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Petersburg High School's girls added a pair of wins to their standings over the weekend, hosting Haines on Saturday and Sunday. "They went well," coach Dino Brock said of the games. In Saturday's game, Haines took an early lead over the hosts. The Lady Vikings struggled offensively at first, but as the game progressed their shooting improved. Their defense held Haines to a handful of points in the second quarter, and a scoreless fourth. "The girls played very well defensively," Brock noted. "It...
The Vikings hosted Haines over the weekend, adding two more wins to a lossless season so far. "It was a good team effort this weekend," said Petersburg coach Rick Brock. "I was real happy with our half-court defense," he explained. Players worked well together, completing passes and transitioning well. Defense played a factor in the weekend's games, with Petersburg holding the Glacier Bears scorers back in a hard-fought 69-45 win Saturday. Brock explained one of the team's strengths is its balan...
WRANGELL – A Wrangell resident was among the travelers detained following a selective travel ban issued by the White House last week. Sylvia Ettefagh was returning from a 10-day vacation in Costa Rica with her husband, John, and friends the Stroms on Saturday. The group was at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on its way to connecting with an Alaska Airlines flight to Seattle. At customs, Ettefagh attempted to enter the Global Entry section of the Trusted Traveler program. The expedited screening is offered by US Customs and Border Pro...
As the Alaska State Legislature continues with the new session, members in both the House and Senate have put forward ideas to fix the state’s ongoing budget woes. Sitka Sen. Burt Stedman (R-District R) submitted his own contribution to that discussion, filing Senate Bill 21 on January 18. “It’s a percent of market value bill for the permanent fund which would have a five-year average market value payout of four percent. Of that four percent, a minimum of half of it or two and a quarter percent would have to go to dividends,” he explain...
Petersburg's roller derby girls brought back a win in its double-header in Palmer over the weekend. In their first league bouts of the season since October, the Ragnarök Rollers went up first against the Fairbanks Roller Girls. Fairbanks ended up securing a lead, pressing Petersburg from there for a 173-104 win. "We fought really hard, and we learned a lot," commented Ragnarök coach Rebecca Anderson afterward. "Everybody worked really well together." The second bout was against the Denali D...
Heading to Wrangell last weekend for their homecoming weekend, the Lady Vikings varsity and junior varsity teams swept their hosts. Playing Friday, the girls began the game trailing the Lady Wolves after a closely-played first quarter. Wrangell led 16-13 after the first half, but Petersburg retook the momentum into the second. Though shooting at around 28 percent through the game, the girls were able to get more shots off as their offense picked up, and made 13 of 15 free throws overall. Tying...
The Vikings continued their winning streak over the weekend, playing at Wrangell High School for its homecoming weekend. The Petersburg boys started Friday's game with an early lead, racking up 25 points in the first quarter to the Wolves' 9. A chance at 13 free throws during the first half – six for eight made by senior Stewart Conn, and three for four thrown by classmate Alan McCay – and strong possession helped put the team up by 18 at the half. Wrangell's offense rebounded in the latter hal...
The Petersburg High School boys basketball team continued its winning streak over the weekend, adding two more while hosting Metlakatla. Going into the weekend, the Chiefs were standing just behind the Vikings for the season with five wins and only two losses. Petersburg had won its six games played so far, and Metlakatla stood a chance to move into first for the region if it could beat the front-runners at home. "I thought both nights were hard-fought," commented Vikings coach Rick Brock....
The Lady Vikings went up against region leaders Metlakatla in a pair of away games over the weekend. Both games were characterized by a lot of defensive play, with scores staying comparatively close but low. In Friday’s game, Petersburg trailed along throughout, finishing with a 22-34 score. Saturday’s game was almost a repeat, with the final score 23-34 in the Miss Chiefs’ favor. “I thought it was a good defensive game from both groups,” said Petersburg coach Dino Brock. He noted his team will be working on its positioning and offense....
WRANGELL – The Forest Service (USFS) announced its permits for visiting Anan Wildlife Observatory this summer will be available at the start of next month. At 8 a.m. on February 1 members of the public will be able to reserve permits at the Recreation.gov website. Twenty permits will be made available for each day of the season, which runs from July 5 to August 25. Visitation outside this time frame does not require a permit. Reservations and payment can also be made by phone, at the 1-877-444-6777 hotline. Permits for 2017 cost $10 api...
WRANGELL – A new sample site shows more butter clams carry the risk of paralytic shellfish poisoning for consumers, according to a report released last week. Since last year Wrangell Cooperative Association's Indian Environmental General Assistance Program (IGAP) staff have been collecting samples of various bivalves from the beaches around Shoemaker Bay on a weekly basis. It added a new site further south to its monitoring, near Pats Landing. It was here that the butter clam samples showed u...
WRANGELL – Taking up the mantle left by the Lions Club after it closed its Wrangell chapter last summer, the Garnet Grit Betties roller derby team is continuing its aluminum collection program. For two decades the club had raised money for itself through the program, as aluminum is one of the few recyclable materials which can turn a profit for collectors. Reprocessing the material is considerably more efficient than producing it from bauxite ore, a savings which makes it more profitable than i...
