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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...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – An environmental activist is calling on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider placing anchored rafts in the ocean as resting platforms for walruses after stampedes killed 64 animals on Alaska's northwest coast. Rick Steiner, an environmental consultant and former University of Alaska marine conservation professor, pitched the idea two years ago. The Fish and Wildlife Service concluded it didn't have the money or manpower to provide artificial resting platforms that might give a few walruses relief but not b...
With summer finally behind it, Wrangell’s Parks and Recreation Department is starting up its fall and winter youth program. Team selection for youth basketball was on September 13, with practice to begin this week. Turnout was strong enough to have the program split into two age groups, each with two teams. Coaches have been selected to lead them, with 24 kids in the second- and third-grade group and 29 enrolled in the fourth- through sixth-grade group. An entirely new program for Wrangell is set to start the first weekend of October. Area r...
The local American Legion unit held a day of service and remembrance over the weekend, dedicated to the September 11 attacks. The American Legion Auxiliary of Alaska Unit #6 was awarded a $1,000 grant this summer from the national organization, one of 50 such awards provided by the Corporation for National and Community Service. The funds would go toward projects across the country, held between September 8 and 13 in memory of those involved in the attacks of September 11, 2001. Nineteen men...
At its regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday night, members of the City and Borough Assembly pondered different options for participating in the Community Development Block Grant program. In discussion notes, city economic development director Carol Rushmore explained grants are distributed statewide through a highly competitive application basis, based on an applying community’s income level. Wrangell has since 2015 been considered ineligible due to its population falling beneath the l...
September 20, 1917: The “Rag Doll Party” given at the Rink last evening under the direction of Mrs. C.G. Burnet for the benefit of the Red Cross was largely attended, and was a success financially. The 22 little people taking part furnished an evening’s entertainment which for real amusement discounted anything their parents and the rest of us might have attempted before the footlights. It required no little effort to train the little ones to do their parts so well. At the close of the “doll party” Mrs. Burnet gave a reading. She received...
One of Wrangell's watering holes will be celebrating its 10-year anniversary this weekend. Rayme's Bar owner Reme Privett had purchased the establishment – then the Brig Bar – back in 2007, reopening its doors on September 14. The Brig's longtime owner, Lawrence Bahovec, had been running the bar since 1962. Though he had just turned 90, Privett recounted Bahovec still worked in the bar six days a week. He was looking to get out of the business as Privett was hoping to get into it, and he app...
Caitlin Cardinell One of three candidates running for an unexpired two-year term on the Wrangell Public School Board. (Incumbent member Robert Rang and candidate David Wilson will be featured in next week's Sentinel.) Age: 27 About the candidate: "I'm originally from Minnesota, I've been living in Wrangell five years now, and I've held a variety of jobs throughout the community. I originally was working with Alaska Crossings, spent some time working up on the Stikine River, and now I'm currently...
Jessica Rooney Running unopposed for a three-year term on the Wrangell Public School Board Age: 36 About the candidate: "I moved here in 2002 from Florida, I married Jason Rooney and we have four children together, ages 14, 11, 8 and 5. I am currently a member of Wrangell Early Prevention Coalition and the Secondary Advisory Committee for the school. I have previously worked for the school district as an aide in the middle school office." Why do you want to serve on the school board? "I am...
A diesel run powering Wrangell is expected to wrap up on Saturday, according to its electrical superintendent. Clay Hammer of Wrangell Municipal Light and Power explained the 11-day shutdown of the Tyee Lake hydroelectric facility was planned, in order to conduct annual maintenance on the lines. The main goal has been the replacement of 105 marker balls which make transmission lines visible to passing aircraft. That work, being undertaken by Southeast Alaska Power Agency, began on September 7....
It is September 2017 and school has once again started. From my window in the Wrangell Senior Apartments I see the youngsters coming up the street to the elementary school; a rain coated brother looking less eager than his sister; here come two boys racing each other on their bikes and jumping off to greet one another. The big yellow school bus pulls up unloading its load. A little girl hurries to meet a friend, and a boy is sharing some toy from his backpack with a friend. Here comes the proud parent holding tight to a tiny hand while also...
At a rescheduled meeting of the Port Commission last Friday, members approved a request for an extension by a lease holder at the boatyard. Contractor Don Sorric requested the addition of three years to his current lease, which at the moment is due to expire July 31, 2019. He requires the extension for a bank loan, which would finance the addition of new concrete pads at his Superior Marine Services. "The bank has asked for more time on his loan than he has on his lease," commission chair Clay...
(JUNEAU, Alaska) – Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOT&PF) Commissioner Marc Luiken has named Lance Mearig as the Southcoast Region Director. "Lance is precisely the leader we need in Southcoast Region," said Commissioner Luiken. "His professional passion is Alaska's coastal transportation infrastructure and he has long standing relationships in the communities he will be serving." Mearig has over 35 years of experience in transportation. He has most recently s...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A federal bankruptcy judge on Monday approved the sale of Alaska’s largest newspaper for $1 million, saving the paper from folding, Judge Gary Spraker made his decision after hearing hours of testimony over the financial liabilities of the Alaska Dispatch News. In approving the sale, Spraker said it was the best option available — better than liquidation — despite his concerns over the fast pace of the process. The new owner of the Anchorage newspaper is the Binkley Co., a family owned firm in Fairbanks. Ryan Binkley...
