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Borough assembly members voted without objection to sell six lots totaling 1.3 acres behind the old hospital building to a Wasilla developer who wants to build 16 rental units on the property. The sale will include the requirement that the developer construct the housing units within three years. In addition, the property will need to be rezoned for multi-family residential - which will require public hearings - and the developer will need to submit detailed plans to the borough before any...
A Wasilla-based rental property owner wants to build 16 units on 1.3 acres of borough-owned land behind the old hospital building. The developer, Jiaying Lu, has applied to purchase the six vacant lots, which were last appraised at $316,000. The assembly will hold a public hearing on the land sale during its May 13 meeting at City Hall. The planning and zoning commission on April 10 unanimously recommended approval of the sale. Lu proposes to build four fourplexes on the property. She said she does not yet have a construction estimate for the...
Spring started a month ago, but better to wait until any remaining snow is gone and the temperatures are a little warmer before embarking on Wrangell’s annual community cleanup. The cleanup event is set for 8:30 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 19, with crews collecting their gear and heading out from the Evergreen Elementary School parking lot. “People come in and get bags to collect trash at the place of their choice,” said one of the volunteer organizers, Paula Rak, who has been helping with the community cleanup the past 40 years. The organ...
Starting next week, SEARHC patients will be able to schedule appointments, message their medical team, renew prescriptions, check lab results and more, all through a new online portal. The online service is optional, and there is no charge. “We’re really excited about the MySEARHC portal,” said Dr. Cate Buley, SEARHC’s chief medical officer. “It’s really a step up.” It will be available to patients in every Southeast community served by SEARHC. Outreach to publicize the new service will start Saturday, March 29, Buley said. Everyone who has a c...
No one expects a totally life-changing event on any given day. That’s the reason the SEARHC transitional-care team wants people to know about their services before they need them. Marin Donovan, southern regional director of rehabilitation services for Craig, Wrangell and Sitka, explains that their program is the kind of thing people don’t know about until they need it, but when they need it, everything that is happening can be overwhelming. It’s about education and advocacy skills, providing information and resources, in anticipation of a futu...
Vaccinations successfully guarded children from pertussis, a respiratory disease also known as whooping cough, during last year’s spike in cases of the disease in Alaska, a new state report says. Unvaccinated children were more than 13 times as likely as vaccinated children to get the disease during the outbreak, according to a bulletin released by the Alaska Division of Public Health’s epidemiology section. There were more confirmed cases of pertussis in Alaska last year — over 500 — than in all the years from 2016 to 2023 combined, accordi...
Though February is the shortest month of the year, there still is plenty of time to get your fingers working at the keyboard — or thumbs on your smartphone — to help guide decisions that will affect the town’s economy, health and children’s fun in the years ahead. It’s as if someone proclaimed February as Community Survey Month. But that’s OK. Better that people have an opportunity to share their opinions before decisions are made than being left behind to complain after the decision making is finished. And it’s a triple header of opportunit...
Facing steep growth in demand, constant turnover and employee retirements, Alaska’s health care industry has a staggering need for workers, a new report says. “To meet those variables, we have to find over 9,400 new health care workers every single year,” Jared Kosin, executive director of the Alaska Hospital and Healthcare Association, said last month. The numbers Kosin presented at the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce meeting on Jan. 27 were from his association’s newly released analysis of Alaska’s health care workforce. The report, by Juneau-b...
Input from the community today has the potential to shape the services that can help, support and connect families with newborns and toddlers to a broader range of local resources starting in 2026. SEARHC is engaging in an assessment, survey and planning period to broaden services for families, particularly those with newborns and toddlers, through a grant to establish a Healthy Families Early Start program for communities in Southeast. Kari Johnson, the community wellness manager for SEARHC, is encouraging anyone with children, planning to...
There's a New Mexican spot in town. Nope, not a new Mexican spot, a New Mexican spot. The Wolf Shack, formerly J&W's, officially opened its doors on Jan. 2, ushering in a new era bolstered by the culinary talents of Alisha Mora and Chris Miera. The couple will keep the classic J&W's staples on the menu (Carol Churchill has agreed to keep making her tartar sauce while menu items like "Baby Randy" and "Randy" will maintain their names), but Chris and Alisha are excited to add some New Mexican...
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 ca...
For about half the average price of a home in Seattle, you could buy Wrangell’s former hospital property. The borough assembly passed a resolution on Nov. 18, dropping the price of the property from its appraised value of $830,000 to a new asking price of $498,000, pretty close to the reduced price of $470,000 the borough advertised in 2022. The property, which has been vacant since SEARHC moved out in 2021, currently sits empty. It costs the borough several tens of thousands of dollars a year to insure and maintain the building against d...
It's been 10 years since the community saw the map of a proposed new access route to the Mount Dewey Trail and its viewing platform for a scenic look at the town and harbor below. The wait ended with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new trailhead parking lot on Thursday, Nov. 14. "It's heavily used already," Amber Al-Haddad, the borough's capital projects director, said a few hours before the official opening. The trail runs from Bennett Street, starting at the new parking area on the road to th...
