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Polling booths and complimentary cookies are being prepared for next week’s municipal elections, set for October 3 inside the Nolan Center from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Absentee voting has already been underway, and early ballots can still be submitted inside City Hall until 5 p.m. Monday. Most of the seats up for election have at least one candidate, with a two-year position on the Wrangell Medical Center Board attracting no interest. In the event it passes the election cycle unfilled, clerk Kim Lane explained the city will advertise for the position...
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...
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...
A deadline passed last week for getting placed on the October 3 municipal election ballot. Most seats up for election have at least one candidate, with one seat still without candidates and another to be contested in a three-way race. Contending for one unexpired seat on the Public School Board are incumbent Robert Rang, Caitlin Cardinell and David Wilson. The position would be for two years, expiring in 2019. Jessica Rooney will be running unopposed for one three-year seat on the board. On the Borough Assembly, two three-year terms are up for...
Before summer gives way to autumn, several Wrangell business owners decided to have one more hurrah downtown with food and live music. Set for Sunday afternoon, "Warm August Nights" was thought up by Heidi Milazzo, Clay Culbert, Lucy Robinson, Brooke Leslie and Brenda Schwartz-Yeager. "All of us have been working on it together," said Milazzo. "We just wanted to have a fun family event." Culbert pointed out the lull in local activities around August, with not much by way of entertainment...
With one week left to file, candidates are still being sought for a number of Wrangell’s municipal committees and elected seats. As of Tuesday, four residents have put in their names for the October 3 ballot, ahead of the August 31 filing deadline. Assemblyman Mark Mitchell will not seek another term on that body, but will be running instead for one three-year term on the Port Commission. Current commissioner Walter Moorhead has not yet submitted his name for another term. For the Wrangell School Board, Jessica Rooney has also put herself up f...
Candidates are being sought for Wrangell’s various municipal committees and elected seats. Beginning August 1 and extending through the remainder of the month, the city clerk’s office will be accepting declarations of candidacy and signature petitions for the October 3 ballot. Two three-year terms on the Borough Assembly are coming up for election, with the seats of Stephen Prysunka and Mark Mitchell both expiring. Two seats on the Public School Board – one a full three-year and the other an unexpired two-year term – are likewise up for ele...
Members of Wrangell’s Port Commission have set a timetable for themselves for reworking how lot leases at the boatyard are arranged. At their meeting Monday, commission chair Clay Hammer and harbormaster Greg Meissner said they are putting together an ordinance proposal to consider after the summer season winds down. In its drafting stages, it would reflect discussions held last year and feedback from various yard contractors. The conversation has been an ongoing one for a year and a half, and the commission had previously intended to settle t...
With the department heads scrambling to prepare budgets before the month’s end, rate discussions and spending plans seemed inevitable at the City and Borough Assembly’s Tuesday evening meeting. High up on its agenda was a continued discussion of the city’s residential and commercial water rates, which have lagged well behind covering costs. In light of looming supply problems (see water plant story), significant capital investments ahead for a new plant, and prospective development at the Institute and former mill sites, every penny count...
Going on six years in the making, a steering committee has been assembled to develop a memorial dedicated to Wrangell mariners, and is starting to solicit donations for its construction. The five-member committee was assembled at the behest of the Port Commission, which after commissioning designs for the new memorial thought the next step would be best handled by a private corporation rather than the city. Memorial committee member Brennon Eagle explained taking that route would make it easier...
Wrangell’s Planning and Zoning Commission approved a pair of conditional use applications for prospective bed and breakfast establishments at last Thursday’s evening meeting. For one of these, Linda Nore and Steve Thomassen want to operate “Mount Dewey Extended Stay,” a two-bedroom rental operated out of their home on Mt. Dewey Lane. They put in an application with the city on January 19 that would allow for the limited use, specifying no additional construction would be needed to make the transition. The request drew a number of neighbo...
Wrangell’s Port Commission gave its go-ahead to a tidelands purchase proposed by the Stikine Inn’s owners. Bill Goodale, who jointly manages the dockside hotel with his wife, Cheryl Goodale, appeared at the February 2 meeting to explain his proposal. He wishes to purchase from the city 25,450 square feet of submerged tidelands and 2,000 square feet of uplands to the north and west of the hotel’s current property line, with the intent of expanding and adding to the building. “We’re hoping for 30 rooms, plus retail space on the lower floor,” G...
Wrangell is being represented at the West Coast's biggest annual boat show, which began in Seattle on Friday. Held this year at CenturyLink Field's convention center and at South Lake Union, the annual Seattle Boat Show draws thousands of visitors for a 10-day celebration of all things nautical. This includes craft and gear – with 1,000s of vessels and three acres of accessories to peruse – seminars and activities, and also opportunities to work and travel. A booth boosting Wrangell's ava...
