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WRANGELL — The coronavirus led to many business closures in 2020. Of those that were able to adapt and weather the financial storm caused by the pandemic, many are still struggling to recover. To that end, the Central Council Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska has reopened its federally funded small business relief grant program to help small businesses owned by tribal citizens. The council also has introduced a grant program for 2022 start-ups. The relief grants have been awarded since 2021, with $200,000 total being awarded to 40 b...
WRANGELL – The U.S. Forest Service spent last week showing that the wildlife at Anan Creek aren't your average bears. From the chilliest to the chunkiest, the inaugural Anan Bear Awards were posted via Facebook from Oct. 3 to Oct. 7, honoring nine bears for their unique personalities. Paul Robbins, public affairs officer for the Tongass National Forest, said the awards are modeled after the Katmai National Park and Preserve's Fat Bear Week held at the same time. In that event, National Park Serv...
WRANGELL—“Not happy” was how Borough Manager Jeff Good described his mood last week when he received word that Wrangell was left off the list of Alaska communities sharing in $27 million in the final round of federal pandemic assistance funding. Wrangell was not alone in receiving nothing. Juneau, Sitka and Anchorage also came up empty. The funding formula was based on federal acreage within each borough, with population and economic conditions, such as poverty levels and unemployment, factoring into the formula. “I think Treasury got it wron...
WRANGELL — It is tempting to imagine that toilets, shower drains and kitchen sinks are domesticated black holes, transporting our waste to some mysterious nether region outside space and time, where it ceases to exist the moment it is out of sight. However, Public Works Director Tom Wetor knows better than anyone in Wrangell that the spoiled milk, blackened cooking oil and remnants of last night’s dinner that are flushed into the sewer do not disappear. Pouring oil, grease and fat down the drain can damage essential infrastructure, strain the...
WRANGELL – Issues with lingering supply chain disruptions that started with the COVID-19 pandemic have put hunters and gun enthusiasts in a bind. Though there are signs that ammunition shortages are on the decline, stores in Southeast — and nationwide — are still having trouble getting stocked up, leading shooters to go on the hunt for ammo or to create their own. Last month, Mike White, manager of Sentry Hardware, was still waiting on a $75,000 ammo order he had placed in January. He said incoming stock is better than it was a year ago, yet o...
WRANGELL—Tribal members from both sides of the U.S.-Canada border — the headwaters and downstream region of the Stikine River — talked about strengthening their relationship when they met at the recent Sharing Our Knowledge conference in Wrangell. One of the common interests bringing the Indigenous people together is their concern for the river — protecting and preserving its salmon runs that have fed tribal members for generations. The discussions during the conference were about “connecting and cementing those relationships,” said Christ...
WRANGELL — Sealaska Heritage Institute is sponsoring a free, 13-part fall lecture series covering a wide range of topics, including clan crests, lost Alaskans, historical trauma in Alaska Native peoples and whether the state should call a constitutional convention. The lectures will be held at noon Thursdays starting this week — with several additional sessions on Tuesdays — running through the end of the October. While the lectures will be in person at the Walter Soboleff Building in downtown Juneau, the sessions will be livestreamed and p...
WRANGELL - Twenty years ago, the Central Council of Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes asked the Portland Art Museum to return nine objects that were taken from the Naanya.aayí clan in Wrangell almost 100 years ago. Among them are a mudshark hat and shirt, killer whale stranded on a rock robe, killer whale hat, killer whale with a hole wooden fin, killer whale flotilla Chilkat robe, two mudshark shirts, and a headdress the clan says was captured from the Tsimshian during a battle near the mouth of...
WRANGELL – Beginning Sept. 7, the annual Sharing Our Knowledge conference of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian tribes and clans will be held in Wrangell for the first time. This five-day event will take place at the Nolan Center and will feature a film festival, a panel discussion and a wide variety of research presentations on subjects ranging from Indigenous history to art. Organizers expect an estimated 200 people to arrive in town for the event. Because the anticipated attendance exceeds the capacity of Wrangell’s hotels and bed and bre...
WRANGELL — The borough followed through on discussions from earlier this summer and the assembly last week approved a contract for reassessment of the value of all commercial and residential properties in the community. The intent is not to raise revenue — that is determined by the property tax rate the assembly sets every spring as part of the budget process. The reassessment is to ensure that valuations are “equitable across the board,” explained Borough Manager Jeff Good. After the assembly adopts its annual budget, it considers availab...
WRANGELL — In November of last year, Tlingit & Haida Community and Behavioral Services opened a healing center in Juneau to provide care to tribal citizens and other Alaska Natives. At the time, care was provided through Zoom Health or over the phone. The center was able to open its doors this year for in-person appointments but still relies on telehealth to reach a greater number of patients who might not have access to such services otherwise. Healing center staff provides a mix of wholistic healing and western treatment for crisis and ac...
WRANGELL — Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it’s putting $29 million toward connecting just over 1,200 people, a school and 45 businesses in Craig and Klawock on Prince of Wales Island and also Hyder to high-speed internet. That funding is part of Alaska’s $116 million slice of $401 million in grants to improve internet access in 11 states. It’s part of an initial round of the more than $90 billion the federal government has committed to spending on bringing affordable, high-speed internet to communities across...
WRANGELL — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is moving ahead with its review of the borough’s wetlands fill permit application to develop the former Wrangell Institute property for residential lots. The borough hopes to start ground-clearing work next year, Carol Rushmore, the borough’s planning and zoning director, said last week. Permit review work had been on hold while state and federal agencies and the borough coordinated an archaeological records and ground survey of the property that had been used as a Bureau of Indian Affairs Nativ...
