Sorted by date Results 176 - 200 of 281
Preliminary results are in for the 2016 Wrangell municipal election. Those who hadn't already voted early took to the polls in person Tuesday, with 384 ballots cast at the Nolan Center. Running for mayor, David Jack won reelection with 321 votes. Candidate Kipha Valvoda garnered 49 votes, and seven additional write-in votes did not qualify. Two candidates ran unopposed for two three-year terms on the City and Borough Assembly. Incumbent Julie Decker received 345 votes, and write-in candidate Patty Gilbert received 157. Two candidates also ran...
The municipal election is set for next week, with polls open Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. inside the Nolan Center. Though a number of candidates for local positions are currently running unopposed, all vacancies are at least set to be filled, thanks to the addition of two write-in candidates earlier this month. For mayor, current incumbent David Jack will be running for reelection against candidate Kipha Valvoda. Four candidates will be running for two three-year terms on the Wrangell Public School Board, including incumbent Rinda Howell, form...
Gary Morrison, write-in candidate, running for two three-year seats Occupation and experience Retired, formerly of the U.S. Forest Service for 38 years, and former Alaska State Parks Director. Has sat on a number of BLM and USFS boards. Why do you wish to run for the Port Commission? "I think my management experience and background, and my interest in the marine environment, boating and interest in furthering the economy of Wrangell, I think I have something I can contribute and want to try to...
With the addition of two write-in candidates to next month’s municipal election ballot, all the expected vacancies will at least have people to fill them. Of the open spots on the Oct. 4 ballot, six are still currently uncontested. Of those being contested, current Mayor David Jack will be running for reelection against candidate Kipha Valvoda. Four candidates will be running for two three-year terms on the School Board, including former member Georgianna Buhler, Scott Seddon, Robert Rang and incumbent Rinda Howell. The two candidates with t...
September 30, 1916: With a slight trembling of the knees, but with great pleasure at the opportunity, we make our bow. Last week, Mr. Paul F. Stanhope received a cash payment in full of the purchase of the Sentinel, and retired as its editor and publisher. We have undertaken this venture as a business proposition and we believe that the very best way to make it a business success is to make it first of all a local paper. A clean, live, local newspaper is an asset to any community. It serves the people in a way that the big metropolitan dailies...
At its Tuesday night meeting, the Borough Assembly continued to keep up on its various utility priorities. In his regular update, city manager Jeff Jabusch reported most paving projects around town have been completed, including the barge ramp lot. Surfacing work at Wood Street is still on schedule, with new curbing being set in place. Work on that project is expected to wrap up in mid-October. For the water treatment plant, Public Works Department staff are working on a plan to clean out the sand in its filtration units. An emergency shortage...
The ballot for next month’s municipal election is still two names short, with vacancies on the Borough Assembly and Port Commission left without candidates. A few other positions will go uncontested, with Assembly member Julie Decker running for reelection to a three-year term unopposed, as is Port Commission incumbent John Yeager. Two unexpired two-year terms on the Wrangell Medical Center Board are uncontested as well, with incumbent Olinda White and newcomer Patrick Mayer applying for the seats. One full four-year term on the hospital board...
Two more people have put forth their names to be included on October’s municipal elections ballot. As of press time Tuesday, schools superintendent Patrick Mayer expressed interest in running for a vacancy on the Wrangell Medical Center Board, while WMC head Robert Rang will be running for a position on the Public School Board. The city clerk’s office is inquiring with its attorney on retainer about whether having the two officials serve on each others’ boards would represent a conflict of interest. While unusual, the possibility is not prohi...
With local elections coming up on October 4, the city is still looking for declarations of candidacy for a range of available seats. A handful of candidates have already declared as of Tuesday. Running for reelection will be Mayor David Jack, who has served since 2013 and won reelection in 2014. As of now, Jack will be running unopposed. Barbara Conine will be running for reelection to the Wrangell Medical Center Board for another four-year term. At the board’s urging in March, the Borough Assembly decided to reduce the number of seats from n...
Wrangell’s Borough Assembly revisited its local contractors list, which it had adopted last year in order to streamline hiring for small projects. An idea was first put forward to the Assembly by Borough Manager Jeff Jabusch in December 2014, drafting a list of licensed local contractors who could be called upon for small-scale jobs under $25,000 on a rotating on-call basis. A pool of qualified local contractors hirable by the city was created, ensuring those contacted for jobs were qualified for the work and that all those qualifying would b...
In a close vote the Wrangell City and Borough Assembly approved a new fee structure for the community’s harbors and dock facilities. Already approved once on its first reading by the Assembly last month, the increases being put forward would institute a 10-percent increase to outside and inside dock face moorage, storage, port development fees and most boatyard rates. Those increases would also incorporate an anti-inflationary rise of two percent per year. Transient moorage rates have been rescheduled, shifting from flat per-foot rates to a s...
The Wrangell Port Commission was tasked with solving a problem with access to the boatyard, after local sight-seeing operators were presented letters by the city asking them to stop driving buses through on tours. Gold Rush Tours and Alaska Waters were sent a pair of letters apiece from Borough Manager Jeff Jabusch, requesting them to discontinue tours through the Marine Service Center. This posed a problem for both outfits, as the yard had been included on the itinerary for tours which had already been booked through the season. Brooke Leslie...
