Sorted by date Results 1851 - 1875 of 6213
Joe Hommel in 1996 at age 24 used to swing by the meat department at IGA to visit his best friend. Then Charity, 18, started working there, too. "It started with saying 'Hi' to my friend. Then I started saying 'Hi' to Charity," Joe, now 49, said. Charity, 43, said she lived on a boat for seven years with her family, and Wrangell was one of her favorite towns to stop in. Her family was sailing from Juneau to Ketchikan, and she jumped ship in Wrangell, getting a job at the former iterations of IGA...
Verda Villarma remembers Felix Villarma winked at her from the bleachers at a high school football game in Idaho seven decades ago. She was a cheerleader. "She was a good looking gal," he said. "Every time I'd look up there, he'd wink at me," Verda said. That was the first time they met. "He was very good looking," she added. Verda turns 89 in June, and Felix turns 90 later this month. On May 20, the couple will celebrate 67 years of marriage. "It sometimes amazes me," Verda said. Felix came...
Timely environmental approval and a cable-laying ship available after finishing another job in Alaska waters will allow Alaska Power & Telephone to move ahead this fall with installation of a 214-mile undersea fiber optic cable from Prince of Wales Island to Juneau. The project, along with onshore network build-outs in Coffman Cove and Kasaan, will bring high-speed internet to the two Southeast communities. The $28.5 million project, called SEALink, is being funded by a $21.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Utility...
Updated Friday evening, Feb. 11, 2022 Wrangell reported eight new COVID-19 infections Friday, raising the total to 21 cases since Jan. 31 -- a slower pace than the record-setting wave of 185 COVID-19 cases Dec. 30 to Jan. 30. The 206 cases reported by the borough since Dec. 30 represent about one of every 11 residents. After record numbers statewide in January, Alaska's count is in decline. The state health department on Friday reported 1,870 new infections over the past two days. At its peak in late January and early February, Alaska’s rate o...
A different style of growing plants is budding in Wrangell, though it might take a while to bloom. Hydroponics, a technique that doesn't require soil, only water and nutrients, could be a more sustainable approach in places where viable soil and ideal weather are harder to come by. While some green thumbs on the island have tinkered with the method, one grower took hydroponics to a commercial level. Kelsey Martinsen, owner of Happy Cannabis, has used a flood-and-drain system to grow his...
Wrangell Medical Center has experienced staffing shortages due to the recent jump in COVID-19 cases, but it has not led to delays in procedures or rescheduling, said Carly Allen, hospital administrator. “We have been able to maintain full operations thanks to the hard work of our employees and the … (traveler) nursing staff that are still with us,” Allen said. Wrangell as of Monday was up to 190 COVID-19 infections reported by the borough since Dec. 30, almost three times the community’s highest monthly count of the pandemic and represe...
Middle schoolers move in a circle while a woman beats a Tlingit drum, while just outside other students engage in a fierce and fun battle of warrior ball. Behaviors leading to suspension and other disciplinary actions have led school staff to apply a preventative approach. Activities, celebrations, contests and other methods have been implemented to help curb what appears to be a growing problem some have blamed on the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 2020-21 school year, there were 13 individual suspe...
The state is working through a couple of challenges in its plan to distribute tens of millions of dollars of federal relief funds to municipalities and businesses. Applications for grants to local governments far exceeded the available funds, while grant applications from eligible tourism-related businesses and others fell far short. The Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development is looking for answers to both questions: How to decide which cities and boroughs will receive how much of the limited money to replace their lost tax...
Mad Hesler has always noticed the tiny stuff. The Wrangell artist and business owner of Tongass Resin grew up in northern New Hampshire in the White Mountains, and first came to Alaska in 2015 for a summer job as a camp counselor in Cooper Landing on the Kenai Peninsula when she was a junior at Plymouth State University, majoring in outdoor education. She had to return to New Hampshire for college, but Hesler, 27, said she "had this huge sense of, 'This is where I'm supposed to be.'" Hesler grad...
Finance Director Mason Villarma has been on the job for about five months and is proposing changes to the borough assembly that he believes could bolster Wrangell’s financial health. At a work session Jan. 25, Villarma said the borough’s assets totaled $39.7 million as of Dec. 31, a mixture of cash, cash equivalents, money market funds, investments and other accounts. Some can be spent, some is in long-term savings, and some is reserved for self-sufficient funds such as the electric utility and port and harbors. Almost one-quarter of that mon...
The state energy office is nominating corridors along Alaska’s roadways for electric vehicle charging station funding, including possibly in rural communities, using Federal Highway Administration money. It’s reached out to ask if Wrangell wants to be included in the request. Borough Manager Jeff Good told the assembly at its Jan. 25 meeting that the Alaska Energy Authority already has earmarked the state highway system for the program, and has asked Wrangell if it wants to be included in the funding request. Good on Monday said the energy aut...
After a delay pushed work on the Anan Wildlife Observatory to this spring from last fall, the Forest Service said the project timeline is still holding steady. The upper observation deck is set to be torn down this spring and reconstructed in time for the July 5 to Aug. 25 summer viewing season — weather depending — said Tory Houser, acting district ranger. “So far, it’s been a hard winter,” she said, but as far as funds and personnel, they are good to go. The Forest Service last June entered into a $989,800 contract with Petersbur...