WRANGELL – Trident Seafoods will be welcoming a new manager for its Wrangell plant during the summer's production run. Nick Ohmer was named as the company's selection in a media brief last week. A lifelong resident of Southeast Alaska, in an interview Ohmer said he would be bringing to the job his local knowledge and personal connections with Wrangell's fishermen. Ohmer grew up in Petersburg, and even before fishing alongside those from the neighboring community he grew up with many of them t...
WRANGELL – A state task force set up to further develop a sustainable mariculture industry is setting up several advisory committees as part of that process. The Alaska Mariculture Task Force was set up by Gov. Bill Walker following recommendations by the state’s marine industry. The group announced January 13 that after five meetings it is on its way to proposing an implementable plan by its deadline of March 1, 2018. These recommendations will address public and private investment, regulatory issues, and research and development needs. To tha...
WRANGELL – Alaska’s 30th Legislature convened for its new session on Tuesday, with the state’s finances presenting a daunting challenge for the next 90 days. The spending deficit is projected at around $3.1 billion this year if the budget is left as-is. Agency spending has come to just over 13-percent since FY15, and the budget as a whole has taken a 29-percent cut when capital projects and other funding is considered. Revenue has failed to cover operating expenses since FY13, but has covered an ever-dwindling proportion since. This year the $...
WRANGELL – Wrangell has narrowed the field for its new borough manager, with city staff and members of the Borough Assembly holding a teleconference with five candidates during a closed-door meeting Friday. Current manager Jeff Jabusch announced his plans to retire back in September, which is to take effect at the end of day March 31. In his current post since 2013, the move brings to a close four decades of employment with the city, much which was spent as its finance director. The Assembly a...
The state has so far not received any applications from a number of floathouse owners contacted last autumn. Since October, the Department of Natural Resources has been reaching out to identified owners of floating facilities anchored along the Stikine River’s tidal area, the land which is under its clear jurisdiction after resolving a longstanding dispute with the United States Forest Service last March. The floathouses being targeted are those anchored within the tidal influence of the river, which ends just beyond the terminus of Shakes S...
WRANGELL – A lifelong Wrangell resident, Lawrence Bahovec, celebrated his 100th birthday this week. Asked how he felt about reaching the milestone, he joked: "It makes me feel old." He was born in Chicago on January 4, 1917. Alaska and Hawaii both were still territories at the time, the United States had not yet joined into the fighting alongside the Allied Powers during the Great War, and Wrangell was still very much a frontier town on the nation's periphery. At a very young age, Bahovec was...
WRANGELL – Wrangell's second-largest travel lodging has been sold, and will be repurposed as a senior housing and assisted living center this spring. The owners of the Sourdough Lodge sold the property to a group of buyers, who are currently renovating its rooms and preparing it for the new use. Once completed, by April 1 the lodge will be rechristened Harbor House Assisted Living Center and Senior Housing. One of the buyers, Shannon Bosdell, explained the facility will fill a need in the com...
WRANGELL – Alaska's two senators jointly welcomed a new addition to their Southeast team. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan issued statements December 22 congratulating Chere Klein to serve at the South Southeast delegation representative office in her home town of Ketchikan. "The district office is kind of the eyes and ears of the senators when they're back in D.C.," Klein explained of the post. "Our main business is doing casework, and that's helping constituents around the district w...
WRANGELL – The governments of Alaska and neighboring province British Columbia initiated their first bilateral working group on transboundary mining and water quality concerns earlier this month. In a statement from his office released last week, Lieutenant Governor Byron Mallott expressed his appreciation for the meeting, which was one of the measures outlined in a statement of cooperation the two governments signed in October. The agreement was a next step in the process of addressing concerns among Southeast Alaskan communities about the e...
WRANGELL – Representa-tives between the city and its public employees union met in court in Ketchikan Tuesday for a scheduled settlement conference, as part of an ongoing arbitration dispute between Wrangell and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1547. The conference was set to continue into Wednesday. On December 6 Judge William Carey of the Ketchikan Superior Court was appointed as the settlement judge by Judge Trevor Stephens, who is assigned to the civil case. Parties were given until Monday to submit confidential b...
WRANGELL – Things are looking up for possible project financing needed to replace float facilities at Shoemaker Bay Harbor. In a budget draft released by Gov. Bill Walker last week, the Department of Transportation and Public Facility’s harbor maintenance program would have $5,000,000 in its coffers for next year, precisely the amount Wrangell would need in order to proceed with its renovation at Shoemaker. The Wrangell project has been given precedence this year over other applications from around the state, after being passed over last yea...
WRANGELL – Several Wrangell boat owners learned they had been burgled early Saturday morning. Wrangell Police Department received a call concerning Heritage Harbor, where it appeared three boats moored there had been entered, one forcibly. Owners were contacted, and they confirmed a number of items were missing, including dive gear and a firearm. “Sure enough, someone had liberated my possessions,” commented Steve Prysunka, owner of the boat Mollyann. “They stole such an interesting variety of things.” In addition to his dive gear, he found...
WRANGELL – A number of Petersburg and Wrangell residents have been receiving letters from the state, informing them their float houses anchored along the Stikine River need to be permitted or else move. Since the late 1970s, the placement of float houses and temporary cabins along the river have made it convenient for locals making use of the river basin, be it for subsistence fishing, hunting, trapping, work or recreational purposes. While a number are there on a seasonal basis, this year some 18 have been identified as being situated y...
