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Members of the high school band, jazz band and choir spent three days in Juneau earlier this month for the 51st annual Southeast Music Festival. “There are no winners or losers at Music Fest,” and no trophies, said Tasha Morse, who is in her 17th year teaching music at Wrangell schools. “It is a learning experience. … It’s kind of like a master class,” with guest musicians, called adjudicators, listening and coaching the students one-on-one and in small ensembles. Music Fest was held April 10-12 at Juneau-Douglas High School, with morning and...
Sometimes, making the decision to leave an abusive situation can be extremely difficult — especially if you are unaware of what options might be available for help. And, often making such a decision requires a person to be brave. BRAVE, a Wrangell nonprofit dedicated to preventing domestic violence and promoting healthy families, will host its Family Resilience Fair 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 3, at the Nolan Center. The event aims to connect community members with vital educational resources through a fun and engaging atmosphere. A...
The community responded with 6,000 pounds of donated food after The Salvation Army cut back the days its free food pantry was open last month due to a shortage of donations to keep the shelves stocked. The donations allowed the pantry to return to its schedule of 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Tuesday for families that need help. Previously, the pantry had cut back to every other week. “We’ve been tremendously blessed by this community,” Salvation Army Capt. Chase Green said last week. The 6,000 pounds included lots of canned goods and other shelf...
The Wrangell team in the annual Salvation Army Bible Bowl captured first place at the state level this month, the third year in a row the squad led the state. Wrangell won the national competition last year — the first time ever — and will try for a repeat in June in Los Angeles, said Capt. Chase Green of the Wrangell Salvation Army. “Hopefully, we’ll bring home the repeat,” he said. “There is more opposition,” Green said. “People want to beat them,” he said of the six-member Wrangell team. The state competition quizzed competitors on al...
The Alaska Press Club named the Wrangell Sentinel as the second-best weekly newspaper in the state last year. The awards were presented at the organization’s annual conference April 12 in Anchorage. “With one of the strongest news staffs among the six weekly newspapers competing, the Wrangell Sentinel — ‘The Oldest Continuously Published Newspaper in Alaska’ — consistently places multiple home-grown stories on each front page,” the judge said. The Sentinel, established in 1902, lost out for first place to the Nome Nugget. It’s the second time...
Retired Fire Department Chief Tim Buness was recognized for decades of meritorious public service by the U.S. Coast Guard in an April 3 ceremony, particularly for his dedication to the search and rescue operations run by the department. The award cites Buness’ oversight of more than 2,000 such operations, and his direct work with the Coast Gurd on over 500 search-and-rescue cases. Buness can pinpoint his very first SAR experience, going out with his father Gordon, who was then the fire chief, in May 1967 to look for an overdue boater. Since t...
The 2025-2026 Wrangell Travel Guide, a joint project of the Sentinel and the borough’s Economic Development Department, is now available around town. The 52-page, full-color booklet features as its cover photo a brown bear family walking along, minding their own business at the Anan Wildlife Observatory, continuing the annual guide’s theme of showcasing the bear observatory as a prime attraction for visitors to Wrangell. The updated guide includes stories, maps and suggestions for visitors, including a full-page table listing boat charters ava...
Bill Burr has submitted his resignation as Wrangell schools superintendent, effective June 30. The school board was scheduled to accept his resignation at its monthly meeting Monday, April 14, and then move into executive session to discuss its options for the job. Burr started with the Wrangell schools in the summer of 2021, coming to work from the Delta/Greely School District in Alaska’s Interior, where he had been assistant superintendent since 2014. He had also served as director of technology and as a fill-in principal in the district. T...
The Alaska Legislature last week passed a major increase in the state’s per-pupil base funding formula for schools, but Gov. Mike Dunleavy said he will veto the measure because it lacks any of the provisions he wants such as more state support for homeschooling. The formula change passed the Senate and the House with no votes to spare — 11 votes in the 20-member Senate and 21 votes in the 40-member House. Assuming the governor makes good on his veto pledge — he called the legislation “a joke” last week — it would take a supermajori...
There are two sounds I can never seem to forget. One is the snow shovel scraping along the concrete basketball court I cleared in the Petersburg winters of my youth, basketball in hand. The second is the chain-link basketball net clanging on a Wrangell playground. One is the reason for the other. My future teammates and friends loved the game and knew what awaited us in the high school gyms across Southeast Alaska. And in Wrangell, one of the best awaited: Fred Angerman Jr. As a fifth grader,...
It’s sort of like spring cleaning — but on a much larger scale. The Parks and Recreation Department will close the pool, community center, exercise room and all recreation programming starting Monday, May 5, so that workers can complete a long list of maintenance projects and equipment upgrades. “This closure allows us to take care of necessary work that supports the safety, longevity and function of our community spaces — especially the pool and surrounding amenities,” Parks and Rec Director Lucy Robinson said in an online update on April 10....
When cruise ship passengers disembark, a frequent question is: "Where can I get some local seafood for lunch?" Wrangell hasn't had a lot of options, because local residents typically don't go out for seafood, they just pull something out of the fridge or freezer. Brian and Madison Schwartz saw this as an opportunity and are launching Alaska Legacy Seafood, a 24-foot-long food trailer with a menu specializing in locally sourced seafood. They were excited to find a fully equipped food truck...
The borough assembly has taken the first step in setting up a new monofill site for the public and contractors to dump organic material, such as root wads, tree limbs, clean wood, dirt, rocks and other debris. The community’s existing site is full and closed to any new material. The assembly’s unanimous vote on March 25 started the permitting process of the new site, just across the driveway from the current dump site on Ishiyama Drive next to the outdoor shooting range. The current site has reached its maximum capacity and borough officials sa...
