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The borough’s continuing work on its downtown waterfront master plan is ramping up after the community’s nearly 50-year-old freight barge landing was shut down. The assembly will hold a work session on the master plan at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 13, at the Nolan Center. The barge ramp, next to the City Dock, was closed down in mid-March after an engineering report detailed structural and safety concerns about the steel bridge and other components. The closure has prompted the borough to accelerate its quest for a permanent solution. The freight comp...
Starting July 1, residents and businesses will be charged higher rates for water and sewer services and trash pickup. Moorage fees and other rates at the port and harbors also will go up. The utility rate increases will be small, adding up to just under $10 a month for a residential account at the minimum level of water use and garbage pickup. The borough assembly adopted the annual rate and fee schedule unanimously at its April 22 meeting. The monthly base rate for residential or commercial metered water service will increase 10%, from $45.61...
It’s been seven weeks since the borough manager ordered a closure of the town’s nearly 50-year-old barge ramp over structural and safety concerns. Any answer to the community’s needs for a dependable facility for the essential weekly freight barges is a long way off — at a cost of millions of dollars. Possible options include repairing the existing 140-foot-long steel ramp that floats with the tides; scrapping it and getting a new one built for the same downtown location; creating an expanded fill area next to the Marine Service Center and buil...
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has long struggled to compete with corporate America to recruit tech workers to maintain the complicated computer systems that track the federally regulated seafood harvests off Alaska. These chronic staffing shortages at NOAA Fisheries' Alaska Region have been greatly exacerbated by the Trump administration's efforts to cut the federal workforce. As of mid-March, the Alaska Region had 29% of its staffing positions vacant, and the Information... Full story
A two-lane bypass around the Wolfe Point landslide area on the North Tongass Highway in Ketchikan opened last week for traffic to move in both directions. The gravel-surface bypass will remain the only route around the slide “until the stabilization project and full roadway repairs are completed,” according to a March 26 announcement from the Ketchikan Emergency Operations Center. The bypass was built as a temporary roadway for traffic after the March 20 slide of rocks, trees and debris blocked the highway and cut the town into two disconnected...
The chamber of commerce is surveying its more than 100 members to ask where they think the town’s barge ramp and freight yard should be located. The borough earlier this month closed down the facility on the downtown waterfront after an engineering report cited structural issues with the 47-year-old, 140-foot-long steel ramp. Even before the shutdown decision, the borough has been looking at moving the freight loading and unloading facility and staging area to the former 6-Mile mill property, which the borough purchased for $2.5 million in 2...
Confronted with an engineering report that cited “concern for potential failure of the ramp,” the borough on Thursday evening, March 13, notified freight haulers that the municipally owned barge ramp downtown was closed, immediately. The borough made arrangements for the weekly freight barge to use the old sawmill dock at the Marine Service Center as a temporary unloading and loading site, Borough Manager Mason Villarma said Friday, March 14. “This should have happened some time ago,” he said of shutting down the 47-year-old steel ramp which s...
After Spicy Lady, a Petersburg-based crabbing vessel, caught fire on March 6, the Wrangell Volunteer Fire Department arrived on the scene to cool things down. The fire department received a distress call at 2:32 p.m. informing them of the boat fire. At the time of the call, the 58-foot steel hulled Spicy Lady was near Point Gardner at the southern tip of Admiralty Island. After a 100-mile floatplane trip, Wrangell firefighters met up with the Spicy Lady a few miles from Point Gardner, in Warm...
Don't try and put Johnny Allen in a box, even if it's one he welded himself. Allen, a senior at Wrangell High School, is upfront about his values. He gets up early, works hard, doesn't complain and quietly goes about his business. He finds joy, not just reward, in work that other people might only see as tedious, something that shines through in his choice for a senior project. For that, Allen has taken it upon himself to freshen up the whale mural outside the Stikine Inn. The painted mural is...
Keaton Gadd knows who he is. He knows what he likes, he knows what he doesn't. He knows what motivates him and he knows what scares him (planes). Gadd is direct. He speaks in short, swift sentences - not due to a limited vocabulary, but because of an involuntary compulsion for his speech to match his thinking: undeviating and without waste. "I like being pretty straightforward, just doing what it takes," he said. "No extra steps." For his senior project, Gadd is doing something that matches...
Alaskans were among the hundreds of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employees who began receiving firing notices last week, a blow to an agency that provides everything from weather forecasts to fisheries management to cutting-edge climate science in Alaska. The cuts - part of a broader effort by the administration of President Donald Trump to drastically slash the federal workforce - came after other agencies, including the National Park Service, had abruptly fired probationary...
