Sorted by date Results 1603 - 1627 of 6213
Claire Houlton, of Tucson, Arizona, prepares to paint a portion of the seiner Norsel in Heritage Harbor last Friday. Houlton, 28, has worked on tenders and other fishing vessels in the past but this is her first time on a seiner. Skipper Amy Schaub said she and her four crewmembers will set out for Sitka to pick up the Norsel's skiff, net and power block before going out fishing....
Above: Caroline Bangs, left, narrowly avoids Mitchell Ludwig as he slides into second base during the next-to-last adult softball game of the season last Friday. Tristan Botsford looks on from the outfield at the Volunteer Park baseball field. Right: Issabella Crowley, of team Slug-n-Chug, swings at a pitch last Friday during their final game of the adult softball season against Wrangell IGA, which won the game 13-4. IGA then played Vicious & Delicious, which defeated the grocers...
For the first time in four years, Celebration, one of the largest gatherings of Southeast Alaska Native peoples to celebrate their culture, will be held in person in Juneau from June 8-11. The gathering, sponsored by Sealaska Heritage, drew about 5,000 people pre-COVID, including more than 2,000 dancers. The Wrangell tribe will lead the way next week. Every Celebration features a lead dance group and this year it will be Shx'at Kwáan (People Near the Mainland) of Wrangell, Sealaska Heritage...
Residents will see higher fees for trash pickup on their June bill. The rate for a typical 48-gallon trash can will go up from $28.60 to $43.20 a month, with rate increases for trash containers of all sizes. Landfill fees also increased. The borough assembly approved the higher rates May 24, which took effect immediately. Public Works Director Tom Wetor last Wednesday said the rate increase has been long overdue. “Our sanitation department has broken even for the last number of years,” Wetor said. “We’re not putting any money in the bank fo...
Pickling and fermenting, pressure-canning and freezing were among the topics covered over three days of courses last week as members of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service taught food preservation classes in Wrangell. Wrangell Extension Days were held from May 24 to 26 and offered nine workshops and a Certified Food Protection Manager exam. Attendees at each workshop varied in skill level, with some just beginning their preserving journey to others who have been...
It's a story more than 100 years in the telling. Finally, a book that started being written last century is finding new progress at the hands of an Anchorage author. Patricia Neal is undertaking the publishing of a book that the late Joel Wing began writing about his family's adventures at the Cassiar Mining District before he retired as the Wrangell magistrate in 1973. Neal, who's written books about Wrangell history, met Wing in 1981 when she was the curator for the museum. As they got to...
If oil prices stay above $100 a barrel for the next 12 months, the state could end the fiscal year in June 2023 with about $2.3 billion in its savings accounts, not counting the Permanent Fund. It hasn’t had that much in savings since 2018. “That’s not enough cash,” Sitka Sen. Bert Stedman, co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee, said last Friday. The state treasury needs a healthier shock absorber to cushion against the inevitable periods of low oil prices, he said. It all depends on oil markets and prices. Alaska North Slope crude has ave...
This is the first year for ranked-choice voting in Alaska, and the changeover will start next week. Voting in the primary election to choose from among 48 candidates to fill the unexpired term of the late U.S. Rep. Don Young will close June 11. The top four vote-getters in the primary will advance to the Aug. 16 election, though voters need to remember they can cast a ballot for only one candidate in the primary. The general election is when voters will have the option to rank their top choices among the final four as 1, 2, 3 and 4, or just 1...
About 1.75 acres of a former junkyard will be put up for auction for residential development by the borough this summer. The borough-owned lots at Mile 4 Zimovia Highway will be listed on publicsurplus.com, a privately owned online auction service that handles government property sales nationwide. The entire 2.5-acre property was valued at $205,000, according to an April 27 appraisal report from Roger Ramsey at Ramsey Appraisal Resource, of Juneau. However, a portion was carved out to be sold to an adjoining property owner. The appraised value...
Alaska Seaplanes landed on the idea of offering service to Wrangell about two years ago, and its inaugural flight touched down last Thursday. "One of our anchor (clients) is SEARHC," said Andy Kline, marketing manager for Juneau-based Alaska Seaplanes. "They've been wanting to have more connectivity between Wrangell and Sitka, especially with the new (medical) facility here." The airline will run an afternoon flight from Sitka to Wrangell and back, seven days a week. Kline said the airline...
Three crew members aboard the 62-passenger National Geographic Sea Bird operated by Lindblad Expeditions were quarantined with COVID-19 at the Stikine Inn. The three were brought to Wrangell from Petersburg after the ship docked there on May 15, due to a lack of accommodations in Petersburg during the Little Norway Festival May 19-22. “Three asymptomatic crew members tested positive for COVID-19 during routine screening,” spokesperson Patty Disken‐Cahill at Lindblad Expeditions, said Sunday via email. “Due to space constraints onboard, they we...
Wondering if that cluster of mushrooms found on the roadside are safe to pick and eat? Odds are they're OK, and so are others. To that end, the Friends of the Library is holding an event Sept. 9 to 11 at the Irene Ingle Public Library to inform foragers what mushrooms can be eaten again and again, and which ones should not be eaten even once. Kitty LaBounty, a Sitka-based professor with the University of Alaska Southeast, is scheduled to share her knowledge on safe versus unsafe mushrooms when...
