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The school board has adopted a budget for the next school year that relies heavily on funds from two different reserve accounts to balance revenue with expenses. By withdrawing $976,000 from its operating reserves — just about emptying the longstanding account — and transferring $250,000 from its capital improvement projects reserves, the school district is able to cover its $5.98 million operating budget. The 2025-2026 spending plan includes two fewer full-time teaching positions than this year. Any increase in state funding for schools would...
The borough’s continuing work on its downtown waterfront master plan is ramping up after the community’s nearly 50-year-old freight barge landing was shut down. The assembly will hold a work session on the master plan at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 13, at the Nolan Center. The barge ramp, next to the City Dock, was closed down in mid-March after an engineering report detailed structural and safety concerns about the steel bridge and other components. The closure has prompted the borough to accelerate its quest for a permanent solution. The freight comp...
The chamber still needs volunteers - and sponsors - to run events at the town's multiday Fourth of July celebration. And there's just one big, bright, sparkly unknown. "The only worry is the fireworks," said Tracey Martin, executive director of the chamber of commerce, which organizes the holiday extravaganza. Wrangell no longer has a certified pyrotechnician to take charge of the fireworks. "Someone in the fire department is working on passing their state-proctored test so that they can do the...
Starting July 1, residents and businesses will be charged higher rates for water and sewer services and trash pickup. Moorage fees and other rates at the port and harbors also will go up. The utility rate increases will be small, adding up to just under $10 a month for a residential account at the minimum level of water use and garbage pickup. The borough assembly adopted the annual rate and fee schedule unanimously at its April 22 meeting. The monthly base rate for residential or commercial metered water service will increase 10%, from $45.61...
How do you take an hour's worth of interviews and additional video footage and shape them into a three- to eight-minute film? That's the cinematic goal of the Stikine Stories Film Festival presented by Stikine Middle School and Wrangell High School students on Monday, May 12, at 6:30 p.m. at the Nolan Center. The event is free to the public. The short films cover a wide range of topics, including hooligan fishing, totem carving, the pride and trauma of serving in the military, and bowling....
Whether by land or by sea, everyone is invited to participate in the annual blessing of the fleet, scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Monday, May 12, at the Wrangell Mariners’ Memorial at Heritage Harbor. For those who arrive by sea, “we will broadcast the event on VHF,” said memorial board president Jenn Miller-Yancey. “Having those vessels out there makes the whole experience more meaningful,” she said of the boats that drift in front of the memorial during the ceremony. Wrangell has held a springtime blessing of the fleet for decades, moving to the He...
Creating safe and accessible community playgrounds is not child’s play, and so the Parks and Recreation Department will host consultant Heather Plucinski, of Northwest Playgrounds, as the next step in a planning process to reimagine and recreate Wrangell’s playgrounds. The public meeting is set for Friday, May 9, from noon to 1 p.m. at the Nolan Center. Parks and Rec Director Lucy Robinson said the general worn-out status of Wrangell’s playgrounds has been a community concern for years. She is encouraging community involvement and engag...
Wrangell police, working with law enforcement personnel from a regional task force, arrested three men on April 30 on felony drug possession charges. Justin G. Churchill, 39, Richard “Daniel” J. Eklund, 38, and Cooper J. Seimears, 39, were arrested after police confiscated a package containing 88 grams of methamphetamine (about three ounces), with a street value of approximately $17,600, according to a prepared statement issued by Wrangell police on April 30. The package had been shipped to Wrangell. Police Chief Gene Meek on May 1 declined to...
A Wasilla-based rental property owner wants to build 16 units on 1.3 acres of borough-owned land behind the old hospital building. The developer, Jiaying Lu, has applied to purchase the six vacant lots, which were last appraised at $316,000. The assembly will hold a public hearing on the land sale during its May 13 meeting at City Hall. The planning and zoning commission on April 10 unanimously recommended approval of the sale. Lu proposes to build four fourplexes on the property. She said she does not yet have a construction estimate for the...
As recommended by the borough manager, the assembly voted on April 22 to sell the first 20 lots of the Alder Top Village (Keishangita.’aan) subdivision by auction to the highest bidder, dropping plans of the past 18 months to sell half of the parcels by lottery. The intent of an auction is to raise more money than in a fixed-price lottery to help cover a larger share of the development costs for the borough-owned land just past Shoemaker Bay. “It would be imprudent of us to use public dollars to subsidize a lottery,” Borough Manager Mason...
Alaska Airlines has been flying the “milk run” for decades, serving the string of Southeast communities between Ketchikan and Juneau, but this weekend will be the first flight for the Milk Run Music Festival in Wrangell. Two days of music, food booths, corn hole competition, kids events and more are planned for Friday and Saturday, May 2-3, in front of the City Dock. The Nolan Center is the backup plan if the rain gets to be too much. “We’re hoping for great weather,” said Reme Privett, one of the organizers. “We’re doing a sun dance.” The e...
The 459-foot-long, 530-passenger Roald Amundsen is scheduled to start Wrangell's cruise ship season on May 8. To discuss plans for the season and share information, the borough's Economic Development Department has called a tourism stakeholder meeting for 9 a.m. Thursday, May 1, at the Nolan Center. "This meeting is intended for businesses that operate within or provide services to the tourism industry. This includes tribal partners, agency partners, tour operators, accommodation providers,...
