Sorted by date Results 201 - 225 of 10681
This year's girls high school basketball team has had quite a roller coaster of a season. Some days they're unstoppable, and opponents have no answer for the sharpshooting acumen of Christina Johnson or the post-presence of Alana Harrison and Alexis Easterly. On other days, the offense falls flat and the shots simply fail to fall. In their two-game homestand against Petersburg on Feb. 21-22, the Wrangell homecoming crowd witnessed the full spectrum of the girls basketball team. They fell on...
Toward the end of the first millennium, Vikings were known for their effectiveness as a warrior culture. Their intention was not to win land but instead to pillage and plunder, seizing all the resources they could glean from enemy villages. When Petersburg stepped off their boat to play in Wrangell last weekend, one can only imagine this is how they wanted the two-game away trip to go, a reflection of the tired tropes of their mascot: Get off the boat, win a couple of battles (games), hop back o...
Seven employees of the U.S. Forest Service Wrangell Ranger District were fired last week - more than one-quarter of the district's permanent staffing - as the Trump administration continues to slash the federal workforce. Further terminations in Wrangell are anticipated. In response to the terminations and uncertainty over who's next, community members organized a walk in solidarity with Forest Service employees last Friday. About 30 to 40 people showed up to support the fired workers. They...
The Alaska Marine Highway System has decided to cancel plans to replace the controllable-pitch propellers aboard the state ferry Columbia next year, opting to keep the 52-year-old ship in service until a replacement vessel is built. The propulsion system project was estimated in 2022 to cost as much as $20 million. The Columbia, the largest vessel in the fleet, serves the ferry system’s longest and most heavily traveled route between Bellingham, Washington, and Southeast Alaska. It had been scheduled to head into a shipyard for much of next y...
Tidal Network is scheduled to break ground for construction of its first permanent wireless internet tower on Feb. 19. Tidal Network is the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida’s broadband internet service company. After receiving a $50 million federal grant to construct 20 towers across Southeast, the company pinpointed Wrangell as the host site for its first tower. The ceremony is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the 3-Mile location where the tower will be constructed. The “groundbreaking” ceremony will be mostly symbolic: Tidal Network offic...
The Wrangell Sentinel has a new front-page masthead and logo, honoring the history and culture of the Tlingit people. The new logo incorporates a representation of the Bear Up The Mountain Totem, with permission of the Naanya.aayi' clan. The new artwork replaces a different totem that had been part of the Sentinel for more than 50 years until last fall when it was deleted from the newspaper logo at the request of the clan. Bear Up The Mountain tells the story of how a bear led villagers up a...
Feb. 19, 1925 During the past week there has been a stream of halibut boats putting into Wrangell for herring for bait. Ten days ago it was reported that the local cold storage plant had the only supply of bait in Southeast Alaska. Later herring was obtainable at Ketchikan and Sitka. A supply of herring was sent to Juneau from Wrangell on the Alameda. Feb. 17, 1950 An encouraging note this week is the quarterly report of sales tax collections for the quarter ended Dec. 31. Although down a little from the first quarter, which included the summer...
CLIMATE SOLUTIONS EXHIBIT from the University Corporation for Science Education (a nonprofit of more than 130 North American colleges and universities) will be at the Nolan Center lobby through Feb. 28. No admission fee to see the exhibit. The center is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. CLIMATE CHANGE PRESENTATION 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 22, at the Nolan Center, presented by Sean Kelly, assistant professor of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. FLAPJACKS WITH FIREFIGHTERS, sponsored by Team Wrangell Firefighter Stairclimb, starts at 9 a.m....
As if years of political interference and, for many elected officials, disinterest weren’t enough to sink the Alaska Marine Highway System, rust and age could finish the job. Maybe the answer is some duct tape to keep the ships running just a little longer until they turn 65 years old and could qualify for Medicare. But that’s too long to wait — the marine highway needs urgent care. The ships are aging, which is a polite way of saying they are long past their prime and getting older and rustier. Salt water accelerates the process. The Matan...
Passenger and vehicle traffic aboard the Alaska Marine Highway System moved slightly higher in 2024 from 2023, but still is less than half its peak from the early 1990s. The state ferries carried just over 185,000 passengers and about 65,000 vehicles last year on its routes stretching from Southeast to Prince William Sound and into several Gulf of Alaska coastal communities. That’s down from more than 400,000 passengers and 110,000 vehicles 1990-1992. And it’s down from more than 325,000 passengers as recently as the early 2010s. Marine Dir...
In a 5-2 vote, the Alaska Board of Fisheries rejected a proposal to cut by 25% the allowable egg harvest for Southeast salmon hatcheries. The proposal, submitted by former board member and North Pole resident Virgil Umphenour, sought to “reduce the permitted egg take of pink and chum salmon of each applicable Southeast hatchery … by 25%.” The board voted Feb. 8, the next-to-last day of its 13-day meeting in Ketchikan. Similar proposals to significantly cut the egg harvest at Southeast hatcheries have come before the board at least four previ...
Wrangell Elks Lodge No. 1595 received $19,000 in state and national Elks funds which the lodge has distributed to four separate community programs. The grant funds were distributed to the school wrestling program, Senior Center, Parks and Recreation’s youth swim program, and for grocery gift cards for veterans and their families. The checks — and burgers — were presented at the Elks Club weekly burger night Thursday, Feb. 13. “The Wrangell Elks Lodge is proud to support these programs and more in our community,” said Dawn Angerman, a lodge trus...