The U.S. Forest Service on Thursday awarded a parking area restoration project at Roosevelt Harbor on Zarembo Island to Ketchikan Ready-Mix & Quarry, with work expected to begin in early June. About 70 vehicles in various stages of decay going back a couple of decades at the site about 12 miles southwest of the Wrangell City Dock has made Roosevelt Harbor vulnerable to pollutants and sediment from runoff. District Ranger Clint Kolarich of the Wrangell Ranger District on Friday said work will begin by June 8 — and it’s now the last call for peo...
At the assembly’s May 24 meeting, members unanimously approved a resolution setting the property tax levy for this year at 12.75 mills, which is $1,275 on every $100,000 in assessed value, the same rate as last year. The tax rate is 4 mills for property outside the borough’s service area, such as Thoms Place toward the southern end of Wrangell Island and Meyers Chuck. Property tax payments are due by Oct. 15. The borough estimates it will collect almost $1.8 million in property taxes in the fiscal year that starts July 1, with more than 96%...
An order for cashless machines for the public to pay for use of the four dock hoists at the Port and Harbors Department is delayed — the manufacturer is still waiting on parts. Port Director Steve Miller said they ordered four credit card readers for $11,000 from El Dorado, Arkansas-based manufacturer IDX this winter and were going to work with electricians in Wrangell for installation before the start of the summer season, but it’s looking like the order won’t arrive until June. And there could be further delays because local electricians are...
Na-Dena`, a joint venture between two Alaska Native corporations, is working with Klawock Heenya, the village corporation for the Prince of Wales Island community of about 800 people, to make Klawock a cruise ship destination. Juneau radio station KINY reported last week of the development plan between Huna Totem Corp., the village corporation for Hoonah, about 200 miles north of Klawock, and Doyon, the Fairbanks-based regional corporation for Alaska’s Interior. Klawock is on the west side of Prince of Wales, about 70 miles southwest of W...
The U.S. Coast Guard will conduct operations with a couple of smaller boats for a few months between Wrangell and Petersburg, with an emphasis on safety checks. From June until August, two 29-foot Coast Guard Maritime Safety and Security boats will patrol the region for search-and-rescue missions, vessel inspections and protecting marine life. The two smaller vessels will be handling operations since Coast Guard Cutter Anacapa, which usually patrols the area, is being relocated to Washington state. There will be a gap in coverage until...
Ketchikan saw an upswing in reported COVID-19 cases in May, with 341 infections recorded during the past 30 days as of May 25. In addition, the number of active cases involving the Ketchikan Pioneer Home stood at 21 on May 25. The cases involved 18 residents and three staff members at the facility, according to state Health Department spokesperson Clinton Bennett. The home is at “red-alert” status, indicating that at least one resident has tested positive in a ”neighborhood” or a floor. All of its floors had been affected by COVID, accordi...
High oil prices paid the way for legislators to spend more money on public services and construction, a little more on schools and a payout to Alaskans this fall almost triple the amount of last year’s dividend. Legislators and their constituents now wait to see if Gov. Mike Dunleavy decides to veto any of the spending for the fiscal year that starts July 1. Lawmakers went home last week after a late-night session on the final day May 18, when they approved about $2.1 billion — one-quarter of all state general fund spending in the budget yea...
By 8 p.m. last Friday, the Wrangell High School class of 2022 had graduated and each member was embarking on the next chapter of their life. The evening honored the 15 graduates in front of a full auditorium of friends, family and educators with heartfelt speeches and videos showing how far they've come. "This is the first open and normal graduation we've had in ... (three) years," said Kendra Meissner in her salutatorian speech. "(Instead) of watching us take the next steps into our future...
Two of Wrangell's lead educators are closing the books on their lesson plans and graduating to retirement. In June, Bob Davis, assistant principal of Wrangell High School and Stikine Middle School, and Jenn Miller-Yancey, assistant principal of Evergreen Elementary School, will say farewell after more than 30 years each in education. Davis, 64, who was raised in Alaska and came up through the public school system, swore as a young man that he would never set foot into a school again after...
The borough assembly and SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium have come to an agreement of voluntary payments by SEARHC of $45,000 per year for 10 years on property owned by the nonprofit health care provider in town. In negotiations that began in November, the borough had been asking for $225,000 a year, and SEARHC had asked for a refund on a $331,287 property tax bill it paid in full on the new Wrangell Medical Center in 2021. As a nonprofit, SEARHC is exempt under state law from property taxes. In the agreement approved by the...
For more than 50 years, members of the Wrangell Art Gallery have come together once a week to work on projects, give each other feedback, and to spend time with artistic-minded friends. Along with creating one-of-a-kind artwork, they've also created a lot of memories. One of the members who has been with the group since the beginning, Olga Norris, still strives to learn new artistic mediums to work in, even at 93 years old. "There was a group of us that painted together for years, and the main...
The grand prize winner has been announced in the Vans Custom Culture nationwide art contest and, unfortunately, it was not Wrangell High School. Vans announced last Thursday that Moanalua High School in Honolulu, Hawaii, was selected as the grand prize winner, with a $50,000 award. Wrangell was one of four runners-up, winning $15,000 for the high school art program. Wrangell submitted two pairs of decorated Vans shoes back in March under the guidance of teacher Tasha Morse. She didn’t expect what happened next. “I went into this a bit une...
The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium plans to break ground in June on a four-room expansion to the 14-bed long-term care facility at Wrangell Medical Center. The 1,800-square-foot expansion was prompted by the community’s need for long-term care rooms “that are typically hard to come by,” SEARHC spokesperson Lyndsey Y. Schaefer said via email on Friday. SEARHC is adding to the building for the extension, she said Monday, but declined to provide a cost of the construction. “As it’s a pure estimate at this point, I’d rather not...
