The Way We Were

May 14, 1925

The Baranoff Packing Co., Lee H. Wakefield proprietor, operating at Red Bluff Bay, is preparing to turn out the largest pack of fish products of any plant on the Pacific coast. A large crew of men has been on the scene for some time getting the plant ready for summer operations. The entire resources of the plant will be used to make herring products. Larger herring will be Scotch cured, and the smaller ones made into oil and meal for chicken and stock feed. A new and complete water system has been installed at the plant, and new machinery has been added to increase the capacity of the herring department. The plant will have a capacity of 30 tons of herring meal per day.

May 12, 1950

Plans for the Bishop Rowe General Hospital Silver Anniversary Tea have been completed. The tea will be held this Sunday at the hospital parlor from 2 to 5 p.m. Miss Margaret Price, acting superintendent of Bishop Rowe Hospital, said the nurses are setting up exhibits for visitors. The operating room will be set up for an appendectomy; the X-ray room will have a series of X-ray films dealing with various matters; in the laboratory there will be slides of different things to be looked at under the microscope. All nurses will be on duty to answer any questions from visitors. All money received at the tea will be used for rebuilding the hospital kitchen into a more efficient place in which to work.

May 14, 1975

The Wrangell High School boys track team triumphed over Petersburg in the Petersburg Elks Invitational Track Meet last Friday. Wrangell girls, who fielded only four athletes to compete against more than a dozen Petersburg girls, made a good showing, though they came out second. The Wrangell lasses picked up five first-place medals, two for second place and four for third. Wrangell athletes posting wins in the boys competitions were Fred Angerman in the shot put; Ervin Lund in the long jump, triple jump, high jump and 100 yard dash; Brian Shilts in the discus throw, 120-yard high hurdles and 180-yard low hurdles; Randy Easterly in the pole vault; Randy Buness and Eric Peterson with a tie for first in the 40-yard dash; and Erick Peterson in the 220-yard dash.

May 11, 2000

The 21st Legislature adjourned May 10, leaving a mixed legacy. Weeks of horse trading netted some funding for Wrangell but fell far short of expectations here. The city will get $507,500 to revamp the Church Street water and sewer lines, as well as $52,515 for utilities. The hoped-for Heritage Harbor matching monies, $500,000 worth, also emerged from the end-of-session scuffle enact, which will allow construction of the breakwater to begin. The ferry terminal will get $1 million for upgrades and repairs. Disappointment was in store for the school district, however, which had hoped to get at least two of its projects on the prioritized maintenance list funded. Only one, structural repairs at the high school, was funded. The Legislature also once again failed to take any action this year on changing the foundation funding for schools, that is, the amount per student paid to districts.