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A local group announced it will be partnering up with a Hydaburg basketball player to hold a youth camp in Wrangell this summer. Damen Bell-Holter will be leading “Blessed 2 Bless,” a traveling basketball camp he cofounded with Clint Parks in 2012 which focuses on youth mentoring as well as on-court skills. Wrangell’s Alaska Native Sisterhood Association will be hosting the event, slated for June 5 to 8. Hailing from Hydaburg, Bell-Holter was picked up by the Boston Celtics as a forward in 2013, and has subsequently been on teams in Maine...
Seven retired totem poles changed homes on March 11, with volunteers from Wrangell Cooperative Association working with the Harbor Department taking advantage of the sunny weather to move them out of storage at the boatyard to the newly-built cultural center on Front Street. The poles vary in age and condition, and until they were put into storage were positioned on Chief Shakes Island and at different spots around town. The Sun Totem, for instance, for a time previously stood on the lawn...
Use of Wrangell's former Institute property continues to take shape after a pair of town meetings last week. Acquired by the city in 1995, the 134-acre property has potential for residential development, and the city last year commissioned a team of architects, statisticians and engineers to begin looking into a master plan. The public meetings on Feb. 29 and March 2 were the first step in that process, "I think they went really well," economic director Carol Rushmore said of the sessions. "Ther...
Members of Wrangell Cooperative Association and the wider community were invited out to an informational workshop Tuesday night, introducing them to the Tribe's latest program. Alongside its Transportation and IGAP (see article inside) offices, the Subsistence Fisheries Management Program intends to improve quality of life and opportunity for tribal members, in this case through salmon restoration in traditional watersheds. Brian Ashton was invited by WCA to head the new program, which at the...
The environmental arm of Wrangell Cooperative Association wants to know which issues with wood fire heating have been getting residents hot under the collar. Its Indian Environmental General Assistance Program (IGAP) office held an open house discussion Tuesday to identify and discuss challenges related to household heating. “Essentially the goal is to gather information from people who burn wood,” summarized Chris Hatton, IGAP coordinator for Wrangell. Items she looked for include costs, efficiency, whether a household has dependable access to...
Assembly members were given an update by the Alaska Court System on Tuesday about its upcoming lease renewal for courtroom facilities. Court administrator for Southeast Neil Nesheim explained he was there to let Assembly members and the wider community know what the stance of ACS was in negotiating its lease, so to prevent any confusion. Nesheim put it to them that ACS would like to pay less on its annual lease for the space provided. This was due to a combination of declining state revenues and diminished court activity in Wrangell since the...
Incumbents on the local Tribal Council seem set to return, according to unofficial results released Monday. Members of Wrangell Cooperative Association cast their votes on Feb. 3 at the new cultural center on Front Street. Turnout was slightly higher than in 2015, with 74 ballots cast rather than 71. This year WCA extended the vote to members aged 18 and up. Previously, one had to be 21 to vote. With four of eight seats on the Council up for election, positions would go to the candidates with the highest number of votes. Of four candidates...
Members of the Wrangell Cooperative Association are encouraged to come vote on Wednesday, with nine candidates putting their names in for four seats on the Council. The open seats each carry a two-year term, going to the four candidates with the most votes. Those elected to the positions will be sworn in at the next scheduled meeting, on a date to be announced in mid-February. Current president Sam Campus and sitting members Arthur Larsen, Tammi Meissner and Frank Churchill Jr. will be standing for re-election. Timothy Gillen Sr., James Stough...
Meeting January 20, the Economic Development Committee began thinking about the next steps for its ongoing review of entitlement lands use. The City and Borough of Wrangell last April received management authority from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources for 9,006 acres of properties in accordance with the state Municipal Entitlement Act. The act portions out a percentage of state lands for administration by newly incorporated municipalities, as Wrangell had done in 2008. Lands the Borough selected and the DNR approved include parcels...
After a public hearing and much discussion Tuesday evening, the Wrangell City and Borough Assembly approved a contract zone for light industrial use for a transportation office, storage and maintenance area requested by Wrangell Cooperative Association. The item had been approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission in December with several stipulations, including its review of a final site plan, the addition of unobtrusive lighting, exclusively indoor storage on site, and a 50-foot buffer along shared boundary lines. The property, the...
The community’s coalition for health and wellness organizations is looking for a new image. The Healthy Wrangell Coalition has announced a sort of logo contest, through which it hopes to make its activities more recognizable to the community at large. “We’ve kind of been operating under the radar for a while,” explained Kris Reed, with HWC. “Folks don’t really know who we are and what we do, and that we’re available for things like letters of support for grants.” Member organizations include Alaska Island Community Services, Wrangell Medica...
With mining concerns looming upstream, a program through the Central Council Tlingit Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska is anxious to define what's normal for Southeast Alaska's major transboundary rivers. The second round of water quality testing was conducted on the Stikine River by Central Council's Native Lands and Resources Department (NLRD) Dec. 9. "The reason we started this project was prompted by what's going on upriver in British Columbia," explained Jennifer Hanlon, an environmental...
