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“There’s nothing off the list,” Superintendent Bill Burr said about potential cuts to the school district’s 2025-2026 budget. From exploring what life would be like as a satellite site of the Petersburg school district to eliminating teacher positions, Burr said the district is exploring everything and anything. The draft budget presented to the school board last month showed a $1 million shortfall between projected revenue ($5.05 million) and proposed expenses ($6.1 million). Covering that gap — without a significant boost in state funding ... Full story
The annual assessment of property values in town resulted in an overall increase of about 12% for taxable property, though an owner’s tax bill will depend on the tax rate set by the borough assembly in late May. State law requires municipalities to assess property —all land and buildings— at “full and true market value.” The borough’s contract assessor’s March 3 letter to the assembly said, “Our evaluations indicate that the overall market (value) … continues to grow despite the high cost of living and rising interest rates.” The annual assessm...
The federal and state stars are not lining up well for Wrangell’s budget future, at least not for the next few years. And that will mean some hard choices for the community, particularly when it comes to deciding the future of its schools and how to pay for that future. The borough has been using money from a federal program that dates back to 2000 to cover much of its annual contribution to the school district operating budget. But Congress failed to appropriate the money last year — the Republican-controlled U.S. House declined to take up...
The most recent draft of the school district’s 2025-2026 budget shows a deficit of $271,000. With City Hall hamstrung by cuts to federal funding, the school board could need to make sweeping cuts to balance the books. The district is not legally permitted to operate in a deficit and its operating reserve is nearing empty The draft budget assumes that the borough will fund the schools at the maximum amount allowed by state law, around $1.8 million. However, both City Hall and the school district anticipate that number will likely be closer to $...
A Juneau-based business that shares ownership with the company which has been leasing land at the former 6-Mile mill property for a scrap metal recycling operation has told the borough it wants to buy more than nine acres at the site to build a permanent operation. “If an agreement is made on a purchase, our first improvement to the property will likely be establishing utilities such as water, sewer and electricity,” Tideline Construction wrote in its Jan. 24 request to the borough. The company offered $250,000 for two parcels at the sou...
Amid the widespread uncertainty and mass budget cuts under the new administration of President Donald Trump, Wrangell’s municipal leadership is not particularly concerned about the completion of any of the borough’s ongoing projects. Currently, City Hall awaits two reimbursements from the federal government: one at around $18 million for the water treatment plant and another at $1 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for disaster recovery costs after the November 2023 landslide. Borough Manager Mason Villarma said City Hall has...
The borough received two proposals in the past few months to buy some of its land at the former 6-Mile mill site. One was a pretty firm proposal. The other was a concept. Tideline Construction, part of the half-century-old Juneau-based Channel Construction operation, applied in January to buy more than nine acres of borough-owned land at 6-Mile. Tideland offered to buy two parcels at the assessed value of about $250,000 and would like portions of three neighboring lots. It wants to grow its scrap metal recycling operation and expand into...
The barge ramp, freight staging and storage area has been downtown for decades, but maybe not the next decade. The borough assembly has created a six-member special committee “to review and oversee the transition of barge service operations to the 6-Mile mill site property.” The borough purchased the former mill property for $2.5 million in 2022, with the intent of developing it or selling or leasing it to private parties to develop for industrial uses. The intent behind moving the barge ramp and freight yard to 6-Mile would be to open up the...
The school district and borough share a money problem. And it’s a community problem that needs an answer this spring. The schools need more money to continue even the basic programs for Wrangell’s 260 students. The state funding formula over the past eight years has been flat, which is to say far short of keeping up with inflation, which is to say wholly inadequate. The borough assembly has tried pitching in, but its check-writing ability is limited by two factors: A state law that puts a cap on local contributions to school district budgets, a...
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...
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...
The Wrangell Police Department successfully executed a dual search warrant on Jan. 28 after a month-long investigation into a local drug ring. Cooper Seimears, 39, Jacob Marshall, 29, and McKenna Harding, 29, were charged and arrested following the 8 a.m. search warrant execution. Seimears and Marshall face eight drug-related felony charges and one misdemeanor. Harding faces drug-related charges of one felony and one misdemeanor, though she and Marshall, her fiancée, each face two additional...
“It’s the red house down a ways a bit, yeah the one that Ben used to live in.” That’s a great way to tell someone new in town where your house is, but when it comes to emergency services, it’s far from helpful. City Hall is partnering with DATAMARK, a business solutions company, to update addresses on the houses and buildings in Wrangell. Borough officials hope the changes will increase the community’s emergency and disaster preparedness. The first step in the process will be to update the online maps of the borough’s GIS (geographic informatio...