WRANGELL - BearFest is coming out of hibernation and is planned for July 27 through July 31 throughout Wrangell. The popular event will offer pie contests, live music, art and music workshops, symposiums, a marathon and more. "It's a celebration of bears. That's the short of it," said Sylvia Ettefagh, chairperson for the event. "Its mission is to promote Wrangell and to promote the environment; one part of our environment - a very important part of our environment - the bears." Not only is...
Independent travelers and residents looking to visit Anan Wildlife Observatory apart from tour groups still have a chance to do so. The Forest Service Wrangell ranger district is making last-minute permits available through its office on a weekly basis until Aug. 25, the end of the bear-viewing permits season. Up to four last-minute permits per day will be made available for those who request them the previous week by filling out a form in the district office. “Collection of weekly requests will end Mondays at 4:30 p.m. and permits will be a...
WRANGELL – DC Auto, the only automotive mechanic shop in Wrangell, closed its doors for good last Friday, after being in business for about seven years. The closure leaves a void in auto services with not many options to get a vehicle repaired, oil changed or other needed fixes. There are a few mechanics in town who provide service to select clients or friends and family, but that’s of little comfort to someone with a trashed transmission or blown head gasket. “We’re thinking about getting back into it, and we’re actively trying to find guys...
WRANGELL – The final inspection took place on June 16. An entirely new observation deck and shelter are still fresh with the smell of sealant. Anan Wildlife Observatory is almost ready for visitors at the start of the permit season on July 5. Even though the observatory is ready, plans are not flush to open the popular bear-viewing site, U.S. Forest Service staffers say. One thing blocks the way before people can arrive. The public toilets. "We are having complications with getting our t... Full story
WRANGELL – Closing on the boroughs $2.6 million purchase of the 39-acre former sawmill property at 6 Mile has been delayed until June 20, Borough Manager Jeff Good said June 1, the day the sale was supposed to close. The sale is delayed until the seller can resolve a contractor lien on the property. William “Shorty” Tonsgard Jr., owner of Channel Construction, a scrap metal collection company that runs a barge south for disposal or recycling, on March 18 filed a $701,654 lien against Kelso, Washington-based DB AK Enterprises, owned by Betty...
For the first time in four years, Celebration, the largest gatherings of Southeast Alaska Native peoples to celebrate their culture, is being held in person in Juneau from June 8-11. The gathering, sponsored by Sealaska Heritage, drew about 5,000 people pre-COVID, including more than 2,000 dancers. The Wrangell tribe will lead the way this week. Every Celebration features a lead dance group and this year it is Shx’at Kwáan (People Near the Mainland) of Wrangell, Sealaska Heritage spokesperson Kathy Dye said Friday. “They were chosen in 2018...
WRANGELL - It's not uncommon for high school students to learn a second language. It's a bit rarer for them to take what they've learned and teach it to others. That's exactly what sophomore Mia Wiederspohn has been doing the past two years with the Lingít language and by extension the culture. As a freshman, Wiederspohn, 15, began learning Lingít from Virginia Oliver, who teaches the language at the high school and elementary school. Oliver took an applied learning approach to the lessons s...
WRANGELL - Seattle-based Trident Seafoods will not open its Wrangell processing plant this summer, the third year in a row the operation has been closed. As in the past two years, the company cited weak chum salmon returns for its decision not to run the plant. Company officials did not return calls to the Sentinel last Friday or Monday. News of the plant closure was presented in Wrangell Borough Manager Jeff Good's report for Tuesday's assembly meeting: "They have notified us that they do not...
WRANGELL — Anyone who wants to get a pizza midweek at the Marine Bar or a steak or burger at the Elks Lodge knows that worker shortages have forced employers to reduce their days and cut back on offerings. “This worker shortage is real, and it’s not going away anytime soon,” Dan Robinson, research chief at the Alaska Department of Labor, told legislators last month. “For nine years in a row, more people have left the state than have come here,” he told the Senate Finance Committee. The population has been stable as births have outpaced de...
WRANGELL — A pair of mobile towers on wheels that were anticipated to arrive this month in Wrangell for a pilot broadband network have been delayed until around September. Chris Cropley, network architect at Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, said delivery is 16 to 18 weeks out. One of the components for the towers got “kicked out” of the global supply chain, Cropley said May 4. The delayed order which Cropley placed in early February for the two mobile cell towers on wheels come from Pierson Wireless in Omaha, Ne...
WRANGELL-If visitors read the bear-sighting sheet at Anan Wildlife Observatory, which the workers fill out every season, bear names would sound more like tax forms: 7-05-A, for the first bear spotted on the stream to fish on July 5, and 7-05-B, for the second bear spotted on July 5. Well, humans only do so well with numbering systems before our penchant for nicknames kicks in: Casino, Crack and Scuba Sue, to name a few. Bear naming can be a controversial issue, Dee Galla, outdoor recreation...
WRANGELL—A lightly used 32-foot-long police jet boat moored at Heritage Harbor may be sold to save money. The borough assembly at a work session March 22 went over its insurance expenses ahead of finalizing its budget for the upcoming fiscal year. It discussed insurance costs for the old hospital, earthquake coverage, museum exhibits and about $6,000 a year the borough pays to insure the police boat. “I understand the business end of it,” Chief Tom Radke said March 29. “I hate to lose it. Right now, it’s still under discussion.” Radke said the...