Future use of borough lands at Crittenden Creek, Sunny Bay and Mill Creek should continue to be recreational in nature, Wrangell’s Planning and Zoning Commission concluded at its regularly scheduled meeting Dec. 10. The entitlement properties were among those transferred to Wrangell from the Department of Natural Resources earlier this year, just over 9,000 acres of undeveloped lands on the mainland and surrounding islands. Planning and Zoning has been offering recommendations to guide future use of the properties along with the Economic D...
A special stakeholders meeting coordinated by Wrangell Cooperative Association and Tlingit-Haida Regional Housing Authority determined jobs and affordable housing for seniors should be top local priorities. This conclusion was reached using the help of participants of last week's meetings and results collected through WCA's 2015 Community Needs Survey. Survey results found a lack of economic opportunities was the most important local issue. While the 60-plus respondents felt Wrangell's friendly...
With the advent of December, Wrangell's streets and storefronts have begun taking on a more festive appearance ahead of the Christmas season. The tree which serves as the centerpiece of the community's Midnight Madness celebration tomorrow evening was cut down, moved and re-raised at the Elks Club by Wrangell Municipal Light and Power on Monday. Despite gusts of up to 31 miles per hour, the work crew managed to trim and place the 54-foot Sitka spruce, which was harvested from federal forest at t...
Wrangell Cooperative Association is looking for project ideas from community members ahead of a special stakeholders meeting planned for Dec. 2 and 3. WCA has developed the 2015 Community Needs Survey to assist in the endeavor, allowing Tribal members and other residents the opportunity to identify needs, projects or programs that would be of local benefit. The process is being spearheaded by Tlingit-Haida Regional Housing Authority, which has arranged for planners to be brought down for the meeting and has made funds available to prepare a...
Planning and Zoning commissioners lent their support to a proposal by Wrangell Cooperative Association’s Transportation Office for a special contract zone, which would allow it to build a combined office, storage and maintenance facility in a residential area. The 6.87-acre portion is just north of the Panhandle Trailer Court on Zimovia Highway, near its intersection with Case Avenue. Currently zoned for single-family residential use, WCA would like to be able to develop the property for light industrial purposes. Currently the T...
Next week, the Alaska Native Sisterhood celebrates its 100th anniversary at the place of its founding, Wrangell. Alaska Native Brotherhood/ANS is the oldest rights organization for indigenous persons in the world, with the Brotherhood founded in 1912 and the Sisterhood established in 1916. Its stated mission is to improve the lives of Native people and their families, by promoting Native culture and advocating for civil rights and land rights. Membership is organized into local camps,...
The cruise ship Regatta's departure Tuesday evening marked the start of the end for Wrangell's tourist 2015 season. "I think it was a great season," said Cyni Waddington, with the Chamber of Commerce. "I feel we had just the right amount of cruise ships." The summer's high point came during Wrangell's annual July 4 celebrations, which benefitted from clear weather during an otherwise unusually rainy month. "It was probably one of the most well-attended," Waddington said. "I was happy with the...
With the start of school today, Wrangell Cooperative Association ensured more than a few local students came prepared. Last week the Tribe distributed 110 backpacks as part of its annual back to school program. Eighty-five of these came from the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, which provides the backpacks to families across the region annually. The brand-name bags are outfitted with notebooks and materials suitable for different ages and include stationary, a new water bottle, a ruler and a waterproof bag....
Test results for shellfish compiled by the local Indian Environmental General Assistance Program (IGAP) office have been released. Working locally in partnership with Wrangell Cooperative Association, IGAP's primary mission is to undertake projects focused on addressing environmental and quality of life problems. On April 20, IGAP staff and volunteers collected littleneck and butterneck clams, cockles, horse clams and other commonly-consumed shellfish from three beach locations along Zimovia...
As several major mining projects continue to develop upstream of the Stikine River, Wrangell's Native community formally observed the first anniversary of the tailings dam failure at Mount Polley mine on Sunday afternoon. A water blessing ceremony was held outside of the Chief Shakes Island tribal house, with those in attendance including members of the Tlingit and Haida tribes, a delegation of First Nations activists from Canada, and other concerned community members. The visitors included...
On Sunday Alaska Native and Canadian First Nations groups will mark the first anniversary of the Mount Polley tailings dam collapse in a ceremony on the Stikine River. On Aug. 4, 2014, a rupture in the tailings dam servicing the British Columbia mine released billions of gallons of metals-tainted effluent into waters that fed into the salmon-rich Fraser River system. Earlier this month the mine’s owner, Imperial Metals, received a restricted permit from the provincial government allowing it to reopen Mt. Polley, using an alternate tailings o...
Wrangell's annual Bearfest offers a unique opportunity each year for biologists, researchers, photographers and artists to come together for a common cause, and last week's event was no exception. With an international climate conference set to meet in Paris this November, it seemed appropriate that this year's Bearfest lectures revolved around climate change and its anticipated effect on bears and other species. Speakers were invited and an overall theme was arranged by Lance Craighead, a...
A good-sized crowd of over 100 people attended the dedication ceremony for the Wrangell Cooperative Association's new cultural center on Saturday. After a welcoming performance by the Shxat Kwaan Dancers, the building was consecrated by Rev. Wilson Valentine of St. Philip's Episcopal Church and cleansed with a traditional placement of cedar boughs by community members. "This is over a decade in the making," said Aaron Angerman, WCA tribal administrator. He expressed the Tribe's thanks for those...