash and prizes will be distributed. The year was one for the books, with the winning fish weighing in at over 64 pounds – the largest in 43 years and the first one over 60 pounds since 1986. The winner, Washington resident Gary Smart, has opted to d...
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...
At last week's meeting of the Borough Assembly, members were asked to reconsider city ordinances banning the use and sale of a variety of explosive projectiles on and around the island. Resident Marilyn Mork came forward during the meeting's "persons to be heard" segment, and expressed an interest in allowing at least a temporary lightening of Chapter 9.12 in the Code, which deals with fireworks. Because of the Chamber of Commerce's announcement last month that the July 4 fireworks display is...
Wrangell Medical Center is gearing up for its 10th annual golf tournament and fundraiser dinner, proceeds from which will go toward several initiatives of its Foundation. Coupled with Saturday’s banquet and auction, the Brian Gilbert Memorial Golf Tournament is one of the biggest drives benefiting the WMC Foundation each year, with the weekend last year raising just under $30,000. The Foundation is the hospital’s philanthropic arm and in the past such weekends have supported two of the Foundation’s ongoing initiatives. One of these is its cance...
The next step in a five-year utility improvement process is wrapping up on Church Street. Work on Church Street’s power infrastructure is about one-third of the way through, Wrangell Municipal Light and Power superintendent Clay Hammer reported. “It’s the tough third,” Hammer added, serving the library and post office, as well as feeding much of the residences up the hill from them. Over the weekend the city collaborated with telecoms provider GCI to reroute the last of its cables on the street underground. The weighty cables have built u...
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...
Nolan John Charles Johnson was born to Dustin and Devyn Johnson on Jan. 13, 2017, at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. He weighed 7 lbs. 11 oz. and measured 18 ¼ inches in length. Maternal grandparents are John Moody and Shannon Phillips. Paternal grandparents are Harley and Lana Johnson. Nolan joins his brother Jude....
Mike Lockabey directs people's attention to Saturday night's auction items at the Nolan Center. Raising money for Ducks Unlimited, the annual banquet and auction collected about $20,000 in all. "It was a very good dinner and it was successful," reported Wrangell chapter president Keene Kohrt. After expenses, he estimated $9,000 would go to the national organization, which works to restore wetlands around the country and advocate for their conservation. Important habitat to ducks, geese and...
Wrapping up the spring Chautauqua season at the Nolan Center this year, a Wrangell school senior presented the findings by her classmates and herself mapping the movements of Shakes Glacier. Located about 30 miles northeast of Wrangell up the Stikine River, the glacier is an oft-visited site by residents and visitors touring the river system. Its meltoff feeding into Shakes Lake, the glacier is part of the wider Stikine Ice Field, of which LeConte Glacier is included. Reyn Hutten this year was...
The schedule of events for the 20th annual Stikine River Birding Festival has been put out. Running from April 27 to 30 this year, the annual festival brings in ornithologists and bird fanciers from all over to appreciate the varied avian life living on and around the Stikine River. Kicking off Thursday, April 27, people can brush up on their observation skills in a Birding 101 crash course, held at the Nolan Center at 6 p.m. An hour afterward, some short films on transboundary water issues will be hosted by Southeast Alaska Conservation...
Another year's Tent City Days wrapped up over the weekend, culminating in a post-roller derby party out on the town late Saturday. "It went pretty good," said Kelly Gunderson, who helped organize this year's events. "Especially with the derby girls." The Garnet Grit Betties hosted a special bout for the event. Twenty-eight women donned pads and skates and took to a converted track at the high school gym Saturday afternoon. Coming from six different communities, they formed two "mash-up" rosters...
This year's annual Tent City Days celebration will start tomorrow, opening up with the dog show at 5 p.m. Celebrating the town of Wrangell's rustic beginnings, the annual late-winter festivity was held a bit later than usual this year due to scheduling conflicts. "I ain't competing with the Super Bowl," event organizer Kelly Gunderson joked. Involved with the festival in past years, she took organization of the celebration off the hands of Penny Allen, who in recent years has been working to...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Tuesday its schedule of public meetings for the commercial troll fishery around Southeast Alaska and Yakutat. Wrangell’s will be held on Wednesday, April 12, inside the Nolan Center classroom at 6 p.m. Other town dates and times will be: Sitka – Monday, April 10, NSRAA conference room at 2:00 p.m. Ketchikan – Tuesday, April 11, Fish and Game conference room at 5:30 p.m. Petersburg – Wednesday, April 12, Assembly chambers at 12:30 p.m. Juneau – Thursday, April 13, ADFG Headquarters Caribou C...
