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The Southeast Alaska Power Agency (SEAPA) board of directors voted 5-0 June 26 to terminate the Operations and Maintenance contract for the Tyee Lake hydroelectric facility. Tyee Lake is presently operated by a joint creation of the Petersburg and Wrangell assemblies— the Thomas Bay Power Authority. The future of the Authority has been in question since the Petersburg assembly voted to withhold a portion of its operating costs known as the Non-Net Billable in October 2013. Borough assemblies in Wrangell and Petersburg passed December r...
Hammer and Wrangell Clerk Kim Lane, accompanied by Wrangell Police Chief Doug McCloskey arrived at the TBPA office headquarters about 3 p.m., when a Wrangell Sentinel reporter was interviewing Nicholls. The interview was the first notification of the imposition of administrative leave, Nicholls and Christian said. Nicholls disputed claims by the Thomas Bay Power Commission that there had been a lack of communication between commissioners and staff prior to the June 6 special meeting. "At that time, both Robert (Larson) and James (Stough) said...
WRANGELL - An emergency slide on an Alaska Airlines jet plane deployed accidentally Saturday, delaying a north-bound flight for several hours at Wrangell Airport, according to a spokesperson for the company. Airlines staff were opening the hatch for off-loading when the plane's emergency slide deployed. Pictures, widely circulated on Facebook, show the slide deployed perpendicular to the ground. No one was injured in the mishap and passengers were able to disembark, said spokesperson Nancy...
wrangell — Patients in local hospitals could face new limitations on how physical therapy can be paid for in Southeast Alaska hospitals. Annual caps for the amount of physical therapy have, in past years, been restricted only to hospitals that did not receive the critical care designation from the federal government. However, for the first time this year, Medicare will apply reimbursement caps – the limit is $1,920 – to physical therapy patients receiving physical therapy even at critical access facilities, like the Petersburg and Wrang...
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following story ran in the Wrangell Sentinel on May 6 and was omitted from publication in the Petersburg Pilot the same week. Since Brock pleaded not guilty to the specified charges, it was important that we print a story about the dismissal of charges against Brock in a timely manner, in both publications. That did not happen. The Pilot regrets the error and apologizes for the oversight. WRANGELL — The State of Alaska dismissed charges against Lavina “Lovey” Brock April 22. Brock, 67, of Wrangell, had faced four Class A...
WRANGELL — Officials this week tried to make the best of last week’s postponement of the Salty Dog Rally. Among the officials who expressed disappointment was Leslie Cummings, a Wrangell Convention and Visitors Bureau board member who played a large role in facilitating Wrangell’s participation as the end point of a long-distance yachting rally. Cummings made the initial connection with Salty Dog Rally ALASKA organizer Dawny Pack and said, while local organizations who contributed were upset about the plan, they looked forward to Rally...
WRANGELL — Thomas Bay Power commissioners voted 5-0 to support the handover of Tyee Lake to the Southeast Alaska Power Agency (SEAPA). The special meeting, held June 5, was the commission’s first in at least two months and drew Petersburg commissioners as well as the Petersburg mayor to the borough assembly chambers. Critics of the transfer have said the handover would essentially put borough resources in the hands of an unelected bureaucracy. Supporters generally say the transfer will limit the liability Wrangell faces in connection with Tye...
WRANGELL - According to news reports, a Tlingit hat sold for $365,000 on the auction block at Sotheby's of New York May 21. The hat's sale had been opposed by local Alaskan Natives and board members of the SEALAKSA corporation on the grounds that as a sacred at.óow object, it never should have left possession of the Wrangell Kiks.áadi clan in the first place. The hat was in the style of an Aleut hunting cap with Tlingit embossments and accents and was carved by master carver Wiliam Ukas, who c...
