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As students start school on Aug. 25, two new administrators will be joining them. Ann Hilburn is the new principal for Evergreen Elementary and Bob Burkhart is new the principal for Wrangell High and Stikine Middle school. Hilburn was previously the special education teacher at the high school and middle school, while Burkhart was working as a principal in Missoula, Montana, after having been retired. Leadership positions at the schools opened after Bob Davis retired from the high school and...
August is a time for fishing, the last of any gardening work and the enjoyment of harvesting the fruits (and vegetables) of that effort. It’s a time for home repairs, while there is still a plausible chance of dry weather to patch the roof, refinish the deck or scrape and repaint the siding. It’s also a time to consider serving in public office. Probably you’re thinking you’d rather pick garden slugs or clean the gutters than serve on the borough assembly, school board or port commission. At least no one criticizes you for those other pursuit...
And they're off! The Wrangell High School cross country practice began July 27, with many returning runners and a few new faces to race toward a successful season that started with a different training approach. Head coach Kayla Rooney is returning for her third year to guide the team with the help of new assistant coach Mason Villarma. Both coaches have had success as runners in the past, with Rooney placing at the state level each year of her high school career and Villarma running from...
HELP WANTED Wrangell Public Schools is accepting applications for the following position for the 2022-2023 school year: Title I Paraprofessional: This is a full-time position working with students in Grades K-5, 7.5 hours per day at Evergreen Elementary School. Salary placement is Column A on the Classified Salary Schedule. A high school diploma or equivalent is required. An associate degree, equivalent credits, or the ability to pass the parapro assessment is also required. This position does include a benefits package. The anticipated start...
The borough assembly has taken the first step toward seeking voter approval for borrowing up to $15 million to pay for long-needed repairs at the Public Safety Building and school buildings. The assembly last week voted to hold a special meeting Aug. 8 to introduce an ordinance placing the question on the Oct. 4 municipal election ballot. A public hearing on the ordinance would be held Aug. 23. If approved by voters, work could start in 2024, after the bonds are sold, engineering plans put together, the jobs bid out and contractors selected....
One by one, facilities staff is checking off their to-do list in preparation for the first day of classes Aug. 25. Each building in the school district has items that need fixing, patching, painting and more before students and staff return for the 2022-23 school year. "A lot of what we do in the summertime is just get the school ready in general," said Josh Blatchley, facilities director for the district. "We've gone through and carpet cleaned and waxed all the classrooms. That's a process. The...
Aug. 3, 1922 The Wenonah, with A.M. Sobieralski commanding, was in port Saturday and Sunday. This is a Coast and Geodetic Survey vessel and has been in Southeast Alaska the past two months during which time a precise triangulation has been extended from the completed work in the vicinity of Zarembo Island south to Ship Island. The topography along the west shore of Ernest Sound has been extended to the entrance of Zimovia Strait, including Menefee Inlet, Southwest Cove, Canoe Passage and off-lying islands. Inshore hydrography on the south...
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is moving ahead with its review of the borough’s wetlands fill permit application to develop the former Wrangell Institute property for residential lots. The borough hopes to start ground-clearing work next year, Carol Rushmore, the borough’s planning and zoning director, said last week. Permit review work had been on hold while state and federal agencies and the borough coordinated an archaeological records and ground survey of the property that had been used as a Bureau of Indian Affairs Native boarding sch...
The borough will list Wrangell’s former hospital building on a nationwide surplus public property website, hoping for better results than efforts the past two months which resulted in not a single bid. “We’ve got to get rid of this,” Mayor Steve Prysunka said at the July 26 borough assembly meeting. The borough has been paying close to $100,000 a year to keep the building heated and insured, and protected against water damage. The borough ran an online auction in June to sell the property but received no bids. It then offered the buildin...
Candidates have until 4 p.m. Aug. 31 to file their declaration and signature petition at City Hall for a spot on the Oct. 4 municipal election ballot. The offices of mayor, two borough assembly seats, three school board seats and two spots on the port commission will be on the ballot. Mayor Steve Prysunka, who has served two terms (four years), said last week he is not seeking reelection. Before winning his first term as mayor in 2018, Prysunka served three years on the borough assembly. The mayor’s job is a two-year term. The terms also expire...
The process will stretch over the next couple of months, with a public hearing and a lot of public information, but it looks like the borough assembly will ask voters in the Oct. 4 municipal election to approve borrowing as much as $15 million for long-needed repairs to all of the school buildings and the Public Safety Building. Selling bonds to finance the work will mean promising to repay those bonds, which will mean higher property taxes until the debt is repaid. Anyone who has driven by and looked at any of the buildings can see they need a...
Each step was like planting my feet into water-soaked bath towels. Thirteen miles of nonstop sloshing in last Sunday’s BearFest half marathon could be viewed by some as not so fun. But for me, it was a chance to think about the past year. Most runners will tell you that the pastime is therapy, affording us plenty of time to ponder our path in life. Just under a year ago, I arrived in Wrangell, with a U-Haul full of my past life. My decision has been reaffirmed every day since. Here’s why: I came from a place where a population of 45,000 peo...
Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it’s putting $29 million toward connecting just over 1,200 people, a school and 45 businesses in Craig and Klawock on Prince of Wales Island and also Hyder to high-speed internet. That funding is part of Alaska’s $116 million slice of $401 million in grants to improve internet access in 11 states. It’s part of an initial round of the more than $90 billion the federal government has committed to spending on bringing affordable, high-speed internet to communities across the count...