PIANO TUNING Piano tuner from Corvine Piano Care plans a March visit if there are enough pianos to be serviced. Contact Alice Rooney at 907-305-0007 to be put on the work list. JOB ANNOUCEMENT Superior Marine Services, a shipyard in Wrangell, is looking for a full-time experienced bookkeeper/office manager. Required skills: QuickBooks online, bookkeeping, Microsoft Office Excel and Word. Duties include but are not limited to: Answering phones, coordinating with owner to schedule appointments, accounts payable, accounts receivable, daily... Full story
PIANO TUNING Piano tuner from Corvine Piano Care plans a March visit if there are enough pianos to be serviced. Contact Alice Rooney at 907-305-0007 to be put on the work list. FUNDRAISER Fundraiser for Tasha Toombs Peterman. Hand-woven cedar bark hat by Clara Haily. Tickets are on sale through Thursday, Feb. 13. Sellers are Clara Haley, Fern Seimears and Lynn Allen, available at Raymes. Call Clara at 907-305-0874. JOB ANNOUCEMENT Wrangell Public Schools is accepting applications for the 2024-2025 School Year: - Paraprofessional: This is a... Full story
PIANO TUNING Piano tuner from Corvine Piano Care plans a March visit if there are enough pianos to be serviced. Contact Alice Rooney at 907-305-0007 to be put on the work list. FUNDRAISER Fundraiser for Tasha Toombs Peterman. Hand-woven cedar bark hat by Clara Haily. Tickets are on sale through Feb. 13. Sellers are Clara Haley, Fern Seimears and Lynn Allen, available at Raymes. Call Clara at 907-305-0874. HOME FOR SALE Spacious 2-bedroom, 1½-bath, fully furnished 1,695-square-foot home near the airport, with 1-car garage, RV parking, gated back... Full story
PIANO TUNING Piano tuner from Corvine Piano Care plans a March visit if there are enough pianos to be serviced. Contact Alice Rooney at 907-305-0007 to be put on the work list. FUNDRAISER Fundraiser for Tasha Toombs Peterman. Hand-woven cedar bark hat by Clara Haily. Tickets are on sale through Feb. 13. Sellers are Clara Haley Fern Seimears and Lynn Allen, at Raymes. Call Clara at 907-305-0874. HOME FOR SALE Spacious 2-bedroom, 1½-bathroom, fully furnished 1,695-square-foot home near the airport, with 1-car garage, RV parking, gated backyard,... Full story
PIANO TUNING Piano tuner from Corvine Piano Carew plans a March visit if there are enough pianos to be serviced. Contact Alice Rooney at 907-305-0007 to be put on the work list. HOME FOR SALE Spacious 2-bedroom, 1½-bathroom, fully furnished 1,695-square-foot home near the airport, with 1-car garage, RV parking, gated backyard, handicap-accessible ramp. Lot size is 7,485 square feet. $450K Call 907-874-3783. JOB ANNOUCEMENT Superior Marine Services, a shipyard in Wrangell, is looking for a full-time experienced Bookkeeper/Office Manager.... Full story
The 18-year-old Marine Service Center, a mainstay of Wrangell’s waterfront economy, collects enough money in fees to cover its expenses — but there is nothing set aside to replace equipment, such as the boatlifts and hydraulic trailer that are essential to the operation. A 2022 economic analysis pointed out that if equipment replacement and other capital expenses were included in the math, the borough loses money on the service center. The port commission has started discussing possible rate increases to ensure there is sufficient money in a r...
It took three rounds of bidding but the borough is on its way to installing a new, 300-foot-long float system at Meyers Chuck. The assembly last month awarded a $445,000 contract to Bellingham Marine Industries for the Washington state contractor to construct the 10-foot-wide wooden-decked floats, gangway and connection to the existing seaplane float in Meyers Chuck. The work includes building and shipping everything to Wrangell, where the 50-foot-long sections will be stored at the Marine Service Center until a separate contract is issued...
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... Full story
Port commission candidate Eric Yancey would like to see a second boat launch ramp constructed at Heritage Harbor, "right alongside the one that is there." The ramp can get busy and backed up, he said. "One thing would be nice during the summer over at Heritage ... a second boat launch." The 20-year-old harbor has a large parking area and is popular with people who trailer their boats in and out of the water. It's much closer to town than the launch ramp at Shoemaker. Another pinch point for...
Antonio Silva is running for port commission - his first try at public office - and says he looks forward to representing the next generation of fishermen. "We have a great younger fleet of fishermen here. It would be awesome to keep that fleet here," said the 38-year-old candidate. While appreciative of all the successful work by past and present port commissioners, Silva said, "it's important to have someone younger" representing the next generation of the fleet on the commission. He is one...
Tony Guggenbickler has owned seven boats and spent time in harbors from Seward on Alaska's Prince William Sound to Puerto Vallarta on Mexico's west coast over the past 60 years. He retired from commercial fishing earlier this year and said he now has time to serve on the port commission. He is not completely out of the water. He has a small boat for sportfishing. "That is going to help out with the crab salad and help keep the smokehouse going," he quipped. Almost as long as he fished for...
The borough’s Economic Development Department has a caffeinated idea to energize the community’s push for economic stability and, in time, some growth would be good, too. The plan is for a series of “economic coffee chats” the third Friday of every month through March, starting Oct. 18. The location will vary each month. The department is calling the informal sessions “Our Town, Our Future.” It’s a good time to talk about a better future. Wrangell needs some new ideas to reverse years of population loss. Even worse, the state’s latest forecast...
Separate from the borough general fund that pays for police, the local contribution for schools, the Nolan Center, recreation programs and other public services, the borough maintains three accounts dedicated to industrial and residential development. The combined balance of the three accounts could total about $2.3 million by the end of the fiscal year next June 30, assuming expenses and planned land sale revenues come in as expected. All three funds date back to the 1990s and are focused on making borough property available for private develo...
The Aug. 20 primary election for the state House district that covers Wrangell is a preview of the Nov. 5 general election. All three primary election candidates to succeed Rep. Dan Ortiz in representing Ketchikan, Metlakatla and Wrangell in the House will advance to the November round under Alaska’s voting system that sends up to the top four primary finishers to the general election. Competing for the seat are Jeremy Bynum, a Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly member and Ketchikan Public Utilities electric manager; Grant EchoHawk, also a m...