WRANGELL — The borough assembly voted 5-0 in favor of a motion authorizing negotiations over the Tyee Lake power facility. The vote was taken on May 7 in open session after a roughly two-hour closed-door executive session with borough attorney Bob Blasco. Assembly members declined comment on the motion or the executive session, saying they were legally constrained from open discussion on the proceedings. The vote comes after a seeming impasse over the future of operations and maintenance at the facility stemming from an April 4 c...
WRANGELL - State Rep. Peggy Wilson will no longer represent the Wrangell area to the state legislature, starting with the election of her successor. Wilson announced her plans Friday during a floor session of the state legislature, citing a desire to spend more time with her family. Wilson's mother will require help around the home, and several new great-grandchildren have arrived in the family, Wilson said. "My mom isn't well," she said. "She's so fragile that she hasn't been outside all...
WRANGELL - Hummingbirds are jerks. That was among the messages, meditations, stories and sights shared at the 2014 Stikine River Birding Festival last week. The annual festival caters to those – like guest speaker and author Noah Strycker – with birds on the brain, and took place most visibly over the weekend. The festival receives funding in part from the US Forest Service's Resource Advisory Committee, which also provides funds for Bearfest in August. As a conclusion to an hour-long presentati...
WRANGELL — The president of the Thomas Bay Power Commission sent a letter this week to the chairman of the Southeast Alaska Power Agency ordering an end to negotiations for SEAPA to take over operations at the Tyee Lake Hydroelectric Project. The letter claims those negotiations – borough manager Jeff Jabusch characterized them as discussions – are being conducted in violation of section 3.40.50 of Wrangell code and a “substantially identical ordinance of Petersburg,” according to the letter from TBPA president James Stough to SEAPA board cha...
Local healthcare consumers face an imminent deadline. After twice extending the deadline to sign up for a healthcare plan under the Patient Affordable Care Act – known colloquially as Obamacare – the date finally stuck at March 31, with little indication that officials will change it, according to various national news outlets. Uninsured patients will thus face a penalty on their next tax return. Consumers who fail to enroll will face a penalty of $95 or one percent of their income, whichever is greater. Families must pay $47.50 per uni...
A bill being considered in the State Senate could impact local ferry workers. Senate Bill 182 amends Alaska State law pertaining to bargaining rights to eliminate what is known as a cost-of-living differential. This provision of contracts allows for salaries to be automatically adjusted to match the cost of living of a certain area. For individual employees, this can amount to as much as $4 per hour, or roughly $8,320 per year for, in particular, Alaska Marine Highway System employees, who are currently bargaining with the state for a new...
WRANGELL — It’s an ethical dilemma as old as the hills. You find a wallet stuffed with money lying unattended on the ground. What do you do? Members of the Wolves varsity basketball team and the pep band found themselves in just such a situation during the Region V basketball tournament, March 5. Some members of each student group were at a Fred Meyer’s store during the tournament loading into a van to return to Juneau Douglas High School, when freshman Sig Decker noticed something lying in a snow bank. “I almost let it go because we were al...
WRANGELL — Two prominent local taverns will join the ranks of the smoke-free in the coming weeks. Totem Bar & Liquor Store will go smoke-free tomorrow, according to signs posted inside the bar over the weekend. Elks Lodge members also voted this week to go smoke-free, though Elks leadership has not yet set a date for the transition. Both bars follow in the footsteps of Rayme’s Bar, which went smoke-free in January. The bar owner cited changing demographics among his clientele as the primary reason for the change. The moves by the Elks and the...
WRANGELL — A highly contagious and potentially fatal canine virus has been reported in Wrangell. Two cases of Parvovirus, symptoms of which include lethargy, severe vomiting, loss of appetite and bloody diarrhea, have been reported in Wrangell, said Judge Conniff, a local vet. “I had two cases, both of them doing very well, both of them discharged,” he said. Several dog deaths earlier in the year could be tied to this outbreak, but there’s no way to know for sure, Conniff said. “No way to know the answer to that question for sure,” he said. “W...
