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After 12 years of studying, paying attention, taking notes, playing sports and, in some cases, goofing off, Wrangell High School's senior class will receive their diplomas on Friday night. The final two weeks of school for the graduates have been filled with finishing their senior projects, making sure other work is complete and taking time out for a sanctioned skip day up the Stikine River. Nineteen students will walk to the pomp and circumstance at 7 p.m. Friday at the high school gym, make...
Stacey Wayne, Wrangell High School class of 1982, said it was an honor and a blessing to work as drama and debate coach with Sitka students for a quarter-century. The Alaska School Activities Association added to the honor this month when it inducted Wayne into the Alaska High School Hall of Fame. "Wayne started coaching and teaching drama at Sitka High in 1987 and took two students to the state championship event in that inaugural year," the May 7 awards ceremony program said. "The next year...
Wrangell High School graduate Kayla Hay was always interested in learning German. Her great-grandparents emigrated from Austria to Alaska in the 1920s, she said, and she was intrigued by different cultures and wanted to be able to communicate with her relatives who remained in Austria. Hay didn't have the opportunity to take German as a student in Wrangell (class of 2018), but when she enrolled at Montana State University in Bozeman that fall, she signed up for a basic German language class her...
One thing Ethan Blatchley did not want to do for another four years was sit at a desk to earn a degree. A recent trip to Western Welding Academy in Gillette, Wyoming, reaffirmed the graduating high school senior’s choice to pursue a welding certificate, finishing up in six months. Since he started learning how to weld in shop class last year, Blatchley has been following the academy’s social media posts. He shared them with shop teacher Winston Davies, who was inspired to pursue his own certificate. “(The academy has) a huge social media prese...
SEATTLE (AP) — A ruling from a federal judge in Seattle could effectively shut down commercial king salmon trolling in Southeast Alaska — a valuable industry that supports some 1,500 fishermen — after a Washington state-based conservation group challenged the harvest as a threat to endangered killer whales that eat the prized fish. The state and the Alaska Trollers Association filed a notice of appeal on May 3, the day after the judge’s decision. The state is asking for a stay of the ruling, pending the appeal. Wild Fish Conservancy, which b...
A simple 30-minute trip by jet boat could be the outing of a lifetime for many Wrangell and Petersburg youths, and if they pay attention, it could mean extending that lifetime. On May 2, a mix of fourth and fifth graders from Evergreen Elementary and Petersburg's Stedman Elementary traveled up the Stikine River on a warm, sunny day to Cottonwood Island to learn about everything from identifying wildlife to surviving the elements. Field trips up the river have been going on for about 23 years,...
Want to fly in and out of Wrangell but don't feel like dealing with TSA, long lines and checking baggage? Now you can from the comfort of your home cockpit (aka, couch). Northern Sky Studio, a software developer based in Kharkiv, Ukraine, recently released a Wrangell expansion pack for the popular Microsoft Flight Simulator, and it's just like being here. Flight Simulator, like many long-running video games, had humble origins. Rather than the hyper-realistic detail of modern games, the...
At its special meeting May 1, the borough assembly unanimously approved $266,920 for engineers to assess the condition of Wrangell’s three school buildings, in hopes of making the list for millions of dollars in state funding to repair and refurbish the decades-old structures. The borough is hoping to get the repairs on the Alaska Department of Education’s list of major maintenance projects at school buildings throughout the state. However, making the list is a highly competitive process that requires districts to demonstrate their need. The...
After the chamber of commerce received an anonymous tip two weeks ago that elements of its ongoing $10,000 raffle were against state law, the organization is taking steps to bring the fundraiser into compliance. The chamber held an emergency meeting May 2 to establish an end date for the raffle and discuss its financial needs in advance of the Fourth of July celebration, which it funds and organizes. As originally designed, the chamber’s raffle did not have an end date. Tickets would have been drawn and the $10,000 prize would have been a...
The first cruise ship of the season is scheduled to tie up in Wrangell on Thursday, and borough crews have been working to get new restrooms ready for visitors — and locals — who need another option while walking around downtown. The borough has installed two portable units just off Front Street, next to the 56° North shop, near the intersection with Campbell Drive. These are not your routine porta-potties with holding tanks; they are portable units set in place and hooked up to municipal sewage and water lines — sinks included. One of the fa...
Learning about politics, visiting memorials and even singing for Sen. Lisa Murkowski were all part of a recent trip four Wrangell students took to Washington, D.C. The yearly Close Up program took Sarah Merritt, of the Wrangell Legislative Information Office, along with students Alisha Armstrong, Ander Edens, Sean McDonald and Spencer Petticrew to the nation's capital and New York City for 10 days at the end of April. The purpose of the program is to expose students to the worlds of business...
Tribal citizens lined up outside the WCA carving shed on the sunny afternoon of May 2 to collect boxes of herring eggs from the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. The Tlingit and Haida Traditional Food Security program purchased over 17,000 pounds from spawn-on-kelp fishery permit holders in the Craig and Klawock area, according to the Ketchikan Daily News. The eggs are being distributed in 21 designated communities, including Wrangell, which received 463 pounds of eggs in about 100 4.5-pound boxes for tribal...
