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There's a New Mexican spot in town. Nope, not a new Mexican spot, a New Mexican spot. The Wolf Shack, formerly J&W's, officially opened its doors on Jan. 2, ushering in a new era bolstered by the culinary talents of Alisha Mora and Chris Miera. The couple will keep the classic J&W's staples on the menu (Carol Churchill has agreed to keep making her tartar sauce while menu items like "Baby Randy" and "Randy" will maintain their names), but Chris and Alisha are excited to add some New Mexican...
If you need to throw away an old printer, maybe hang on to it just a little longer. On March 8, WCA Tl'átḵ | Earth Branch will host an electronic waste collection event. Time and location are yet to be determined, but the event will allow people to dispose of their old electronics in a sustainable and safe manner. Potential items to discard include computers, laptops, printers, scanners, TVs, monitors, cell phones and tablets. Earth Branch’s Kim Wickman said it’s best to fully wipe the memory from electronics like computers and phones before...
Wrangell lost 147 working-age residents — defined as between the ages of 20 and 64 — from 2020 to 2024, according to the state’s latest numbers. Meanwhile, the community’s senior citizen population — 65 and older — grew by 91 during the same period. The loss of working-age residents likely is a big reason for the chronic labor shortage in town, particularly among Front Street businesses. The town is getting older, with the median age increasing from 48 years old in 2020 to 49.1 years old in 2024, according to data released by the Alaska Depa...
The chamber of commerce has five annual awards to hand out in March — now it just needs some nominations. The chamber is soliciting nominations through Jan. 31 for business of the year, citizen of the year, volunteer of the year, educator of the year and young leader of the year. The awards have been around a long time, “I don’t know how many years,” said Tracey Martin, the chamber’s executive director. Anyone can nominate anyone in town, and there is no form to fill out. All it takes is a letter to the chamber, describing why the person or...
Nominations are open for four seats on the eight-member Wrangell Cooperative Association tribal council. Nominations will close at 4 p.m. Feb. 12. Voting will be held from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Feb. 27 at the WCA Cultural Center. The terms of council members Jason Clark, Tom Gillen Sr., Luella Knapp and Sandy Churchill will expire this year. All are eligible to run for election to another term, said Esther Aaltséen Reese, tribal administrator. Candidates for the council must be a member of WCA and on the tribe’s official voter list. The minimum ag...
Due to a staffing shortage, the Senior Center has temporarily suspended in-person lunches, switching to delivered meals for homebound seniors and porch pickups at the building for everyone else. The center also needs to temporarily cut back on its ride service while it looks to hire someone to fill the driver/assistant cook position. Rides will be available for health clinic appointments only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Seniors can get rides to medical appointments, grocery stores, the library, post office or most anywhere else Wednesdays and...
The Sentinel is inviting the public — newspaper readers and particularly non-readers — to a community meeting to share ideas and talk about challenges for the Sentinel in the years ahead. The open house is scheduled for 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Jan. 25, at the Stikine Inn. The event is free, as will be the coffee and cookies. Sentinel staff will talk about the paper — how it operates, how it makes decisions and its financial challenges — and then listen to the public and answer questions about the newspaper. “The intent is to hear from people...
As voices became hushed and the crowd waited for the ceremony to begin, a toddler mumbled an inaudible question to their mother. Amid a sea of people packed into the Nolan Center, the woman's response was clear and without question. "The Army killed our people here," she said, "and now they're going to say sorry." The U.S. Army apologized for the 1869 bombardment of the Tlingit village called Ḵaachx̱aana.áakʼw at a ceremony on Saturday, Jan. 11, in Wrangell. Of the seven Tlingit clans that rece...
The failure of the U.S. House to reauthorize federal funding to assist rural communities with a lot of non-taxable federal land — such as the Tongass National Forest — presents a $550,000 challenge for the Wrangell School District and borough. If the new Congress doesn’t fix the problem, the district could have to further draw on its reserves, or the borough could have to take from its reserves to plug the gap, or a combination of the two. Or cut spending at the schools — the federal money represents about 10% of this year’s school district...
Five months after their initial presentation to the community, a team of university landslide experts is returning to town to provide an update on their research surrounding the November 2023 landslides that hit Wrangell. Margaret Darrow and her team of experts will speak at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Nolan Center. The presentation is expected to run a couple hours and pizza will be provided. The event is free to the public. “It’s supposed to be another great presentation,” Nolan Center Director Jeanie Arnold said. “The last one was really inclusi...
The public is invited to a community meeting to hear and share ideas on how the Sentinel can better serve the town and survive in a world where social media commands more attention than newspapers. The meeting, organized by the Sentinel, is set for 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Jan. 25, at the Stikine Inn. There will be free cookies and free regular coffee — no free lattes or free cappuccino, though the Stik Café will be open for people who want to buy their special morning coffee. There is no agenda. The Sentinel staff will open the event with a...
Wrangell’s Senior Center may be on the move. Three months after the borough proposed that the Senior Center relocate to the community center’s multipurpose room, a change in plans may be in order as the center explores the possibility of a new home: the American Legion Hall. Recent discussions between Juneau-based Catholic Community Service, which operates the Senior Center, and Wrangell’s American Legion Auxiliary have propelled the Legion Hall into pole position for the center’s eventual landing spot. Staff at Catholic Community Service...