WRANGELL — Lavina “Lovey” Brock, 68, of Wrangell, pleaded not guilty to four counts of promoting illegal gambling Tuesday before Wrangell First District Magistrate Chris Ellis. Brock, a prominent member of the local community, had been charged with promoting Texas Hold ‘em games for cash prizes at American Legion Post #6. The charges are Class A misdemeanors, punishable by up to one year in prison for each upon conviction, according to Alaska statutes. The offense dates listed on the criminal complaint range from Feb. 18, 2009 to Feb. 10, 201...
WRANGELL — The Thomas Bay Power Authority commission elected Wrangell borough assembly member and TBPA commissioner James Stough to the commission’s presidency Monday. Stough also briefly served as chairman of the borough’s special energy committee. The election marks the transfer of the presidency from John Jensen of Petersburg, who’d held the presidency since he joined the board in 2007. Stough was appointed to the board in December. Stough has since September been publicly critical of the transfer of an operations and maintenance contrac...
Wrangell - A 60-foot tug that sank in 80 to 85 feet of water Jan. 14 was capped Friday and is no longer leaking fuel into Shoemaker Bay, authorities said. Assessment divers from Ketchikan-based Alaska Commercial Divers dove on the wreck Friday and were able to cap both diesel tanks and a hydraulic tank, and close a valve linking hydraulic equipment on board to the tank said Coast Guard Petty Officer Scott Wakefield. Divers had been delayed from diving on the wreck until Friday evening because...
The State Department of Fish and Game has set the regulations for non-pelagic rockfish for Southeast waters. The regulations remained unchanged from last year’s season, which pertains only to non-pelagic, or deepwater rockfish, said Petersburg-Wrangell Area Management Biologist Doug Fleming. “It appears to be for all purposes pretty much the same as last year,” he said. The regulations for all Southeast waters are as follows: All non-pelagic rockfish caught must be retained until the bag limit is reached. Persons sport fishing from a chart...
WRANGELL — The borough assembly voted 5-0 Tuesday night on a draft resolution which — if approved next week — could begin the process of putting Tyee Lake operations in the hands of the Southeast Alaska Power Agency. Assembly members instructed Borough manager Jeff Jabusch to look through and fine-tune the resolution, which would empower him to enter into negotiations on a formal written offer for the SEAPA transfer “which essentially accepts the terms of the August 19, 2013 memo from the SEAPA CEO to the TBPA President,” the measure reads. Th...
WRANGELL — Wrangell Oil, Inc. officially ceased to exist Friday. Bill Privett, the current owner of the town’s multi-generational oil concern, sold his company to Seward-based Petro Marine Services for an undisclosed sum. The sale is a win-win for the community, based largely on the economies of the scale Petro Marine can provide, Privett said. The Wrangell Distribution plant joined Petro Marine’s Alaskan plants in Ketchikan, Petersburg, Kodiak, Seward, Sitka, Skagway, Whittier, Anchorage, Homer, Juneau, and a Canadian plant in Whitehorse, Yuko...
WRANGELL - The borough's energy committee asked borough administrator Jeff Jabusch to provide the borough assembly with data-driven assessments of options for the future of the Thomas Bay Power Authority. The committee's Monday meeting was largely an informal affair, with most decisions being made by consensus instead of role-call votes. Committee members also honed in on the options for the TBPA, which has been stuck in limbo since the Petersburg borough council voted to withhold their portion...
The Sons of Norway quilt raffle earned around $1000 for the Wounded Warrior Project-a national organization dedicated to raising awareness and providing resources to injured service members. The Sons of Norway sold 220 raffle tickets and drew the winner last weekend. Michelle Brainard won the quilt, which was pieced by Sally Dwyer. The pattern is from a nationally recognized pattern called 'Quilt of Valor'. "It feels good to be part of a good thing," Dwyer said. "There are thousands of quilts...