As another dark winter season in Southeast Alaska approaches, developing healthy sleep habits can improve overall well-being, from creating a calming bedtime routine to tackling sleep disorders like insomnia and sleep apnea. Internal medicine physician Dr. Guillermo E. Espinoza, who has worked for SEARHC since 2017, specializes in sleep study at the Mount Edgecumbe Medical Center in Sitka. Starting about three years ago, he began focusing on developing a practice for weight management. “(There’s) a lot of overlap between obesity and obs...
The deadline is approaching to sign up for federally subsidized health insurance in 2025 through the Affordable Care Act, now in its 15th year. SEARHC — just as it has done for the past decade — is offering free assistance for Southeast Alaska residents who need help navigating the online marketplace to choose the best coverage for themselves and family members. And even though tribal members receive free health care services at SEARHC through Indian Health Service funding, they can benefit from the additional coverage provided by an ins...
SEARHC has organized its annual wellness fair for Saturday morning, Oct. 19, and medical care will not be limited to just people. The Teddy Bear Clinic will be open for children to bring in their favorite plush animals. Health care professionals will guide kids to check out their own animals, using a stethoscope to listen to the heartbeat and breathing, a blood pressure cuff and thermometer. It’s an opportunity to get children familiar with checkup procedures and instruments, getting them to feel more comfortable for when they are the p...
COMMUNITY CHORALE REHEARSALS 5:15 to 6:45 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17, at the high school music room for the Christmas concert. Use the back entrance. All singers are welcome. Regular rehearsals will be on Mondays starting the following week. Contact Bonnie at 907-796-9632 or bonniede@aptalaska.net for more information. FALL STORYTIME for children 10 to 11 a.m. Fridays at the Irene Ingle Public Library. Stories, crafts and snacks. This week’s theme is Alaska Day, the anniversary of the transfer of the territory of Alaska from Russia to the United S...
The borough wants a data center to plug into Wrangell. Better yet, it could even move into the unused formal hospital property. Data centers are large hosting sites for multiple servers that provide computing power and storage for cloud-based service providers. While at Southeast Conference, held in Ketchikan last month, borough representatives spoke with Sam Enoka, founder and CEO of Greensparc — a San Francisco-based technology company that specializes in setting up modular, small-scale data centers for cloud computing. Enoka grew up a...
FALL STORYTIME for children 10 to 11 a.m. Fridays at the Irene Ingle Public Library. Stories, crafts and snacks. This week’s theme is pumpkin pals. HAUNTED HOUSE 7 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 11-12, at the community center. All proceeds will go to The Salvation Army’s youth program. If you can help as a scare actor or help with setup, contact Damon Roher at 907-305-0844. TECH SAVVY SENIORS 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Oct. 12, at the Irene Ingle Public Library. High school student government volunteers will help senior citizens with tec...
NOLAN CENTER THEATER “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” rated PG-13, at 6 p.m. Friday, 6 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 4-6. The dark comedy fantasy horror film runs 1 hour and 45 minutes; tickets are $7 for adults, $5 for children under age 12. Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. COMMUNITY MARKET from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 5, at the Nolan Center. Check out the locally grown and handcrafted item. FALL STORYTIME for children 10 to 11 a.m. Fridays at the Irene Ingle Public Library. Stories, crafts and snacks. This wee...
Chris Buness, who is finishing up her first term on the port commission, is running for reelection to another three-year term. One thing she would like the commission to take on is an in-depth review of every provision in the municipal code governing the port and harbors. "Some sections need a deep dive" and some are out of date, she said. A thorough review could answer the question for every section of the code: "Does this still make sense for doing it this way in Wrangell." It's all about...
State health officials have recorded 234 cases this year of whooping cough — also known as pertussis — through Sept. 9, more than were reported over the past seven years combined. About three-quarters of this year’s cases came in the past three months. Of the statewide total, SEARHC reports 11 in Southeast from June through early September, Lyndsey Y. Schaefer, communications director for the health care provider, said in an emailed statement Sept. 12. Privacy rules prevent SEARHC from disclosing the communities with whooping cough cases...
STATE PUBLIC HEALTH NURSE will be in Wrangell on Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 18-19, and will see clients in the clinic and conduct hearing and vision screenings at Head Start and the elementary school. Immunizations, birth control and STD screening, well-child exams for kids up to age 7, TB screening and medication, Narcan kits and medication disposal bags will be offered. The Public Health Center is in the Kadin Building, 215 Front St. Call 907-723-4611 to make an appointment. RECYCLE SALE FUNDRAISER for St. Frances Animal Rescue and BRAVE a...
Bob Dalrymple likes what the borough has managed to get done the past few years, particularly its focus on maintenance of public facilities and developing new capital projects, such as winning a federal grant to rebuild the downtown harbor floats. "I'd like to keep up with that momentum," said Dalrymple, who is running unopposed for a second three-year term on the assembly. "There are some real challenges coming up." He lists among the challenges finding a way to dispose of the former hospital...