The Alaska Department of Law issued an opinion July 25 saying public money can be spent for homeschool students to attend one or two classes in a private school, but cannot be used for most of a student’s private school tuition. The 19-page opinion said it’s sometimes legal to use public funds for private school classes through the state program that pays for students to attend a correspondence school or homeschool. “But the more it looks like you’re just trying to send your kid to private school and get subsidized by the state, I think t...
The borough assembly is considering whether to seek voter approval to sell $10.5 million in bonds for the first phase of rehab work at the rot-damaged 35-year-old Public Safety Building, and $4.5 million in bonds to help pay for roof, siding and boiler work at school buildings that range in age from 35 to 53 years old. Repayment of the bonds would come from municipal revenues, particularly property taxes. The assembly was scheduled to meet in a work session Tuesday evening to discuss the proposal, followed by the regular meeting where members w...
Few would dispute that Wrangell needs affordable, dependable child care services. The lack of child care keeps parents away from filling the long list of job vacancies around town and, when their kids are sick, can keep them away from the jobs they already hold. People need to work and want to raise children, and the community needs more children in school and more people to take jobs — child care seems a reasonable approach toward meeting all those needs. And while there are some at-home providers in town, and certainly friends and r...
Bobby Bolen is trying to fill around 50 teaching positions at the North Slope Borough School District. “This is our focus 24 hours a day right now — to get classrooms staffed for students,” Bolen said. Bolen is the brand-new human resources director at the district, which has about 2,000 students in 12 schools, some of which start as soon as Aug. 8. He’s exploring options like long-term substitutes and the prospect of international teachers to round out the district’s usual teaching staff of about 170. “Our worst-case scenario would be distance...
HELP WANTED Wrangell Public Schools is accepting applications for the following positions for the 2022-2023 school year: Elementary Teacher: This is a full-time teaching position in Grades K-5 (placement to be determined). This position requires an Alaska teaching certificate with an appropriate endorsement in elementary education. The anticipated start date for this position is Aug. 22, 2022. High School Secretary: This is a full-time, 10-month position with benefits, supporting the principal and completing all office duties of a school...
What's the recipe for sculpting a bear? Add one part encouragement, one part planning, two parts materials, one part inspiration, ruminate for two years, then take three months to cut away everything that doesn't look like a bear. This year's BearFest statue, entitled "Honeysuckle," was created by Anne Luetkemeyer, an artist who leaned on her industrial background to carve the piece. Two years ago, Sylvia Ettefagh, chairperson of BearFest, asked Luetkemeyer if she would create a bear statue for...
Early voting will open Aug. 1 for the Aug. 16 special election to fill the unexpired term of the late U.S. Rep. Don Young and the primary election, also Aug. 16, for governor, Legislature, U.S. Senate, and to select the top candidates for a full two-year term in the U.S. House. Voters may cast their ballots between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. weekdays through Aug. 15 at City Hall assembly chambers, said Sarah Merritt, state elections worker in Wrangell. “You never have to give a reason” to vote early, Merritt said. Voters can choose to vote early if the...
BearFest is coming out of hibernation and is planned for July 27 through July 31 throughout Wrangell. The popular event, in its 13th year, will offer pie contests, live music, art and music workshops, symposiums, a marathon and more. "It's a celebration of bears. That's the short of it," said Sylvia Ettefagh, chairperson for the event. "Its mission is to promote Wrangell and to promote the environment; one part of our environment - a very important part of our environment - the bears." Not only...
July 6, 1922 The U.S. Secretary of Commerce has approved an amendment to the general rules which requires that no candidate for original license as master, mate, pilot or engineer shall be examined unless he has completed a course of instruction in first aid. “The manual is intended primarily to furnish officers and men of the American Merchant Marine a simple but comprehensive textbook on ship sanitation and hygiene, an outline of surgical and fundamental information regarding the treatment of disease,” an announcement by the Health Ser...
THANK YOU Thanks and Gunalchéesh to Alaska Vistas, ANB, the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce, Harbor Department, Parks and Recreation Department and WCA for all their support with the July 3 canoe races. Both scheduled and spontaneous helping hands made it possible for 100 entrants to participate. John and Cindy Martin THANK YOU Thank you to Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood for the donation and frybread sale on the Fourth of July. Gunalchéesh ho ho! Wrangell JOM THANK YOU The Stough family, James and Rachel, would like to say a big thank y...
No one bid on the former Wrangell hospital building, which the borough had offered to sell at a minimum asking price of $830,000. The bidding period was open for a month and closed last Thursday. The property is now available for an over-the-counter sale. “It means that the first person to come in to sign an intent to purchase with a 20% down payment (payment in full within 60 days of signing) would be the buyer,” Borough Clerk Kim Lane explained last Friday. “If that happens, I would then take a resolution to the assembly to approve the sale....
Sealaska Heritage Institute has made available online for the public recordings of two important treasures in the preservation of traditional Southeast Native culture, knowledge and history: Radio interviews with Native leaders that go back almost 40 years and the biennial Celebration festival. The 164 radio interviews preserved in digital files are from an hour-long program, “Southeast Native Radio,” that aired on Juneau public station KTOO 1985 to 2001. “The collection is remarkable, as it offers so many interviews with people on topic...