Sorted by date Results 101 - 125 of 135
WRANGELL — In an 8 ½ hour meeting Tuesday, Jan. 8, the Wrangell School Board upheld the firing of first year art teacher Shanna Mall. Starting at 4 p.m., the school board held a public hearing on the potential termination of a high school art teacher well past midnight. Shanna Mall, was hired by the Wrangell school district this school year. However, she was put on paid administrative leave and received a termination notice last November, before the end of her first semester teaching. According to Allen Clendaniel, a lawyer representing the sc...
WRANGELL – Two dogs were found dead near Spur Road on Dec. 11. Wrangell resident Melvin Gadd found the dogs. He was driving down the trail off of the spur road, and stopped to clear some brush away from the road, when he found them. He said that the bodies were fairly decomposed. He guessed that both animals were less than a year old. Gadd notified the police about the dead dogs, and they are investigating the situation. The news of the dead dogs spread through town quickly, by word of mouth and via social media. Rumors spread on Facebook s...
WRANGELL – Ice on the runway caused a minor incident involving an aircraft at the Tyee Lake Hydro Facility. On the morning of Dec. 17, a pilot contracted with Southeast Alaska Power Agency landed at the facility, located at the head of Bradfield Canal, about 40 miles south of Wrangell. The incident occurred around 9 a.m., according to SEAPA chairman Steve Prysunka. The contractor, who wished to not be named, said that the landing was fine, save for a patch of ice on the final portion of the landing strip. He said that the plane was going a...
The Alaska DMV is working to reach compliance with the federal REAL ID Act. According to the Department of Homeland Security’s website, the act sets a minimum standard for identifying documents, such as a driver’s license or a passport. Marla Thompson, Director of the Alaska DMV, said that what this means for Alaskans is that the DMV will be offering licenses and state IDs that meet a higher standard of federal requirements. Thompson added that old IDs will remain valid, and the new IDs are not mandatory to have. It is simply an option ava...
The University of Alaska Southeast has called for all residents of Southeast Alaska to submit their creative talents to this year’s edition of “Tidal Echoes,” the college’s literary and art journal. The journal seeks to showcase and support the diverse creative talents of Southeast Alaskans, according to the UAS website. A portion of the journal has been reserved for UAS students, but anybody in the region with literary or artistic talent is invited to submit their work. Emily Wall, faculty advisor with UAS, said that “Tidal Echoes” h...
WRANGELL - Students at Evergreen Elementary School have spent the past few days making Christmas ornaments. Some students drew pictures of Alaskan wildlife, others made miniature wreaths, and another class made poinsettias. All these ornaments are not only fun projects for students to work on. They will be travelling up to Juneau in the coming weeks to hang on the governor's Christmas tree. Tory Houser, with the Forest Service, said that the Wrangell district of the Tongass National Forest has...
WRANGELL — Early on the morning of Wednesday, Oct. 14, a boat accident occurred off of Heritage Harbor. Greg Meissner, with the harbor department, said that one boat was leaving the harbor and sailing westward, towards Zarembo Island. Another boat, with Alaska Crossings, was heading in a southern direction. Both boats collided out in open water. According to Bruce Smith, with the Wrangell Police Department, there were four people involved in the accident. Three people were injured and hospitalized. Smith could not speak to the extent of t...
WRANGELL — The Wrangell Medical Center Board of Directors met on Oct. 17 for their last meeting before the long-planned transition of authority to SEARHC. This comes after the successful passing of a ballot measure on Oct. 2 allowing SEARHC to take charge of the medical center. Senior Executive Vice President of SEARHC Dan Neumeister attended the meeting to give the board an update on the transition, which is scheduled to officially take place in early November. The Wrangell Medical Center will keep the same name after SEARHC takes over operati...
WRANGELL — The cruise ship season closed in Wrangell earlier this month. The Oceania Regatta was the last cruise ship that pulled into the city dock in 2018. According to a draft schedule from the chamber of commerce, the season will reopen in May of 2019. For Wrangell, and Southeast Alaska in general, tourism is an important aspect of life. Stephanie Cook, with the chamber of commerce, said that 75 cruise ships visited Wrangell in the 2018 season, ranging from small size to large ships with about 1,500 passengers. This influx of people is v...
WRANGELL - Beyond giving students as good an education as possible, one of the highest priorities for many schools is safety. This is especially true at the Wrangell Public School District, where a new crisis strategy is being prepared for implementation. According to Superintendent Debbe Lancaster, preparing students and teachers for an emergency is the best way to keep everyone safe. "The committee has gone over the crisis plan that's in place and made some changes," she said. The school...
Southeast Conference held its 60th annual meeting last month in Ketchikan. The conference is a gathering of municipalities, businesses, nonprofits, and other interests across Southeast Alaska for the purpose of economic development in the area. During their annual conference, the organization named the city of Kake as the community of the year. Kake City Administrator Rudy Bean said that the recognition comes as a result of community-wide efforts to improve the city from several organizations....
WRANGELL - Lisa Von Bargen, Wrangell's city manager, has recently been elected to sit on the board of directors of Southeast Conference. Southeast Conference was originally founded in 1958 as a network of organizations to advocate for the Alaska Marine Highway System. Today, though, it is a collection of municipalities, nonprofits, businesses, and other groups working together for economic development in Southeast Alaska. As the newest member of the board, Von Bargen said that she wants to help...
