Sorted by date Results 6401 - 6425 of 10681
October 25, 1917: An enjoyable event in Native circles on Monday night was a dance given by the crews of the gas boats “Albatross” and “Lake Bay” in honor of the local members of the Alaska Native Brotherhood. The dance was held in the band hall, and was hugely enjoyed from the start to finish-the finish being at 2 a.m. During the affair refreshments consisting of cake and ice cream were served. The visitors who gave the dance are Sitka Natives, who during the past summer have been engaged in fishing at Lake Bay in company with a number of Wran...
The Sanitation Department announced it will be waiving fees for disposal of scrap metal for the next few weeks, ahead of a planned arrangement to remove salvageable scrap from the island next month. Beginning last week at the recommendation of the Wrangell Assembly, the free disposal period will be running through November 11. People can bring their household scrap metal to the solid waste transfer station during that time without the usual disposal fee. The decision follows news of a deal with Juneau-based salvaging firm Channel Construction,...
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced last week it will be implementing new, stronger carry-on baggage security screening procedures at airports in Southeast Alaska. The new procedures have already taken effect at Juneau International Airport and will be coming to Wrangell, Ketchikan, Sitka, Cordova and Yakutat over the next five weeks. The new procedures require travelers to place all electronics larger than a cell phone in bins for x-ray screening when going through the security checkpoint. Travelers departing affected...
Options for finding an alternative site to a monofill selected by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation last year are limited, according to an exchange between it and the City and Borough last month. Around 18,350 cubic yards of treated, lead-contaminated soil removed from the former Byford junkyard property last year by contractors for DEC are to be interred indefinitely in a monofill site. Sixty containers of heavier-contaminated soil and debris were barged out for reprocessing, but as the unexpectedly large project had...
A local grocery store bid official farewell to its manager of nearly 50 years. Since March of 1968, Chet Powell made sure the shelves at Wrangell's City Market were properly stocked and its employees kept busy helping customers. Originally from Springdale, Arkansas, Powell first got into the grocery business at the age of 14, coming to work for his uncle, William Norton, at his market in the Seattle area. "He was the one that taught me the grocery business," Powell recalled, getting his start fi...
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...
The local debate team made its way to Juneau for its first of five meets scheduled for the season. The two-day event was held at Juneau-Douglas High School last Friday and Saturday, and a pared-down group from Wrangell’s debate, drama and forensics team were able to attend. The three students included two first-time participants in the program, Jean Luc Lewis and Morgan Torzand, while this will be the third year for Devin Pill. Other members of the team were unable to make the Juneau competition, though coach Sierra Reil was hopeful for a b...
The open enrollment period for obtaining or changing insurance plans through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s Health Insurance Marketplace has been shortened this year to just six weeks, a regional health provider cautioned residents. Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium has offered to help people navigate the application process of applying for health coverage through the Marketplace, hosted at HealthCare.gov. During the open enrollment period from November 1 to December 15, SEARHC Outreach can help applicants prepare th...
The 2017 Tom Sims Invitational last weekend saw six of seven Wrangell wrestlers make the finals, with four of them taking first placements in their weight brackets. "It was a great tournament," said coach Jeff Rooney. "A lot of positive remarks." The hosting team's first tournament of the season followed its big fundraiser dinner the previous weekend, where players served around 180 people. "We appreciate all the support from the community for that," said assistant coach Jack Carney. The funds...
At the second school board meeting of the new year on Monday, staff and returning members welcomed newly elected fellows Dave Wilson and Jessica Rooney. Officers were selected for the reshuffled board, with Georgianna Buhler retaining her position as president, Tammi Groshong being elected to vice-president in a 3-2 vote, and Aleisha Mollen named board secretary. Perhaps the biggest news of the evening though had been an announcement from secondary schools principal Bill Schwan and Secondary...
In its Tuesday evening meeting this week, the City and Borough Assembly decided to shift focus for block grant funding to remodeling the Public Safety Building. Sited centrally to town at the start of Zimovia Highway, the aging facility has already neared the top of the city’s capital improvement priorities. In its project outline, city staff recommended putting the building forward as a candidate for Community Development Block Grant funding, a competitive program sourcing $2.4 million of Housing and Urban Development funding each year into A...
Eleven Wrangell high school students took part in a two-day workshop, enabling their certification to conduct fishing vessel drills. Secondary schools principal Bill Schwan explained the 18-hour instructional course was provided through a grant with Alaska Marine Safety Education Association, a Sitka-based organization which provides marine safety training for a variety of nautical activities across the country. Its Coast Guard-approved fishing vessel drill conductor trainings focus on safety is...
Finalized designs to replace existing facilities at Shoemaker Bay Harbor have been greenlighted by the Wrangell Assembly. Built by the state in 1977, management of the harbor and responsibility for its upkeep were devolved to the city in 2003. The wood-and-iron floats have since reached the limits of their useful life, and plans to replace them with a more modern design have been in the works for several years. A design for new floating facilities and a dredging of the harbor was put together...
