Assembly discusses low water levels, police statistics

Water levels in Swan and Tyee lakes were a hot topic at Tuesday night’s assembly meeting. Mayor Steve

Prysunka gave a presentation to the borough assembly, informing them that Wrangell might be facing power supply issues in the future. He

explained that there are three communities in question with this looming issue: Wrangell, Petersburg, and Ketchikan. Ketchikan gets most of its power from Swan Lake, while the power plant at Tyee supplies Wrangell and Petersburg. However, extra power from Tyee Lake can be sold to Ketchikan, when it is available. Prysunka said that the Southeast Alaska Power Agency has oversold power from Tyee, and has put Wrangell and Petersburg in danger of having to switch to diesel power.

Water levels in both lakes are low, the mayor said. Swan lake is at a water level of 285 feet, which can provide approximately 22.7 days of power. Tyee Lake is at a level of 1,277 feet, or about 32.8 days of power.

Prysunka showed a slide of water levels over several years. The low point for water levels, and thus power supply,

has always come in the months of April or May. The water level currently, in January, is at the April/May level. Despite this, he said, SEAPA continued to sell Tyee Lake power to Ketchikan until September of 2018. His contention is that SEAPA oversold power that rightfully belonged to Wrangell. By doing so, they put this community and Petersburg in a bad position. He said that SEAPA owes Wrangell power, and if they could not provide it they owed the city money to cover the cost of running diesel generators for potentially months.

Prysunka and Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen received an email from SEAPA representatives stating that there was a plan being put in place to “alleviate some of the risk associated with pending weather uncertainty.” Power from Swan Lake will be sent north when it would be the most efficient use of water, easing some of the strain being put on Tyee Lake. Reserves in Swan Lake will also be increased via hydro and diesel generation. Despite this plan, the assembly all agreed that it would be a good idea to begin talking about ways for the community to conserve energy.

Another big part of the meeting was a document of police statistics over the past year, which had been given to the borough a few meetings ago. Having had time to review these statistics, which cover the number and types of crimes in the community, the borough had some questions. Officer Bruce Smith, with the Wrangell Police Department, attended the meeting to answer those questions.

Assembly Member Jim DeBord brought up that the document showed an 82 percent increase in traffic

incidents, about 544 cases through the year. He asked if it was a good use of the department’s time to pull over almost a fourth of the

population of Wrangell. Smith answered that the 544 incidents were not all just pulling people over for tickets.

These cases included abandoned vehicles, complaints, and many cases where the driver could not provide immediate proof of insurance. Many of the charges made in the last case were voided once the driver appeared at the police station to prove they did have insurance.

Assembly Member Patty Gilbert also asked if the police had seen an uptick in drug-related offenses since Alaska had legalized marijuana. Smith replied that there had been a few charges related to improper marijuana use, as well as some involving meth. Later on, in response to another question, he said that Wrangell only saw three drug related traffic offenses last year, with a fourth pending investigation.

Other items covered in the meeting included approval of a first hearing of the “Curleyville” replat, a rezoning of lots to give a portion of property belonging to the Presbyterian Church to a neighboring property, and a resolution that authorizes the conveyance of public land to Chet and Barbara Powell for the amount of $36,500.

 

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