WRANGELL — With polls closing at 8 p.m. Tuesday night, preliminary results for Wrangell’s city election have come in. The election saw seats open for the positions of mayor, the borough assembly, school board, port commission, and hospital board. Also on the ballot was Proposition 1, which would allow for the lease of the Wrangell Medical Center and construction of a new hospital. There were 649 ballots cast on election day, with an additional 115 absentee ballots. The preliminary results of the election are as follows: There were two can...
WRANGELL — In 2001, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a nationwide regulation on the management of roadless areas in national forests across the country. The “Roadless Rule,” as it’s known, generally prohibits timber harvesting and road construction in roadless areas.The rule affects 58.5 million acres of land across the country, based on information provided by the Forest Service. According to Nicole Grewe, with the Forest Service, about 55 percent of the Tongass National Forest is designated as roadless area. The Roadless Rule ha...
WRANGELL — On the night of Sept. 19, at approximately 8 p.m., a single vehicle on Zimovia Highway was in an accident near 6.5 mile. According to Chief Doug McCloskey, with the Wrangell Police Department, there were two occupants in the vehicle. The wreck was fatal for one passenger, while the other sustained serious injuries. “Basically, the car left the road and struck the bluffs out at 6.5 mile,” McCloskey said. He added that the police were still investigating the cause of the accident, but it would appear that the car was speeding at the t...
According to documents provided by Erin Michael, the public health nurse for Petersburg and Wrangell, opioids were involved in 42,000 deaths in the United States in 2016. In Alaska, in 2017, there were 108 opioid-related deaths. The National Institute of Drug Abuse said that opioids are highly addictive and can be found in illegal substances like heroin. It is also found in prescription pain medications such as OxyContin and Vicodin. To combat the increasing abuse of opioids in the area, the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services has...
WRANGELL — On Aug. 31, the Supreme Court of Alaska gave on opinion on a property dispute between two Wrangell residents, DeWayne Tomal and Jeannette Anderson. The opinion came down after a trial in superior court between the two Wrangellites, after their domestic partnership came to an end and the question of how to divide their property came to trial. The case is an interesting one, the opinion reads, because Tomal and Anderson both reportedly continued to live together for some time after their relationship had come to an end. “Alaska has...
The Nolan Center was littered with maps of the Tongass National Forest Sept. 5. Members of the Wrangell and Petersburg Ranger districts came by to hold a public meeting on the Central Tongass Project, a series of proposed long-term renovations in the area. Dave Zimmerman, with the Petersburg Ranger District, explained that the Central Tongass Project covers both the Petersburg and Wrangell districts, an area that stretches across the Wrangell, Mitkof, Kupreanof, Kuiu, Zarembo, and Etolin islands, as well as a section of the mainland. According...
After voting on Aug. 21, the results of the Alaska primary election have started to come in. Unofficial election results have been posted online at the Alaska Division of Elections’ website. According to the election results, it was a low turnout for the primary, with only 18.2 percent of Alaska’s voting public casting ballots. There were seven candidates running for the position of U.S. Representative this year, three Republicans and four Democrats. Alysa Galvin took 19,735 votes, or 54.09 percent, securing the Democratic nomination for the...
WRANGELL - Shoemaker Bay Harbor was built in 1977 with a life expectancy of 25 to 30 years, according to Wrangell Harbor Master Gregg Meissner. Now, at 41-years-old, the harbor is finally getting rebuilt. Meissner said many of the renovations are to ensure the harbor meets the needs of modern boats. The renovated Shoemaker Harbor will be similar to Heritage Harbor, he said, which was built in the early 2000s. "Since 40 years ago boats have gotten wider and deeper, so the configuration will be a...
WRANGELL - The wildfire near Telegraph Creek, British Columbia is still burning. According to Amy Riebe with the British Columbia Wildfire Service, firefighters have contained about 11 percent of the blaze, but work is still ongoing. Telegraph Creek is a small community along the Stikine River. In early August, according to Riebe, the fire was started by a lightning strike. "It was first reported on August 1," she said. "There were quite a few fires reported at that time when lightning went...
A fire was reported at about 6 a.m. Tuesday morning on Zarembo Island. The fire, according to a Facebook post by the U.S. Forest Service, is a tenth of an acre in size, and has consumed several structures at the Evergreen Timber logging camp. No injuries have been reported, and logging company employees are fighting the fire. According to Christy Gardner with the Forest Service, the fire was put out by logging company employees, though the Forest Service did come to the site to offer assistance. The fire was contained quickly and did not...
WRANGELL - Rick Groshong has been a part of the Wrangell Police Department for 22 years, according to his resume, having joined the force in 1996. As senior patrol officer, Groshong has been responsible for training new officers, responding to calls, collaborating with other law enforcement and government agencies, and finding procedures to deter illegal drug use. His time in Wrangell is coming to an end, however, as he has accepted a new position as the director of public safety and chief of...
Last weekend was the annual Rally For Cancer Care golf tournament, organized by the Wrangell Medical Center Foundation. The tournament on Saturday was less of a serious competition and more for fun and socializing. Several holes on the 9-hole course had a different, fun challenge to compete in. Hole No. 2, for example, required golfers to play the entire hole with just their driver. Hole No. 5 required players to tee off with their foot in a bucket. Along with these challenges were...
WRANGELL - The Wrangell Cooperative Association recently received a $50,000 grant from SEARHC. According to WCA Tribal Administrator Esther Ashton, several other communities with First Nations entities also received similar grants. The "Healthy is Here" grant is meant to help promote public health within their community. "The way that it was defined was really left up to the tribal board to determine how they wanted to promote health and culture within our community," Ashton said. "So the board...