Cultural institutions all over Alaska are scrambling to figure out what a wave of cuts to federal grants means for their programs and staffing. Over the past few weeks, museums, libraries and cultural organizations across Alaska have received notice that federal funds are being terminated. The federal government is making the cuts to align spending with a recent Trump administration order and the Department of Government Efficiency’s goals. Wrangell’s Irene Ingle Public Library has for at least the past 10 years received an annual federal gra...
Forest Service plans to clear and rebuild road to Middle Ridge cabin By Larry Persily Sentinel writer Progress is underway toward reopening the full length of Middle Ridge Road. Sections of the old logging road were overrun in a November 2023 landslide. The U.S. Forest Service is working to complete repairs to the road and reopen access to the Middle Ridge public-use cabin. "We were able to secure some emergency relief funding for work on the Middle Ridge Road," Wrangell District Ranger Tory...
Vanessa Barnes is comfortable letting go. Since she was 5 years old, the high school senior called the wrestling mat home. For her senior project, Barnes was able to share that sense of home with wrestlers on the middle school team and in the peewee program. For the project, she teamed up with fellow high school senior standout Della Churchill. "I planned it before," Barnes said, standing in the back room of the high school art department as she painted a handmade ceramic cup. "I've always done...
The annual Stikine River Birding Festival returns for a weekend of avian adventures April 26-27. Evolving from what was once known as the annual Garnet Festival in 1997, Birdfest will begin at 7 a.m. Saturday, April 26, with people invited to bring their binoculars to a two-hour bird walk on the Muskeg Meadows Golf Course, led by local birding expert Bonnie Demerjian and wildlife expert and special guest speaker Chadd Drott. Drott, a Colorado resident, has been studying wildlife for more than 25 years. He operates Chadd’s Walking With Wildlife,...
A Canadian environmental nonprofit group, long critical of the Red Chris Mine in the northern watershed of the Stikine River, has released a new report that cites increasing underground seepage of contaminants from the mine’s tailings pond. The report comes as British Columbia regulators are considering the mine operator’s application to expand ore recovery by changing to underground tunneling instead of open-pit surface mining. The gold and copper mine started operations in 2015 and sits about 50 miles east of the Stikine River community of...
A majority of Wrangell teachers approved sending a letter to the school board, expressing “no confidence” in the leadership of Board President Dave Wilson. “This action was not taken lightly,” the March 31 letter said. “It reflects widespread concern among educators about Mr. Wilson’s conduct, lack of preparedness, (and) unwillingness to collaborate with community stakeholders. …” Almost 50 people attended a March 24 work session between the school board and borough officials to hash out options amid a severe budget squeeze at the schools. Wi...
Twenty years after Congress passed the REAL ID Act, and after numerous postponements, the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, will require travelers have an approved identification to board an airplane as of May 7. Which means Wrangell residents who don’t have a REAL ID issued by the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles — the cards have a star in the upper-right corner of the license — are running out of time to get a new license. People need to get to the DMV office in the Public Safety Building to fill out the forms and provi...
“Why should the kids have all the fun?” was a significant motivating factor for the Irene Ingle Public Library’s first-ever winter reading program for grown-ups, which wrapped up in March after 11 weeks of page-turning. It was a success, attracting 60 participants who read a combined 1,072 books. Sarah Scambler, library director, said many patrons commented that the summer reading program for kids, which has been offered for the past 30 years, always generates reading fun and excitiement, and adults wanted in on it. The idea had been floated by...
The 2025 Southeast Alaska harvest limit for king salmon will be almost 40% less than last year, a drop of 60,000 fish. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game on April 1 announced an overall allocation of 130,800 treaty king salmon — fish that don’t originate in Alaska hatcheries — for all gear groups targeting kings in waters off Southeast Alaska and Yakutat. In recent years, Southeast Alaska’s all-gear allocation has ranged between a high of 355,600 treaty kings in 2016 down to 130,000 in 2018, Fish and Game records show. The regionw...
As has been routine in recent years, the state has closed the waters in front of the Stikine River to sport fishing for kings or retention of the salmon though July 14. The annual closure is a continuing effort to rebuild the river’s depleted runs. The closure of District 8 covers the waters around the top half of Wrangell Island to the eastern half of Zarembo Island, and up the east side of Mitkof Island. Districts 6, 7, 9 and 10 as far north as Frederick Sound and into Chatham Strait and south of Etolin Island are closed to king sport f...
The Wrangell Chamber of Commerce will move into the Nolan Center, pending the expected approval by the borough assembly later this month. Setting up shop in the Nolan Center will put the chamber in a more visible and heavily trafficked location, allowing better access for visitors. Since 2012, the chamber has been in an office in the Stikine Inn, around the corner from the front desk. “We’re essentially becoming roommates,” said Kate Thomas, the borough’s economic development director, describing the new arrangement for sharing office space....
Police on Saturday arrested Ethan Robison, 22, on multiple charges after he allegedly hit one vehicle and ran two others off the road before losing control of his own vehicle and crashing off the highway. Police said they received a report about 5:25 p.m. Saturday, April 5, “of a potentially intoxicated driver” in a pickup truck near Evergreen Trailer Park on the north end of the island. “Shortly after, the same truck hit a vehicle at the intersection of Bennett Street and Zimovia Highway,” according to the Wrangell Police Department stateme...