Members of the Wrangell Assembly learned a new water treatment plant being sought after will be financially unfeasible for the foreseeable future, and are looking into other options. Even before the water shortage problems of last summer due to its plant being unable to keep up with demand, the city was aware the facility could use replacement. After it was installed nearly two decades ago, the treatment plant's combination of roughing filters and slow sand filtration system turned out to be ill-suited to the sedimented water coming from Wrange...
Things are coming together for a planned memorial dedicated to Wrangell's seafaring community. The Port Commission last week named two more people to the steering committee tasked with fundraising and contracting for the Mariners Memorial's construction. Fishermen Brennon Eagle and Gig Decker will be joining commission members John Yeager and John Martin on the committee. A fifth position is still vacant, and interested applicants are invited to submit a letter to the city clerk's office. The...
A report released by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development late last week is forecasting a 1.7-percent drop in employment this year from expected 2016 numbers. The forecast predicts a loss of around 600 jobs in the region over the coming year, with half that to be expected from state government. Southeast lost over 500 state jobs between 2014 and 2016, after a sharp drop in oil revenues pushed the state budget into a sustained, multi-billion-dollar deficit. The drop may be...
For Wrangell, the past year was one mixed with successes and setbacks, shared tragedies and uplifting moments. Sales taxes collected over the spring and summer tour seasons neared all-time highs, with the visitor industry experiencing a good season overall. On the other end, fishermen experienced one of their worst harvests of the summer, which after a disappointing 2015 season has put the fiscal pinch on a number of local families, boat builders, and associated sectors. As 2017 dawns, concerns...
In its meeting December 13, the City and Borough Assembly approved issuance of a new sewer revenue bond. Amounting to $91,000, the 40-year bond will finance a portion of the cost to acquire, construct and install additions to two of the borough’s main sewer pump stations. The work includes new piping and control systems for the stations, which together service about 80 percent of the city’s waste. As of this month, Public Works estimated the city’s sewer system has treated 112,994,910 gallons of wastewater, while maintaining 1.5 emplo...
At its regular scheduled meeting last Tuesday, the Borough Assembly signed on to a letter opposed to adoption of an amended timber plan for managing the Tongass National Forest. The letter, written by Juneau attorney Jim Clark, petitions recently reelected Sen. Lisa Murkowski to support delaying the implementation of the Tongass Transition Plan amendment, which the Department of Agriculture is looking to apply to the 2008 Amended Tongass Land and Management Resource Plan. The intent of the amendment is to transition over to a young-growth...
Students in Wrangell High School's marine fabrication class are putting the finishing touches on some new designs. A longstanding program continued under current industrial arts teacher Drew Larrabee. The course gives high schoolers the opportunity to design and construct aluminum boats for themselves, applying the math and physics skills they've learned in the process. Third-year student Brian Schwartz is welding the hull on a 17-foot jet scow of his own design, which should be finished by or...
Several Wrangell boat owners learned they had been burgled early Saturday morning. Wrangell Police Department received a call concerning Heritage Harbor, where it appeared three boats moored there had been entered, one forcibly. Owners were contacted, and they confirmed a number of items were missing, including dive gear and a firearm. "Sure enough, someone had liberated my possessions," commented Steve Prysunka, owner of the boat Mollyann. "They stole such an interesting variety of things." In...
At its regular meeting last week, members of the Wrangell Port Commission decided against allowing casual traffic through the Marine Service Center yard. Effective immediately, access to the boatyard has been restricted with entry limited to one gate. The action follows several months of discussions, with the issue first coming to the attention of commissioners in June. “There’s a really big safety issue with people being able to come and go as they please,” explained commission chair Clay Hammer. Since its start a decade ago, Wrang...
Meeting last week for the first time since June, Wrangell’s Port Commission set some priorities for its coming sessions. “We have a number of items we’re going to have on our plate,” explained commission president Clay Hammer. Of these, the three largest issues will be organizing a steering committee for construction of a new mariners memorial, reassessing the duration of lot leases at the Marine Service Center, and managing public access to the boatyard. The longest in the works, construction of the memorial weighed highly among commiss...
Wrangell's 2016 Municipal Election concluded last week, with results certified by a special meeting of the Borough Assembly on Monday. The Canvass Board met October 6 to sort through and count additional ballots. Assembly members Dave Powell, Mark Mitchell and Becky Rooney comprised the board, which was supervised by Borough Clerk Kim Lane and election chair Sarah Whittlesey-Merritt. Seventy-two ballots in addition to those cast on October 4 were considered, which included absentee or mailed-in...
A new business will be setting up shop at Wrangell’s boatyard. At its meeting last week, the Port Commission recommended transfer of Lot 6 at the Marine Service Center, belonging to Josh Young of J&R Fiberglass, to Steve Christensen of CTT Marine. If approved by the Borough Assembly Tuesday, the deal between the two business owners can be concluded this weekend. It would also be the first lease lot transferred since the yard was built. “We’ll try to build on the reputation Josh has already built with that,” Christensen said. He and his wife, L...