Sorted by date Results 826 - 850 of 10720
The Fourth of July is about a red, white and blue parade, street games, races of all kinds for all kinds of boats, logging skills competition — and food. With two days of events left in the holiday week, the area around the downtown pavilion, behind Wells Fargo bank and the Elks Lodge and in the direction of the Stikine Inn will be filled with booths, games and a wide variety of food. Organizers have scheduled a little more time between events this year to allow people a chance to try out the menus on Wednesday and Thursday, July 3-4. The f...
As Wrangell gears up for another Fourth of July celebration, the local chapter of the international sorority Beta Sigma Phi is preparing for its annual pie sale. The sale will start at 10 a.m. Thursday at the covered patio of Arctic Chiropractic until all pies are sold. The event is a fundraiser to provide teddy bears for children in trauma conditions like emergency hospitalization, disasters like house fires or boating accidents. The teddy bears help draw people to the event, said Alice...
Wrangell is on a financial winning streak these days. It has received multiple state and federal grants to pay for construction, repairs, rebuilds and improvements. But that does not help pay the operating costs of public services and local support for the schools. It’s a distinction people need to keep in mind. Money in one pocket does not automatically transfer to another pocket. The borough has received notice of a $25 million federal grant to rebuild most of the downtown harbors floats. It will receive $6.5 million from the state to go t...
A long time ago, the Sentinel called out a mayor for taking an action without city council approval (this was before Wrangell became a borough). The mayor had sent a letter to a federal agency, stating the city’s official position on an issue — but it was merely his personal opinion. There was no council discussion, no public notice. It wasn’t that controversial a position, but the point was that the mayor, no matter how well meaning, should not speak for the city without first making sure the elected council is in agreement. The mayor came...
Parks and Recreation Director Lucy Robinson has announced the elimination of several regular activities at the swimming pool, starting this month, to manage spending under a cut in the borough contribution for the department. In an email to the community on June 27, Robinson said the cutbacks at the pool will reduce spending on part-time employees. The cancellations include the open swim on Monday afternoons and all swim activities on Tuesdays and Thursdays, including lap/family swims and club/camp swims. “Please note that we have eliminated t...
It's been an adventure for Alisha Armstrong and Kayla Young, who both stepped up at the last minute to become candidates in this year's Fourth of July royalty contest, selling raffle tickets and food at booths in the downtown pavilion. They have been working for more than a month to raise money for the town's holiday celebration. Armstrong graduated high school last month and Young will be a senior this fall. They have worked on donation lists, sponsorship letters, menus, events and gathered vol...
Charlie Webb, of Anchorage, took first place in Wrangell's 69th king salmon derby with his 43.5-pound catch on the opening day of the derby June 15. The annual contest closed on Sunday, June 30, and no one passed Webb. Wrangell's Connor Blake won the 12-and-under youth division with his 22.6-pound king, caught near Fools Inlet on June 28. It was the first king that Connor has ever caught and kept, said Tommy Wells, executive director of the chamber of commerce, which organizes the fishing derby....
The Petersburg-based seiner Pamela Rae took on water and rolled over in Anita Bay the morning of June 25, but the five people on board all made it safely off the vessel. “When we first got there, the vessel was already underwater and appeared to be sitting on bottom,” said Jordan Buness, chief of the Wrangell Volunteer Fire Department, which responded to the call. “It was probably in less than 15 feet of water.” Anita Bay, off the east side of Etolin Island, is about 16 miles south of downtown Wrangell. “We found that everybody was already off...
Sarah Lewis from the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service will return to Wrangell July 27-29 to teach more health and food preservation classes for free. Lewis, based in Juneau, will travel on her family’s boat, the Pacific Sapphire, to visit nine communities in Southeast Alaska during the month to teach a variety of home skills and food preservation classes. “More reliable than the ferry and less expensive than flying,” she said. The Wrangell classes are a collaboration with the federal Tribes Extension Program, 4-H,...
Wrangell is facing a network of aging underground utilities. Some pipes are up to 70 years old, said Tom Wetor, public works director. Since the first of the year, at least five water and sewer line leaks have sprung up around town. Wetor explained that a lot of the underground utility work was done in the 1980s and is beginning to age out. He explained that the environment in Wrangell is particularly harsh and causes pipes to degrade faster than they should. A lot of the pipes in town are made of ductile iron, which he said were estimated to...
Commercial trollers started their summer season Monday, July 1, targeting a catch of approximately 66,700 chinook salmon in an opener that will be closed by emergency order when catch estimates approach that harvest target. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced last week that trollers are expected to hit the limit this weekend, after just six or seven days of fishing. Last year, Southeast trollers brought in about 85,000 king salmon from July 1 to July 12, about 8,000 fish over the target for the first opener of the season. The...
Monday, June 24 Agency assist: Ambulance. Tuesday, June 25 Welfare check. Wednesday, June 26 Citizen assist: Vehicle inspection. Fireworks complaint. Domestic disturbance. Thursday, June 27 Assist: Wrangell IGA. Found property. Agency assist: Alaska Department of Transportation.. Driving complaint. Inmate booking. Reckless driving. Traffic stop: Verbal warning for driving habits and faulty equipment. Suspicious circumstance. Friday, June 28 Animal complaint. Violation of protective order: Unfounded. Traffic stop. Citizen assist. Saturday, June...