After many months of preparation, higher rates for Wrangell's harbor and boatyard users passed a penultimate hurdle on Tuesday. The City and Borough Assembly approved on first reading Ordinance 917, amending the fee schedule for Wrangell's Harbor Department. The proposal will return to the Assembly for its second and final reading on June 14. Approved by the Port Commission at its May 5 meeting, the increases being put forward would institute a 10-percent increase to outside and inside dock face moorage, storage, port development fees and most...
Community members were given a first peek at the budget being proposed for the next fiscal year, in the first of several planned workshops held on Monday. “This is a draft budget. It's certainly the starting point,” Borough Manager Jeff Jabusch pointed out. “The budget here is balanced up to this point,” finance director Lee Burgess summarized, presenting the draft. While the budget draft presented Monday is currently balanced, Burgess pointed out there are still several looming concerns. Rent revenues from the state for use of the local j...
The City and Borough Assembly was able to put its concerns to bed regarding a proposed mooring facility and breakwater. At the April 12 meeting assembly members had opted to postpone their decision on a request by prospective recreational outfit Big Bites Fishing to construct a 580-foot breakwater from a 6-mile property adjacent to the Silver Bay Logging Company mill site. At the time, Assembly members were uncertain whether to lend approval to the plan, which is currently being reviewed by the Army Corps of Engineers for site approval. There...
Port commissioners continued to wrangle over potential rate increases last week, holding a workshop ahead of its regular meeting on April 7. In particular, they looked at raising rates for boatyard haulout fees, one of the Harbor Department’s five sources of revenue along with moorage, lease lots, utilities and storage. Harbormaster Greg Meissner explained there were limited opportunities for revenue growth with utilities and lease lots, the latter largely being settled last month with the extension of five-year leases by the Borough Assembly....
Monday evening’s meeting of the Port Commission was spent largely on discussing rate increases, with an hour-long workshop focused on moorage fees. The way harbormaster Greg Meissner figured it, stalls at the moment are not paying nearly enough for themselves, which will be a problem further down the line. At the present, dockside moorage fees are at a flat $25 per foot, a cost which has not changed for the better part of a decade. More than half of fees collected go into savings for deferred maintenance, which in turn gets used toward the purc...
In the midst of rate increase talks and utility concerns, Wrangell’s Port Commission approved the renewal of three leases at the Marine Service Center during its Feb. 18 meeting. The lease lots of welder Chuck Jenkins, shipwright Tyler Thompson and contractor Steve Keller were up for their five-year renewal. Commissioners had previously approved Jenkins’ renewal in December at its $0.08 per square foot monthly rate. On Jan. 12 the Assembly decided to return Jenkins’ request for renewal to the commission, reasoning it might want to update lease...
At its regular monthly meeting, the Wrangell Public School Board approved the purchase of a new phone system for its two campuses. Board members approved a $65,000 contract with AP&T to install the new system, which replaces the district's 71 phones with IP-based handsets and will include a one-year service agreement for parts and equipment. "The current system that we have right now, they say they can't support them," explained Matt Gore, technology director for the school district. The new...
In an unexpected move, the Wrangell City and Borough Assembly sent back a request to renew a lot lease to the committee which approved it. After extensive discussion, its members agreed to send a facility lease agreement between the city and and Chuck Jenkins back to the Port Commission. Approved unanimously by commissioners last month, the agreement would extend the lease on Jenkins' lot in the boatyard for another five years at the rate he had been paying. The action was recommended by Assembly member Dave Powell after he learned two more lea...
Members of the Wrangell Port Commission were frustrated to find no progress was being made in extending water to one of the boatyard's major contractors. Speaking at the commission's meeting Jan. 7, Don Sorric informed it the taps at Superior Marine Services were still dry after 13 months of waiting. After previously being cited by Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors in 2014, Sorric came to the Port Commission that November to request that utilities be extended to his lease...
The Wrangell Port Commission will move ahead with plans to reexamine rates, it decided at its regular meeting on Jan. 7. The meeting was prefaced by a rate change workshop, where commissioners pored over sheets comparing local lift, storage, work and moorage fees with other communities. The sheets were put together by harbormaster Greg Meissner, who made the case for an increase. The commission had previously considered a 50-percent raise in work area rates to 75 cents per square foot, but decided last March to wait amid concerns from contracto...
The year 2015 was largely a good one for Wrangell, with the appearance of several new businesses, large infrastructural developments undertaken by businesses, the formal opening of the Tribe's cultural center, and a balanced financial outlook for the city despite tumultuous budget negotiations in Juneau. The state deficit will remain the largest issue moving ahead into 2016, as will continued mining developments in Canada along shared waters. January On Jan. 12 and 14 the first of three sets of...
The plan to build a memorial dedicated to Wrangell's mariners is now shovel-ready – organizers now just need to pull together the funds to buy the shovels. The Port Commission has been spearheading the memorial project, and accepted completed designs from Corvus Design's principal landscape architect Chris Mertl during its Dec. 3 meeting. "I'm really happy with the progress we've made," said commissioner Clay Hammer. "Stuff's about to get real here." A draft design was last presented to the p...
In the Sentinel 100, 75, 50 and 25 years ago. November 25, 1915: The first shipment of shrimp to be made from Wrangell was made on the Dolphin last Saturday. The shipment contained about two hundred pounds of fine large shrimp. Wrangellites were given a chance to try them as about a hundred pounds were placed on the market and sold here. The shrimp were caught at the entrance of the Wrangell Narrows by Victor Noberg, Chas. Chase and Arthur Thebo. Mr. R.L. Petty of Ketchikan was a visitor in Wrangell for a few days this past week. In speaking...