On June 1, the Wrangell Senior Center will cut back its in-person meals and ride services after a loss of funding. Juneau-based Catholic Community Services, the organization that operates the senior center, announced on May 1 that there would no longer be any funding from COVID-19 emergency relief federal programs, making it necessary to reduce operating hours. “With the White House’s announcement that the coronavirus public health emergency is officially ending, there is no longer emergency relief money available to support the senior ope...
As the days get longer and the weather gets warmer, Wrangellites are gearing up for a fun-filled summer. And thanks to a new downtown business that will offer candy, inflatables, décor, custom clothing and more, the community's seasonal festivities are about to get even sweeter. Scott and Keeleigh Curley's new Front Street shop, Midnight Oil, will hold its grand opening starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday, one of the borough's two sales tax-free days in 2023. Midnight Oil will offer the community...
The end of federal pandemic assistance and years of flat state funding have hurt the school district’s ability to cover its costs. The borough assembly has stepped up for the second year in a row to help close the budget gap. At its meeting April 25, the assembly unanimously approved a $1.6 million contribution to Wrangell Public Schools, which is the amount Superintendent Bill Burr said the district needs to essentially balance its budget. The assembly approved$700,000 from sales tax funds and $900,000 from the federal Secure Rural Schools f...
The borough assembly at a special meeting Monday evening considered a $25,000 appropriation to help the chamber of commerce afford this year’s Fourth of July celebrations. However, assembly members voted unanimously to postpone the decision until the May 23 meeting, saying they wanted to hold a public hearing. The chamber requested the $25,000 in addition to the $27,000 that the borough contributed to the chamber’s general budget this fiscal year. “We have a lot of concerns moving forward,” said Borough Manager Jeff Good, including what th...
The Tlingit Nation has stewarded the land in and around Wrangell since time immemorial, and new biological research from the University at Buffalo New York adds further proof of the genetic continuity of coastal people over thousands of years. A 3,000-year-old bone fragment found years ago near Wrangell was recently identified as the remains of a woman. Researchers studying paleogenetics in the region collaborated with the Wrangell Cooperative Association to learn more about the early history of the Tlingit and their relationships to other...
Spring may still be gray and dreary in Wrangell but the sun will come out on May 12. That Friday at 7 p.m., the musical "Annie" will open at the Nolan Center theater and will run again May 13 at 4 p.m., May 20 at 7 p.m. and May 21 at 4 p.m. Last Sunday, cast and crew were busy checking microphones, coordinating and rehearsing a full run-through of the performance for the first time. According to Haley Reeves, in her directorial debut, there are between 30 and 40 cast members, some of whom are...
How does their garden grow? It's elementary, dear reader. Last Thursday, fifth and sixth graders gathered at the Evergreen Elementary School garden to prepare the soil for planting, growing and ultimately harvesting. Tracey Martin's fifth grade class has been learning the science behind growing, along with some math and other lessons. Finally, they were able to put some of that education into practice as they cleaned the garden, which runs along Bennett Street in front of the school. The class...
The borough reassessed the values of all properties on the road system this year in an effort to correct tax inequities among property owners. But this unprecedented mass review has meant a major increase in the number of appeals compared to previous years. In the coming weeks, the borough’s contract assessors and the Board of Equalization will get to work addressing those appeals. Of around 2,300 properties that were reassessed this year, owners appealed 179 valuations. Last year, there were only 52 appeals, though only a third of p...
They tested their abilities to follow instructions. They designed and built structures to withstand seismic activity. They studied the inner workings of marine life. They looked at sea lion poop. Over the course of seven days, six students from Stikine Middle School attended the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program (ANSEP) at the University of Alaska Anchorage campus. ANSEP began in 1995 as a scholarship program but has since become an educational program to help Alaska Natives follow...
Whether it's the Naanyaa.aayí, Kaach.ádi, Taalkweidí or one of the six other Tlingit clans represented in Wrangell, each has a story of its origins, handed down over thousands of years. One organization is working to preserve those stories, as well as stories of all Southeast Alaska clans, as accurately as possible. About two years ago, the Sealaska Heritage Institute began researching and compiling information on an initial six Tlingit clan crests and how they came to be. The work was pu...
The tire cutter that Wrangell shares with the rest of Southeast has returned to town early. The Public Works Department is trying to complete a construction project that requires reducing the pile of old tires at the town’s waste transfer site, so the communities on Prince of Wales Island, which were next in line to receive the hydraulic-powered cutting machine, have agreed to let Wrangell have an extra turn. The pile needs to be significantly reduced before a permanent loading dock can be constructed at the solid waste transfer station. The m...
For communities around the globe, tourism can be both a blessing and a curse. The industry can provide a much-needed economic bump, but in Venice, millions of international arrivals inflate prices for residents and replace locally owned businesses with tourist traps. Closer to home, the city of Ketchikan has hosted cruise ships with capacities of nearly half its population, which can crowd out residents and risk the town’s authentic character. As the tourism industry expands, Alaska communities are seeking a path forward that will allow them t...
Dennis Martin works his way through a drainage ditch last Saturday, picking up trash as part of the community-wide cleanup effort. Martin and many others focused on the Airport Loop, as a lot of trash collects along the roadside due to knocked-over garbage cans or refuse falling from vehicles on the way to the transfer station. A total of 69 volunteers collected 133 bags plus two trucks full of items too big to bag from throughout Wrangell, according to Kim Wickman, IGAP technician with the...