The borough is looking for residents interested in serving on the port commission, which has a vacancy following the resignation of Gary Morrison. With Anne and Gary Morrison leaving town next month to live closer to family in Montana, the borough assembly loses a six-year member (Anne) and the port commission loses a five-year member (Gary). Residents interested in filling out the port commission term until October need to file a letter of interest with the borough clerk no later than 3 p.m. Feb. 11. The borough assembly is scheduled at its...
Mike Lewis is continuing to operate Tiny’s Taxi as he waits to see if a local resident is able to put together a deal to take over the business. Lewis closed down the 24-hour taxi service as of Jan. 1 — citing low demand for rides. He had been driving people around town since April 2022. “Tiny’s Taxi is open for business during our transfer of new ownership,” he posted to Facebook on Jan. 10. “We are pleased to be working with the new owners during this acquisition and will be open to serve the community of Wrangell. Our hours will be limited...
The Box Tops for Education program has been around for more than 25 years, raising money for schools across the country. But people no longer have to literally cut off the tops from food boxes and household products and turn them in to raise money. Like so many other things in life, it’s now an app. The program, started by General Mills in 1996, had raised almost $1 billion as of last year. Wrangell’s Evergreen Elementary School wants to remind residents of the digital opportunity to help raise a little extra cash for classrooms. It all depends...
On Saturday, Jan. 11, the U.S. Army will issue a formal apology to the community for its December 1869 bombardment of Wrangell's Tlingit village, Ḵaachx̱aana.áakʼw. This is the third recent military apology to Southeast communities after the Navy apologized last fall for its attacks on Kake (1869) and Angoon (1882). Given the rarity of these admissions of guilt, there is little precedent for the structure of the event, meaning the planning - at least for the Wrangell apology - was left up to loc...
The Washington state developer who wants to turn the former 6-Mile mill property into a waste-burning operation to heat large-scale greenhouses said his next steps include lining up financing and making an offer to buy the land from the borough. Dale Borgford said he was heartened by the warm reception he received from the borough assembly, mayor and borough staff when he and his crew met with officials and toured the site last month. The Colville, Washington businessman has estimated the cost for developing the Wrangell project could total...
Next time your friend asks for a ride to the airport, say yes. You might be their only hope. After two years in service, Tiny's Taxi turned off the ignition for the last time on Dec. 31. Tiny's has been the island's sole taxi service since Johnny Cab ceased operations last summer. "It's been an incredible journey," Tiny's founder Mike Lewis said. "I've met some amazing people and made some amazing friends. (I've) played catchup with a lot of the old-school locals after 30 years of being gone."...
In the 2022-2023 school year, over 70% of Wrangell students were chronically absent. That's nearly double the state average and nearly three times the national average. The Alaska Department of Education, which posts school district absenteeism numbers every year, defines chronic absenteeism as missing 10% of the school year. In Alaska, that amounts to 18 days of missed classes. "If a student misses those 18 days every year from kindergarten to 12th grade, that will add up to them being absent...
Wrangell students’ filmmaking efforts are going global — at least to Vancouver, British Columbia. This February, Wrangell high schoolers Jackson Pearson and Silje Morse will travel to the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival alongside teacher Laura Davies. The trio was invited to attend the festival by See Stories — an Alaska nonprofit dedicated to building “inclusive communities with film and story.” See Stories and Wrangell’s high school documentary film club, Stikine Stories (whose program is modeled after See Stories), have collab...
“Grease cake” is not a recipe for success in Public Works Director Tom Wetor’s kitchen. And there’s nothing completely handy and harmless about wiping up a mess and flushing it down the toilet. It all clogs up the pumps, screens and equipment at Wrangell’s sewage treatment plant. “It’s definitely a constant problem,” Wetor said, so much so that the borough sends out a reminder every year to residents about what not to dump into their sinks, tubs and toilets. “You’d be amazed at how those wipes clump together,” twisting into a rope around th...
Borough staff is working with an engineering team to finish up the design and specifications to put in streets and utilities for the second phase of the Alder Top Village (Keishangita.’aan) residential subdivision near Shoemaker Harbor. If the borough goes ahead with the project, the street and utility work could be put out to bid for 2025 construction. Phase II of the subdivision of borough-owned land would make available for sale 20 residential lots, adding to the 20 lots already planned for sale by online bidding and a lottery this coming s...
Anne Morrison, who is moving to Montana to be closer to family, has resigned her seat on the borough assembly. Applications to fill the vacancy will be accepted until Feb. 11, when the assembly is expected to appoint a successor to serve until the next municipal election in October. Anyone interested in serving on the assembly needs to submit a letter of interest to the borough clerk’s office by 3 p.m. Feb. 11. The assembly will consider the applicants and make an appointment at its regularly scheduled meeting that evening. A majority vote o...
It’s been almost four months since an anchor line pulled up and bent the deepwater discharge pipe from Wrangell’s wastewater treatment plant, cutting off the outflow, but the repair work is going out for bid and the borough hopes to have everything back to normal by April. Borough crews will restore the normal flow through the buried discharge pipe near City Park just as soon as the contractor completes the underwater repairs, said Public Works Director Tom Wetor. Crews had dug up the pipe on the beach and cut into the line so that the tre...
The mayor convened the public workshop, inviting Washington state-based entrepreneur Dale Borgford to lay out for borough officials his plans to build biomass boilers that would burn trash from around Southeast to heat large commercial greenhouses at the site of the former 6-Mile mill. He also wants to build a plant capable of filling large plastic bottles with 40,000 gallons a day of clean water from a creek at the north end of the property, or from rainwater if the creek flow is insufficient. And his list includes a plant to turn fish waste...