Ten high school teams made it to Wrangell over the weekend, with over 200 students taking part in an invitational cross-country meet. Hosted by Wrangell High School, participating runners gathered at the 40 mph sign on Ishiyama Road early Saturday, the starting point for the five-kilometer course. Intermittent rain paused for the two races, which were split between men and women. Wrangell's route cycles twice along the paths of Muskeg Meadows Golf Course, a hilly, muddy trail which posed a chall...
PETERSBURG — The Borough Assembly on Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution supporting the Southeast Alaska Solid Waste Authority recommendation to participate in a regional scrap metal recycling system. The approval fast tracks a financial plan that will organize a barge to come to Petersburg and pick up any scrap metal waste the community wants to dispose of, said Karl Hagerman, the Public Works director. A five-year “master plan” agreement with Waste Management and SEASWA has formed in surrounding regions and Petersburg committed to it th...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The state of Alaska is exploring options for conducting elections after 2018, as it is faced with an aging voting system and financial pressures amid an ongoing state budget deficit. A bipartisan working group established by Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott is examining the issue. Josie Bahnke, director of the state Division of Elections, said one option that has gotten attention is a hybrid system would include allowing for early, in-person voting and voting by mail. But she said discussions are preliminary and more research m...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The owner of a southeast Alaska fishing charter service has been ordered to stay out of boats in Alaska waters for one year after pleading guilty to repeat fishing violations. Alaska State Troopers say 75-year-old Stuart Merchant of Klawock pleaded guilty this week to three counts of violating halibut regulations and one count of falsifying sport fish charter logbooks. He was fined $13,000, with $8,000 suspended, plus $2,000 dollars for violating probation from a similar 2015 case. He will forfeit a 26-foot (8-meter) g...
The state environmental regulator last week announced it would be postponing a planned monofill project on Wrangell Island until next year. In a press release issued September 7, the Department of Environmental Conservation announced it will hold off on construction of a monofill site on the island. The department is currently engaged in the cleanup for the former Byford site, a property south of Wrangell that had for several decades been used as a junkyard. The first phase of this project had...
Bad luck came in threes for Wrangell's Public Safety Building last month, the latest in a long line of problems with the facility. A failing elevator, water damage and a colony of carpenter ants have disrupted activity at the building, home to the city's emergency services, courthouse and Department of Motor Vehicles office. The first setback, that of the elevator, occurred on August 14. "As far as the elevator is concerned, we had a power outage," said Amber Al-Haddad, head of Public Works. A...
A Wrangell café is raising funds for disaster relief, following the hurricane and deadly floods affecting Texas last month. Zak's Cafe owners James George and Katherine George-Byrd plan to send all earnings from their Tuesday and Wednesday sales this week to a response fund benefitting Hurricane Harvey victims. On August 24 the storm system became the first category 4 hurricane to make landfall in the United States in over a decade, and the biggest in Texas since Hurricane Carla in 1961....
September 13, 1917: The town council met in regular monthly session Thursday night. The school board was authorized to purchase three typewriters and a microscope. The school board was directed to submit plans for a shed for the school playground. H.D. Campbell was awarded contracts for a walk on Church street and roadway on Case avenue, also a bridge on Case avenue. A communication was read from a Front street resident complaining that two houses of ill repute on Front street are a nuisance. Marshal Earl West was summoned before the council...
Last week, Alaska's lawmakers received word from the governor's office another session may be called for October. On August 31 emails were sent to members of the Alaska Legislature, letting them know a special session – the fourth of the year – will likely be called to discuss revenue. During the second special session in July an operating budget was passed, with a capital budget approved the following month in another session. The spending bills came with cuts and an overhaul of the state's oil tax credit system, but without new sources of...
Later this month the region’s economic development organization will be meeting in Haines to discuss new trends, problems and opportunities it will face in the coming year. Representing many of the area’s municipalities, federally-recognized tribes, businesses, government agencies and organizations, Southeast Conference holds two major forums each year, in the spring and in the fall. Its autumn meeting is its biggest, in past years drawing hundreds to hear about and discuss concerns unique to the region, from transportation and utilities to its...
Delays to line maintenance prompted by a public employee strike in Wrangell this June will cost a regional power utility an extra $103,000. Southeast Alaska Power Agency (SEAPA) chief executive Trey Acteson presented board members with a change order for the project, which would among other maintenance tasks replace marker balls along the transmission lines connecting Tyee Lake to the grid. Work had been set to start the latter half of June, during which time Wrangell would have had to run on its diesel backups. But an unrelated strike by two...