Lyle F. Bennett lost his battle with lung disease on June 19, 2024. He was born April 3, 1948, to Farrell and Alda Bennett. Though he was born in Vancouver, Washington, "he was a lifelong Alaskan." Lyle enjoyed many ventures during his lifetime, including drilling rock on Three Lakes Loop Road south of Petersburg, as owner/operator of Petersburg Art Gallery, as well as 30-plus years of owning and operating vending machines. He lived in Wrangell for a few years, about 35 years ago, working at the...
HELP WANTED Wrangell Cooperative Association Transportation (WCAT) is seeking two road/trail maintenance laborers. Complete job descriptions and applications are available outside the Wrangell Cooperative Association office at 1002 Zimovia Highway. Positions are open until filled. Contact Lizzy Romane at 907-874-3077 with any questions. HELP WANTED Johnson’s Building Supply is accepting applications for the following position: Customer Service: Duties include counter sales, freight handling, customer deliveries, stocking and inventory. F...
A ballot proposition on October’s Petersburg election ballot will ask residents whether they want to increase the amount of a purchase that is subject to sales tax. Currently, Petersburg collects its 6% tax on sales of goods and services up to the first $1,200 on the invoice. Above that amount is free from the tax. The proposed municipal code amendment, approved for the ballot in a unanimous vote by the borough assembly on June 17, would raise the taxable sales limit to $5,000. If approved by voters, the maximum sales tax on a purchase would in...
Alisha Armstrong won this year’s Fourth of July royalty crown by raising $84,582. Kayla Young raised $60,500. Combined, the duo more than doubled the numbers of the past couple of years — $53,704 in 2023 and $56,260 in 2022 — when only a single royalty candidate signed on for the annual fundraising effort to help pay for Wrangell’s Fourth of July celebration. The totals were announced at the Nolan Center on Wednesday evening....
The pending sale of the former hospital property to Wayne Johnson, a Georgia-based real estate developer, has been delayed due to further negotiations. Johnson still plans on purchasing the former hospital for $200,000, but now wants the additional six lots behind the building for free in exchange for demolishing the former hospital. The original purchase and sales agreement, which was set to close May 31, stated that Johnson would purchase the hospital property for $200,000 and the six lots for their appraised value of $316,800. The original...
With just days to go before the start of Fourth of July activities, organizers still are looking for more volunteers and sponsors — and, of course, hundreds of people ready to run, paddle, stuff their faces with pies, throw pies at public officials and everything else that goes into the holiday celebration. “You can never have too many volunteers,” said Tommy Wells, executive director of the chamber of commerce, which organizes the events calendar. As of Monday, the chamber still needed volunteers to run the log roll and greased pole event...
Mountain lions are not commonly spotted in Southeast Alaska, but earlier this month one was killed on the south end of Wrangell Island. Alaska Wildlife Troopers and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game were notified that a mountain lion had been shot and killed on June 3. They took possession of the carcass and are conducting an investigation. Troopers leading the investigation declined to comment. Riley Woodford, information officer with the Alaska Division of Wildlife Conservation in Juneau, said he knew of three other documented sightings...
Director Lucy Robinson has announced there will be changes to Parks and Recreation hours and services coming soon, due to a pending cut in borough funding for the department. Recreation Coordinator Devyn Johnson said last week the details were still being worked out. As proposed in the draft budget for the fiscal year starting July 1, the borough contribution to the Parks and Recreation Department would drop from $640,000 last year to $554,000. Borough funds cover more than 70% of the budget for the department’s programs and maintenance, i...
June 26, 1924 What enthusiasm and energy can accomplish was fully demonstrated last Thursday night when two bathhouses were built at the Wrangell bathing beach in a remarkably short space of time. The Civic Club’s recreation committee was responsible for this valuable acquisition to the joys of sea bathing. When the men whose services made the buildings possible arrived at the beach armed with tools, lumber and nails, on hand were the ladies of the party who had prepared a substantial supper. After the edible had disappeared, the builders, u...
COMMUNITY POTLUCK 6 p.m. Fridays through August at the sheltered site on Nemo Point Road. All are welcome. ROLL ON THE ROCK roller skating 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Saturdays at the TouchPoint Ministries rink on Bennett Street. Children 9 and under must be accompanied by an adult. Skaters must complete a registration form. $5 per person. MUSKEG MEADOWS Alaska Airlines Golf Tournament 9-hole best-ball, Saturday and Sunday, June 29-30. Special prizes, win a free airline ticket. Tournament play starts at 10 a.m., register by 9:30 a.m. NOLAN CENTER...
The Wrangell team brought home the national championship trophy from The Salvation Army Bible Bowl competition earlier this month in Pasadena, California — the first time ever for the town. The five Wrangell teens have been on a winning streak the past couple of years. They won the state title this year for the second time in a row and placed third at last year’s nationals in California. The Salvation Army’s website describes the question-and-answer contest as “an academic game where teens match knowledge about a designated portion of scriptu...
In his most recent work, historian Ronan Rooney published a blog post about Walter C. Waters, a man he calls the Walt Disney of Wrangell. Waters was a businessman brought to Wrangell during the gold rush, who opened a curio store in 1922 called the Bear Totem Store which sold Native artifacts and attracted tourists from far and wide. Rooney said this has been his most popular blog post yet, adding, “controversy is always popular.” Waters, Rooney explained, is a controversial figure. He was a successful businessman who did some great things for...