The third annual plant swap and seed potato sale will sprout from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, May 3, in a yard on St. Michaels Street, near the bottom of the hill. “It’s kind of been building each year,” said Mya DeLong, one of the organizers. Sponsored by the Wrangell Community Garden and Wrangell Cooperative Association, the event provides gardeners with an opportunity to swap out their excess plants and starters for something they may want to add to their greenery. “You can swap your Brussels sprouts for celery,” DeLong said, or any other...
To clarify the school district’s and borough’s responsibilities for maintenance and repairs at the school buildings, the assembly has approved an agreement that says the borough will pay for major repair and rehab projects that cost more than $25,000. The district is responsible for “routine maintenance,” as specified in the three-page agreement adopted by the assembly in a unanimous vote on April 22. In addition to removing any doubt as to who pays for what at the schools — the borough owns the buildings and the school district covers op...
This year’s first tax-free shopping day in Wrangell is Saturday, May 3. Continuing a yearslong tradition, the borough assembly has approved a second tax-free day, accepting the chamber of commerce request for Oct. 6. The assembly vote on April 22 was unanimous. “These events have historically stimulated the local economy by encouraging increased consumer spending and supporting Wrangell's small businesses,” Borough Finance Director Jackson Pool reported to the assembly. “By temporarily removing the barrier of sales tax, these days help drive r...
The borough assembly voted 7-0 on April 22 to approve the chamber of commerce moving into the Nolan Center — in the interest of closer collaboration between the borough and the chamber. The move provides a more heavily trafficked site for visitor information than the chamber’s current offices in the Stikine Inn. Although the vote was unanimous, a couple of assembly members raised questions. “I’ve seen it go up and down too many times,” Assembly Member David Powell said of the chamber’s finances, adding that while chamber and Nolan Center staf...
Ann Hegney, who started work last September as the only counselor at Wrangell schools, has resigned and will leave after the end of the school year. Hegney is the school district’s third counselor since 2021. “The staff and students are great. I am leaving because my father is in decline and needs help caring for my sister, who has Down Syndrome,” Hegney said in a text last week. “It’s actually the best job I ever had,” she said of her work in Wrangell. Hegney came to Alaska from New York state with 36 years of experience as a teacher and...
Maylee Martin is shifting into gear for her new business, called Lady Driver Taxi. Though she started taking fares last week, she expects it could be early May before she goes to work full time giving rides around town. Martin will be the only driver, providing rides in her Subaru Outback. Lady Driver Taxi will operate noon to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 3 p.m. to bar closings on Friday and Saturday, Martin said. Any other time, text her at 907-660-7102 in advance to schedule a ride, she said. Martin had been working since February to...
The U.S. Forest Service, under authority delegated by the Federal Subsistence Board, has closed the Stikine River to subsistence fishing for king salmon from May 15 to June 20. The preseason returns forecast for the Stikine River is 10,000 large king salmon (greater than 28 inches in length), which is far below the spawning escapement goal of 14,000 to 28,000. This is the ninth year in a row for the federal closure, intended to protect weak returns of the highly prized fish. State and federal fisheries managers are trying to rebuild the run....
A Juneau-based contractor and scrap metal recycler wants to expand its operations in Wrangell. It has offered the borough about $700,000 in site work in exchange for almost 10 acres of land at the former 6-Mile mill site. Tideline Construction, a sister company of Channel Construction, in January offered the borough $250,000 for the acreage, but submitted a new proposal last month for an extensive cleanup of the mill property in exchange for the acreage it wants at the southern end of the site....
Facing a gap of several hundred thousand dollars between available funds and its draft spending plan, the school board will hold a special meeting Wednesday, April 30, to adopt a final budget — which could include spending cuts. The latest draft budget presented to the board at its regular monthly meeting on April 14 showed about $6 million in spending versus just $4.7 million in projected revenue from state, municipal and federal sources for the 2025-2026 school year. The district expects to start the next school year with $990,000 left in its...
School Board President Dave Wilson on April 14 named 10 people to a special committee to assist the board in developing a long-term budget plan. The district has been drawing on its dwindling savings the past few years to cover spending, and it doesn’t look likely that any combination of state, municipal or federal money is going to rescue the district from spending cuts. “The budget situation is extremely dire,” Ryan Howe, a 16-year teacher in the district, said at the school board’s April 14 meeting. “There’s no calvary coming.” Wi...
More than five dozen high school students from around Southeast, along with their art teachers, will be busy painting, inking, printing, beading, knitting and more during Artfest, a four-day series of workshops in Wrangell this week. Artfest will run Thursday through Sunday, April 24-27, at the high school, with an art show open to the public from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Sunday, said Tawney Crowley, the Wrangell School District’s art teacher. The festival for Southeast students started in 1997 when Wrangell art teacher Kirk Garbisch helped organize t...
The borough is seeking bids from contractors to complete road and utility work at the Alder Top Village (Keishangita.’aan) subdivision, in anticipation of putting 20 residential lots up for sale this summer. The estimate for the work is $1.9 million, which would include surveying, clearing and grubbing the land, constructing a gravel roadway to the lots, installing water and sewage lines, and trenching for buried electrical, cable and phone lines, according to the bid notice. Bids are due May 7 for the land development work just south of the Sh...
The school board is advertising on a tight timeline for a new schools superintendent to start work July 1, to replace Bill Burr who has resigned effective June 30 after four years on the job. The deadline for applications is May 5, with the selection of finalists tentatively scheduled for May 7-9 and interviews with the board May 12-14. The board scheduled a special meeting for 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 23, at Evergreen Elementary School to discuss additional “particulars of the superintendent search.” The board is expected to go into exe...