Start saving today. Wrangell’s first sales tax-free day of 2025 will be on Saturday, May 3. The borough assembly approved the chamber of commerce’s date request unanimously at its Jan. 28 meeting. There may be a second tax-free day in 2025, which the chamber has traditionally scheduled for October. This year, the assembly will consider the chamber’s request for a second tax-free day with a public hearing at its April 22 meeting. Last December the assembly altered municipal code so that the number of tax-free days every fiscal year can be anywhe...
An article appeared in the Daily Sitka Sentinel about Dale Borgford’s proposal to turn Wrangell’s former 6-Mile sawmill site into the trash-burning capital of Southeast Alaska. I was sent a letter that Dr. Gregory Duncan and Dr. Anne Duncan wrote to the Wrangell borough assembly and Borough Manager Mason Villarma. They raise extremely valid concerns about the extreme hazards and drawbacks of this proposal. Sitka’s municipal trash incinerator is now closed. If something like this was ever proposed again, I would spend every last dime I had t...
The borough is accepting letters of interest to fill one vacancy each on the assembly and port commission. To submit a letter, either email Borough Clerk Kim Lane — municipal clerk of the year in Alaska for 2024 — at clerk@wrangell.com or drop it off at her office in City Hall. As of Jan. 31, Lane said she had received three letters of interest. Phillip Mach and Scott McAuliffe submitted for the assembly seat, while Antonio Silva submitted for the port commission. “More would be great!” Lane said. Silva ran for port commission last fall an...
The borough has negotiated a $50,000 insurance settlement to help pay for repairs after a boat owner pulled up their anchor and hooked and crimped the sewage treatment plant’s deep outfall pipeline in the waters off City Park last September. The Public Works Department quickly found a temporary solution to keep the treated discharge flowing out of the plant. Bids on a permanent fix were due at City Hall on Tuesday, Feb. 4. The total cost of the temporary work, underwater video to locate the problem and permanent repairs to the pipeline is estim...
The Wrangell School District could run short of operating funds by 2026 or 2027 if it doesn't receive new revenues or make large cuts to its programs. The school board discussed the first draft of its 2025-2026 budget on Jan. 20. Barring any notable changes between now and when the budget is sent to City Hall for approval by May 1, the district anticipates a deficit of $767,016, requiring a dip deep into the school district's dwindling reserves. This would leave the reserves at an estimated $51,...
The borough owns about 12,000 acres on Wrangell Island and wants to work with two different state agencies that hold several thousand acres more to see if they can coordinate small-scale timber sales on the island. “By pooling our resources … we put ourselves in a better position,” Borough Manager Mason Villarma said. The borough assembly last month approved a memorandum of understanding to work with the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority, which owns a little over 4,000 acres across the island. The agreement calls for working together towar...
The Wrangell School District — its students, staff and parents — will need to practice deep-breathing exercises to relieve the stress as they wait to see if the state Legislature and governor can agree on adequate funding for public education while at the same time waiting on Congress to reauthorize a quarter-century-old federal aid program for rural schools. These are significant and serious stress issues, particularly for Wrangell. State funding, based on a per-pupil formula, and the federal Secure Rural Schools money that comes through the...
The failure of the U.S. House to reauthorize federal funding to assist rural communities with a lot of non-taxable federal land — such as the Tongass National Forest — presents a $550,000 challenge for the Wrangell School District and borough. If the new Congress doesn’t fix the problem, the district could have to further draw on its reserves, or the borough could have to take from its reserves to plug the gap, or a combination of the two. Or cut spending at the schools — the federal money represents about 10% of this year’s school district...
The borough is looking for residents interested in serving on the port commission, which has a vacancy following the resignation of Gary Morrison. With Anne and Gary Morrison leaving town next month to live closer to family in Montana, the borough assembly loses a six-year member (Anne) and the port commission loses a five-year member (Gary). Residents interested in filling out the port commission term until October need to file a letter of interest with the borough clerk no later than 3 p.m. Feb. 11. The borough assembly is scheduled at its...
The Washington state developer who wants to turn the former 6-Mile mill property into a waste-burning operation to heat large-scale greenhouses said his next steps include lining up financing and making an offer to buy the land from the borough. Dale Borgford said he was heartened by the warm reception he received from the borough assembly, mayor and borough staff when he and his crew met with officials and toured the site last month. The Colville, Washington businessman has estimated the cost for developing the Wrangell project could total...
Anne Morrison, who is moving to Montana to be closer to family, has resigned her seat on the borough assembly. Applications to fill the vacancy will be accepted until Feb. 11, when the assembly is expected to appoint a successor to serve until the next municipal election in October. Anyone interested in serving on the assembly needs to submit a letter of interest to the borough clerk’s office by 3 p.m. Feb. 11. The assembly will consider the applicants and make an appointment at its regularly scheduled meeting that evening. A majority vote o...