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WRANGELL – Wrangell is getting closer to a major expansion of its downtown waterfront, building a new rock wall and adding fill to gain a couple of acres for expansion of the Marine Service Center, a public park, covered pavilion, parking and possible future commercial development along Campbell Drive. The overall project also includes an extension to the City Dock. City Hall staff briefed the borough assembly on plans at a work session July 28. The entire project could total around $15 m...
Hunters, recreational users and people who just want to enjoy the quiet and lake view should be able to reserve the new U.S. Forest Service cabin at Little Lakes, near the Long Lake trailhead in the middle of Wrangell Island, by this fall. Construction started in May - a little later than planned, due to heavy snow at the site - and the Forest Service is looking forward to completion by the end of September, Tory Houser, Wrangell District ranger, said last week. The Áax'w Sáani Cabin - Tlingit f...
WRANGELL — The Wrangel borough spent just over $1 million responding to the deadly November 2023 landslide that killed six people and is still owed about $346,000 after last month’s federal approval of reimbursement for debris removal costs. Last month’s approval of almost $638,000 in federal and state disaster funds is in addition to about $72,000 already paid to the borough to reimburse for utility repair costs and temporary shelter expenses. “Although the reimbursement wait is long, the borough has sufficient reserves and the delay is not...
WRANGELL - The consultant that put together a feasibility study for a major shipbuilding and repair operation at the former 6-Mile Mill site released its cost estimates last week for a full build-out of the shipyard at $605 million to $726 million. Design, permitting and construction could take at least five years, dependent on assembling enough funding to pay for the ambitious project that could, at full development, create several hundred jobs with the shipyard operating at capacity. The...
WRANGELL — The 71st Wrangell fishing derby is underway after opening on Sunday. Almost $6,000 in cash prizes await the winners with the largest king and coho salmon and largest halibut and the catches closest to a secret weight over the three-month derby which ends Sept. 7. Derby tickets, at $35 each, are available at the chamber of commerce office in the Nolan Center, and at Sentry Hardware and the Stikine Inn, with more locations coming, Lora Lee Mason, executive director of the chamber, said Sunday. The weigh-in station on weekdays will b...
WRANGELL – Free public Wi-Fi is available at Shoemaker Harbor thanks to a partnership between the borough and Tidal Network, a program of Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. The wireless internet service, which covers the general area of the harbor, has been operating successfully for more than two months and sees new users daily, according to Chris Cropley, director of Tidal Network. “We wanted to come up with a system that would provide a meaningful service to the people of Wrangell and anybody who’s coming into...
WRANGELL — Officials from the Southeast Alaska Power Agency and the Wrangell borough are working on a plan to bring a solar farm and battery storage system to the island, a move aimed at stabilizing the power grid. The regional power provider is looking for federal funding to pay most of the cost. The solar panels and batteries are estimated at $6 million. The project was the centerpiece of a town hall meeting May 6 at the Nolan Center, where roughly 25 residents gathered in person and online to hear about the future of their utility s...
WRANGELL - They had lived in the same house at 8.5-Mile Zimovia Highway since 2019, with Tim and Shei Gillen renting the downstairs apartment from homeowner Bruce Levine. All three lost their home and just about everything they owned in a fire Monday afternoon, April 27. Levine also lost his two dogs, and the Gillens lost two cats in the fire but were able to save their three dogs. They buried the cats last week. Levine suffered burns on his hands and face and was hospitalized a couple of days;...
WRANGELL — Brian Herman, owner of Canoe Lagoon Oysters, didn’t attend last month’s Mariculture Conference of Alaska in Anchorage. He was busy at work. Last year, he shipped out about 110,000 oysters raised at his farm 30 miles south of Wrangell on the Blashke Islands. This year he expects to more than double that volume. “There is a ton of growth potential,” Herman said. While the in-state market “is fairly well tapped … shipping to the Lower 48 is a completely untapped market.” And that’s where he focuses his efforts. “I have inquiries ever...
June 1 will be the golden anniversary of Alaska Airlines jet service to Wrangell and Petersburg, marking when the first scheduled Boeing 727 passenger flight touched down in the communities in 1976. Before the arrival of the 104-passenger jets, which provided daily same-plane service to and from Seattle, travelers had to take a plane with one-fifth the passenger capacity and catch a connecting flight in Ketchikan or Juneau. "It would be nice to get on a jet at Wrangell and relax all the way to...
Wrangell’s borough assembly on Feb. 24 unanimously approved a three-year lease with JAG Marine Group, giving the company time to decide if it will proceed with development of a shipyard at the 6-Mile Mill property. The shipyard would be the foundational component of a larger redevelopment plan for the former mill property, which also includes a new barge ramp and freight yard and a privately operated small data center. Wrangell Borough Manager Mason Villarma told the assembly that the short-term lease is a strategic necessity to ensure the p...
Last year’s inaugural event went so well that organizers have booked a return flight for the Milk Run Music Festival to land in Wrangell on May 1-2. “Most of the plans are locked in,” said lead organizer Olivia Strano, which is not to say the festival is on auto pilot. Volunteers started planning this year’s event last August, she said, running raffles, soliciting donations and lining up music and vendors and games to make this year’s festival better than the first time. The two days will include visiting and Wrangell musicians giving fr...