October 18, 1917: Dr. W. J. Pigg returned Saturday from Ft. Seward at Haines where he took a physical examination and passed. He expects to receive notice any day to report somewhere for medical examination. Dr. Pigg hopes soon to get a commission in the regular Army. He thinks it probable that he will leave Wrangell within the next three months. October 23, 1942: Merlin Elmer Palmer Post, American Legion, last night gave a farewell dinner for Wrangell’s latest group of men who expect to leave soon for the Army. The dinner was given at the L...
State troopers arrested a Kake man last week after he sat in a Chevrolet pickup truck and sprayed semi-automatic gunfire into a construction site trailer with eight people inside, leaving no one hospitalized or shot. Jacob Hallingstad, 46, was arrested on Thursday in connection to the shooting in Kake. Nine charges were doled to him at a felony first hearing in Petersburg over the weekend, to which he teleconferenced from the Lemon Creek Correctional Center in Juneau. Sgt. Nicholas Zito with the Alaska State Troopers filed a report into court...
Local radio station KSTK has recently hired a new reporter, following a five-month stint without one. June Leffler from Louisville, Kentucky arrived late last week after earning her master's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism this spring. She flew in to Juneau with her family last week, and took the overnight ferry from there to Wrangell. "It's wild, this is totally different," she said. After earning her bachelor's degree at the University of Louisville, Leffler...
James Daniel Fenderson, 58, passed away on July 25, 2017. He was born to Ernestine and Clarence Fenderson on October 20, 1958 in Kittery, Maine. He moved to Wrangell, Alaska in the early 1990s to live out his dreams. He loved hunting and fishing. He was preceded in death by his parents; sisters Susan Hludik and Gail Bernier; and brother John Fenderson. He is survived by: brothers Jeff and Joseph Fenderson; and sisters Paula Carl and Janet Knight. A memorial gathering will take place on Fri., Oct. 20 at 2 p.m. at the home of Ronnie and Clara,...
Local volunteers put together 256 packages of toys and supplies for children in need this Christmas. The 17th annual Operation Christmas Child event was held at the Nolan Center last Saturday, hosted as before by the Wrangell Ministerial Association. Each year the church coalition collects donations from congregants and various community members with the intention of buying supplies for their gift boxes. "We order stuff from everywhere," explained Deanna Reeves, who helped organize this year's d...
Celebration of the state’s sesquicentennial anniversary next week in Wrangell will be on the quieter side, with the 16th annual senior luncheon and yearly flu clinic both scheduled. Island of Faith Lutheran Church is inviting area seniors to join them for lunch next Wednesday at noon. “We kind of started it when our church was newly built,” said Joan Kading, a parishioner. “It seemed like a way to honor the senior citizens of Wrangell.” The informal meal has featured homemade soups and bread, with both a vegetarian and carnivorous option to...
Results from last week's elections were certified and accepted by the City and Borough Assembly in a special meeting Monday. Turnout in the largely uncontentious October 3 municipal elections had been low, with only 16 percent of the borough's 1,721 registered voters polling in. Of these, 242 cast votes on election day, with 29 others turning in absentee ballots ahead of time. Two other ballots had been rejected, due to the voters not previously being registered in the Wrangell polling area. Of...
The girls on Wrangell High School’s volleyball team forayed into their first pair of games last weekend, taking on Craig and Klawock. Traveling across to Prince of Wales Island by charter boat the morning of October 6, the Lady Wolves’ first match-up was at Craig. There, the Lady Panthers’ varsity won in three sets, besting Wrangell 25 to 17 in the first, and 25 to a close 22 in the second two sets. The two schools’ junior varsity squads also had an opportunity for a match, and after losing the first set to Craig 22 to 25, the Lady Wolves...
Every year Southeast Conference presents a number of awards to municipalities, businesses and individuals for their contributions to the region. At this year's annual meeting in Haines last month, Wrangell was among the recipients, being named the organization's "Community of the Year" for 2017. "I think that was absolutely fantastic, that's very exciting," said Carol Rushmore, Wrangell's longtime director for economic development. "I think it's a great honor that SEC recognized Wrangell."...
With one weekend to go in the 2017 moose hunting season, numbers were approaching 100 as of Tuesday. Ninety-five bull moose had been reported by hunters in the Petersburg-Wrangell management area, only seven of which have been confiscated due to noncompliance with local antler restrictions. “It seems like a nice, lower number of illegals,” Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist Rich Lowell said of the year. Typically about 10 percent of the total harvest is deemed illegal by management officials, making this year’s slightly bette...
UNEAU, Alaska (AP) – The company pursuing a copper and gold mine in southwest Alaska has unveiled plans for what it says will be a smaller, safer project, with plans to move into permitting later this year. The Pebble Limited Partnership is attempting to reintroduce a project that for years has been the subject of fierce debate because of its location and potential effects on a major salmon fishery in Alaska's Bristol Bay region. Under the Obama administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed restrictions on development. P...