Maylee Martin is working to line up financing to buy Tiny’s Taxi and its vehicle, but until that comes though she is offering to give people rides for a donation. Tiny’s Taxi closed down last month, and Martin stepped in to provide donation-only rides when and where she can, while working toward setting up her own business. Tiny’s was the only taxi service in Wrangell. “I’m just doing this until … I get the loan I need,” she said last week of her work with a financial institution under a state loan program. She plans to call her new business...
The borough assembly on Feb. 11 appointed Phillip Mach and Antonio Silva to fill vacancies on the assembly and port commission, respectively. Both terms will expire in October, when Mach and Silva will have the option to run in the municipal elections. Anne Morrison (assembly) and Gary Morrison (port commission) vacated the seats in January after announcing they plan on leaving town. Candidates needed to submit a letter of interest to City Hall to be eligible for the appointments. While Borough...
The borough assembly on Feb. 11 unanimously approved an ordinance to eliminate the need for the public to approve the sale of borough-owned assets valued at more than $1 million. The decision came after borough attorneys suggested the clause in Wrangell’s charter violated the state constitution, as it allowed the public to usurp the assembly’s appropriations powers. “From a legal standpoint,” borough attorney Rob Luce said, “it’s not good practice to leave … charter sections on the books that aren’t legal or aren’t constitutional. A...
The high school boys varsity basketball team lost both nonconference games on a road trip to Mt. Edgecumbe High School on Feb. 14-15. The Wolves currently sit in a convincing second place in Southeast with a 6-2 record. Their only in-conference losses came at the hands of 8-0 Metlakatla earlier this season. While Wrangell will likely head into next month’s Southeast tournament as the No. 2 seed no matter what happens this weekend, the upcoming Friday and Saturday homestand against 0-8 Petersburg will be a good opportunity for Wrangell to get b...
The high school girls basketball team won the 15th annual Susitna Valley Crowley Classic, held in Talkeetna from Feb. 13-15. While the tournament did not contribute to Wrangell’s Southeast standing, the win will certainly instill some confidence ahead of the homecoming series against Petersburg this Friday and Saturday, Feb. 21-22. Alana Harrison, Alexis Easterly and Hailey Cook were named to the all-tournament team. Harrison was also named MVP of the tournament. Sophia Martinsen was awarded the Heart and Hustle award while Christina Johnson w...
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...
The hand-woven cedar bark hat valued at $1,500 that I happily donated for the Tasha Toombs Peterman fundraiser raised $5,400. We are Wrangell strong and we all do for each other. I am so proud to have helped Tasha. I could not have done it all without the help of Team Tasha: Fern Seimears, Lynn Allen and Christy Jamieson. Thank you for the overwhelming and generous support to everyone who bought tickets. Congratulations to the winner Trixie Kalkins-Bennet. Clara Haley...
After seven years of planning and almost 18 months of construction, Wrangell's state-of-the-art water treatment plant is in the final phases. The $23 million project not only modernizes Wrangell's system but ensures the town is better prepared for future dry spells. The plant will likely go fully online this spring. The current plant started operations in 1999, and many of its pieces are being repurposed into the new plant just next door. While the current plant initially relies on an electrical...
It’s time to expand the generating capacity at the Tyee Lake hydroelectric station to handle growing demand — particularly from heat pumps — the plant’s operator said of its plans to line up $20 million in funding and a federal permit to add a third turbine to the facility. The Tyee Lake station started supplying Wrangell and Petersburg in 1984. It was built with two turbines rated at 10 megawatts each, with an empty bay at the Bradfield Canal facility to add a third turbine when needed. That time is now, said Robert Siedman, chief executi...
Some of the Southeast commercial troll fishery’s allocation of migratory king salmon will be shifted to the nonresident/resident sport fishery following a 5-2 vote by the Alaska Board of Fisheries on the 10th day of its 13-day meeting in Ketchikan. Board members voted on Thursday, Feb. 6, to adopt state regulatory language shifting the allocation from the 80%/20% troll/sport split that’s been in place since 1996 to a new 77%/23% split for the troll and sport fisheries, respectively. Reducing the troll allocation is an acknowledgment by the boa...
Wrangell’s playgrounds are old and need more than short-term patching and patchwork repairs. As it looks toward fundraising for substantial upgrades, the Parks and Recreation Department wants to hear what the community wants. The department is conducting an online survey — just half-a-dozen questions — to learn what features and equipment are important to people at Shoemaker Park Playground and the Kyle Angerman Playground near the library downtown. “We’re just trying to get a basic idea of which playground people use” and what they want t...
Feb. 12, 1925 Owing to the unusually heavy snow in this vicinity, deer have been forced down to the beaches where large numbers have died while all are so near starvation that they can scarcely walk without falling over. The Wrangell Commercial Club, in an effort to get something done that would relieve the situation, sent two cablegrams to Washington to Dr. Nelson, head of the U.S. Biological Survey. A cablegram was also sent to W. W. Terhune, who represents the Biological Survey in Alaska. Mr. Terhune stated that five tons of hay would...