Gone are the encroaching shrubbery and ramshackle structures. The first phase of a project to improve the Wrangell skeet range has been completed, and steps are being taken to fund the second phase. Improvements completed in November included cutting down trees and clearing debris and removing two dilapidated skeet-throwing houses and overgrown vegetation to install an aggregate surface for parking areas and the skeet range. The aggregate will also serve as a firm foundation for construction of...
The assembly has approved a 3½-year contract for Borough Manager Jeff Good, at a starting salary of $126,000 a year. The assembly approved the contract Jan. 25, after offering the job to Good on Jan. 14. He has been working as interim manager since Nov. 1, at an annualized salary of $108,000. The contract runs through June 30, 2025. The starting salary is a small increase over the $125,000 salary paid to Lisa Von Bargen, who left the job last October after four years as borough manager. After six months of employment, Good will be eligible...
The police department is putting together a plan to hire a tow truck company from Petersburg to come over in the spring and haul to the borough's impound yard vehicles that have been abandoned for too long in port and harbor parking lots, and elsewhere throughout town. The vehicles are piled up in parking lots at Heritage Harbor, Shoemaker Bay and in the right of way on Zimovia Highway, making it difficult for snowplows to do their work. Others are leaning against derelict boats next to a bed-an...
The borough assembly on Tuesday approved $1.1 million for design and engineering of a new water treatment plant, though actual construction will depend on additional funding. The project is a top priority for the borough. The assembly authorized the design and engineering contract with Anchorage-based DOWL. About 10% of the cost will come from the borough’s water fund reserves, 35% from a loan from the borough’s general fund to the water utility at zero interest for 10 years, and 55% from Wrangell’s share of federal pandemic aid under the A...
Wrangell's emergency operations center last week received 650 COVID-19 at-home test kits from the state health department, reviving its supply which had dwindled to none amid the community's record number of new infections. As of Tuesday evening, Wrangell was up to 157 new COVID-19 cases reported by the borough since Dec. 30, two and a half times the community's highest monthly count of the pandemic and representing about one of every 14 residents. The post-holidays surge represents 40% of the...
Though they say the level of funding for the state ferry system in Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 is adequate, coastal legislators don’t like that the governor wants to use one-time federal money to pay the bills, eliminating almost 95% of state funding. Their fear is that when the federal dollars from last year’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure spending plan run out, so too will adequate ferry service. “Those federal dollars were meant to augment state money, not replace it,” House Speaker Louise Stutes, o...
The kids gathered atop the sledding hill across from Evergreen Elementary, next to a small fire in which they burned face masks. They carried signs reading "Unmask Wrangell Youth!!" and "Unmask our children! Let them be kids!" They chanted, "Burn the masks!" It was part of a walkout in which children and parents frustrated over wearing masks during school hours voiced their opposition to the districtwide rule. About 14 elementary and middle school students left the grounds at 10:30 a.m. last...
The borough’s convention and visitor bureau has released its draft cruise ship schedule, painting an updated picture of how many passengers might fill the streets of Wrangell, take in the sights and charter local fishing and sightseeing guides this summer. The number is down from 21,500 visitors in 2019 but, with the potential for more than 17,000 passengers berths this summer, it would be an economically significant improvement over last year’s trickle of cruise traffic and zero passengers in 2020. The 17,000-passenger capacity would be if...
Feel like getting the royal treatment? Well, it’s going to take some hard work. Wrangell’s chamber of commerce has begun recruiting efforts for this year’s royalty competition, with winners announced during the Fourth of July festivities. The contest is a fundraiser for the chamber, which sponsors the annual July 4th activities, and for the candidates, who get to keep a share of their sales. The candidates sell as many raffle tickets as possible through door-to-door efforts or by including the tickets as part of food sales. Last year’s ticket s...
A former concessions stand in City Park is slated to be the site of a commercial-scale composter that could give second life to food scraps on a bigger scale, potentially reducing the volume of trash that Wrangell pays to ship off the island. The folks reviving the community garden have budgeted $19,500 toward the composter, which will be located at the garden on the former Lions ball field. Valerie Massie, coordinator at Wrangell Cooperative Association's Indian Environmental General...
Earlier this month, a derelict tug boat, the Bee, went down in Shoemaker Bay, and five other vessels almost did, after heavy snow loads and single-digit temperatures weighted down Wrangell. The harbor department impounded the 60-foot Bee in September, Port Director Steve Miller said Friday. His staff had been checking it twice a day but "something broke on the boat that allowed some more water than our pumps could handle," he said. The boat went down on Jan. 5 after heavy snowfall earlier this...
The Alaska Board of Fisheries, which had planned to hold its Southeast and Yakutat shellfish and finfish regulations meeting in Ketchikan this month before a surge in COVID-19 cases and winter-weather travel problems forced its cancellation, has rescheduled the sessions for March 10-22 in Anchorage. The board, however, was scheduled to meet Thursday afternoon via Zoom to possibly reconsider the decision to move the meeting to Anchorage. “Given the myriad of factors to consider, the board will vote on the meeting location,” according to a boa...
Wrangell High School seniors have potentially more than $70,000 in higher education scholarships available to them from local organizations. Funds range anywhere from a one-time $100 award to $5,000 per year for four years. Though application deadlines for some are already past, many are still available for seniors looking to pursue a postsecondary education such as college or trade school. “These scholarship opportunities are vital to our students,” said counselor Addy Esco. “The world of postsecondary education and training has changed drast...
