Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 6087
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... Full story
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... Full story
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...
No New Year’s resolution can possibly improve the condition of St. Michaels Street. After seven water main breaks in the past two years, the borough plans to give some much-needed love to St. Michaels in the spring. The road connects Front Street with Church Street and its surface resembles something of a wide-woven quilt — thanks to the numerous times that repair crews have needed to dig up the asphalt for repairs. Police Chief Gene Meek has even suggested that folks avoid the street during winter months due to ice hazards. Underground, thi...
The Alaska Marine Highway System has added Wi-Fi service for passengers aboard the state ferry Columbia - with other ships in the fleet to follow. The service, which initially will be free on the Columbia, started last month when the ship came out of a yearlong layup to take over the weekly run between Bellingham, Washington, and Southeast Alaska when the Kennicott was pulled for its own yearlong layup for new generators. The Columbia is the only state ferry serving Wrangell, with a northbound...
The borough has until 2030 to meet tighter state and federal water quality standards for its wastewater treatment plant discharge, and will use this year to determine the best way to kill more of the bacteria in the outflow. The Environmental Protection Agency renewed Wrangell’s wastewater discharge permit in November — along with permits for Haines, Skagway, Sitka, Ketchikan and Petersburg. The communities must make improvements to their treatment systems to reduce the levels of bacteria discharged into marine waters. In Wrangell, that lik...
Nothing unlucky about the number 13 for Kim Lane, who is in her 13th year as borough clerk. She was honored as Clerk of the Year by her colleagues in the Alaska Association of Municipal Clerks. Lane was at the association's annual conference and dinner in Anchorage on Dec. 10 when the announcer started talking about the 2024 award winner, without spilling the name and spoiling the surprise. "And then I realized, it's me," she said in an interview after returning to Wrangell. "It makes you feel...
The Irene Ingle Public Library, which has run a summer reading program for children for years, is turning a new page for 2025 — it is running a similar program for adults. There will be prizes for adults who fill in their book bingo card. The idea started with parents asking during the annual summer activity for children, “I wish you had an adult reading program,” said Sarah Scambler, library director. She talked with other librarians around the state, including the Anchorage public library which has run a bingo-card style reading chall...
After missing last year, the chamber of commerce has resumed the decades-old tradition of assembling, printing and selling a calendar of community members’ birthdays and anniversaries. The calendar, which started in the 1950s, is a fundraiser for scholarships for high school seniors. People who preordered a calendar should come by the chamber office in the Stikine Inn to pick up their copy, said Tracey Martin, the chamber’s executive director. Copies also are available for people who did not preorder — the cost is $15. The calendars are a lim...
The Wrangell Athletic Club succeeded in raising enough money in its first full year to repay the school district for the cost of sending students to state competition in the 2023-2024 school year. The all-volunteer nonprofit organization was created in late 2023 after the school district determined it could not afford to pay the expenses of students traveling to state competition and needed community fundraising to cover the bills. The costs totaled $25,042 for the 2023-2024 school year, which...
Buyers picked up five of the eight lots in the borough-developed Industrial Park Subdivision land sale last month, with the three remaining parcels listed for sale online at minimum bids. The borough is putting in street access to the parcels, extending Fifth and Sixth avenues to serve the lots just off Airport Loop Road, a little past the turnoff to Ishiyama Drive. If the three remaining lots sell at the minimum prices of $31,400 for each for the two 16,500-square-foot parcels and $51,700 for the 25,849-square-foot lot, the borough will have...
The borough has contracted to finish the design work so that it can go out for bid to stabilize the earthen dams that hold back the community’s two water reservoirs. A $5 million state grant will pay for the project. The assembly last month approved spending an additional $114,450 to finish the design and engineering work for the project. Borough officials have been meeting with representatives of the engineering firm Shannon & Wilson and the state’s dam safety office to advance toward the final design plans. The design and engineering wor...