Boat owners in Wrangell now have some new rules to follow if they plan on keeping inactive vessels tied up in any of the harbors. At the Feb. 10 borough assembly meeting, members unanimously passed a new law designed to crack down on inactive boats taking up moorage space in the harbors. The provisions, which went into effect immediately, come after years of talks between Harbormaster Steve Miller, the port commission and borough leaders. No one from the public offered any comments about the ord...
WRANGELL - With just four weeks left before the deadline, Wrangell borough is pressing ahead to complete its application for a $50 million federal grant to help pay for several projects to boost the town's economic future. "We all know we've been economically depressed" since the timber industry collapsed more than a generation ago, Kate Thomas, the borough's economic development director, told the assembly at a work session on Jan. 27. The federal grant, through the Economic Development...
WRANGELL - The borough has officially partnered with a growing cruise line to bring a new dock to the community. The borough assembly voted unanimously on Jan. 7 to approve a 40-year tidelands lease for American Cruise Lines (ACL), which will build the dock. The decision followed months of negotiations and a public work session. The lease allows the company to build and operate a floating dock on the downtown waterfront. Borough Manager Mason Villarma described the deal as a "custom fit" for...
Wrangell’s economic development board, which advises the assembly, has raised several questions about a possible borough land lease for a California-based company to build and operate a small-scale data center. The board voted 5-0 on Jan. 5 to recommend the assembly move forward with the lease for one or two acres at the former 6-Mile Mill property, but not until board members added several issues that they believe the assembly needs to consider. Those include any water discharge from the data center, the potential for noise and light p...
Wrangell borough assembly took a step toward attracting private investment in building and operating a shipyard at the 6-Mile mill property, which the borough purchased for $2.5 million more than three years ago. During its Dec. 16 meeting, the assembly voted to approve a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Seattle-based JAG Marine Group. The agreement sets the stage for a long-term public-private partnership at the 6-Mile property, which Wrangell officials want to develop as a deepwater port. If JAG, which runs shipyards in Ketchikan and...
While the 23-year-old, 360-foot-long American Empress cruise ship is being stripped of its superstructure for conversion into a deck barge, the borough is looking at buying four diesel generators to use as a backup power source for industrial development plans at the former 6-Mile mill site. The dismantling and conversion work started last month at the Tideline Construction operation at 6-Mile, where the company runs a scrap metal recycling business and is taking apart the Empress for the ship’s owner, American Cruise Lines. The four C...
WRANGELL — In a 3-1 vote, the planning and zoning commission responded to concerns and opposition raised by residents and denied Tidal Network’s application for a conditional-use permit to erect a 230-foot-tall telecommunications tower near 13-Mile Zimovia Highway. “My brain is telling me yes. My heart is telling me (vote) no,” said Jillian Privett, one of three commission members who voted against the permit on Nov. 4. “This is really difficult.” Commissioners indicated that the height of the tower and the visual impacts of the structure and l...
The Wrangell port commission has started work on a proposed ordinance intended to solve the problem of inactive vessels taking up moorage space while a growing waitlist strains harbor capacity. Commissioners discussed the idea at their Sept. 4 meeting. Harbormaster Steve Miller said there are about 25 to 30 boats waiting for moorage space, prompting the look at new rules. Inactive vessels taking up space is an ongoing problem, Miller reported to the commission. Harbor staff “have been working diligently to address vessels that have been i...
It will be a homecoming when the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Alaska Native Sisterhood hold their Grand Camp Oct. 1-4 in Wrangell. Wrangell’s history with the ANS goes back to the beginning. The organization was founded by Wrangell women in 1915, following on the formation of the ANB in Sitka in 1912. The 2025 Grand Camp will be held at the Nolan Center. This is the organizations’ first in-person gathering in six years, due to COVID-19 social distancing shutdowns and its aftereffects. While there have been meetings via Zoom, there is a rea...
Wrangell Police Chief Gene Meek has started a public safety campaign to enforce new e-scooter regulations through education and enforcement. The police department posted a safety video Monday, Aug. 11, on YouTube and other social media platforms. The video demonstrates proper scooter operation, hand signals, safety lighting and traffic law compliance. “I think the immediate concern is getting the scooters off of public sidewalks,” Meek said. “With this being an older community, having someo...
WRANGELL - A petroglyph rock was found split in half last month, apparently damaged by someone attempting to remove the ancient carving, according to borough and U.S. Forest Service officials. "Petroglyph Beach is more than a scenic destination. It is a sacred site and irreplaceable cultural resource," the borough said in its report to the public on July 28. "The carvings found here are among the most significant archaeological artifacts in Alaska, reflecting the lifeways and histories of the Tl...
WRANGELL - One side pulls while the other side is told to hold tension in the line. Men grunt and struggle as they push against the large pole while men and women pull on the lines, all working together to maintain the balance needed to raise the large Kadashan pole at Totem Park on Saturday. Sandy Churchill believes the scene was the perfect metaphor to encapsulate the gathering of hundreds in Wrangell. "It was about everything being in harmony," she reflected. "If one side was not in harmony...
WRANGELL – For the first time in 38 years, the Wrangell Native community will raise new totem poles in town, with four days of events planned for Thursday through Sunday, July 17-20. Unveiling the five new poles marks a significant revival of a centuries-old Tlingit tradition. The event honors the carvers and apprentices who transformed logs into cultural masterpieces, continuing a legacy nearly lost to time. By the early 1900s, most of the town's 30 to 40 totem poles had decayed or fallen, and...
