KSTK - Wrangell

Wrangell’s former hospital building had a buyer, but he has quashed the deal — citing a headline in the local newspaper.

The project would have renovated the old Wrangell Medical Center into much-needed housing. But Georgia resident Wayne Johnson ended his plans because he didn’t like a headline in the Wrangell Sentinel that read: “Hospital property developer now wants borough lots for free.”

Johnson intended to purchase the building for $200,000, which is significantly less than the appraised value of $800,000.

He also planned to buy the six adjacent lots and he said he was going to develop between 36 and 40 housing units on the property.

“Unfortunately, the local newspaper decided to characterize it as the lots being conveyed under, I think the headline was, ‘Developer now wants borough lots for free,’” Johnson said. “I never wanted anything for free.”

The City and Borough of Wrangell offered Johnson the six lots for free if he demolished the asbestos-filled medical center by June 30, 2026. But Johnson said there were still inherent costs — he estimated the demolition expenses at roughly $1 million. Johnson said the Sentinel’s headline was inaccurate, which caused him to pull out of his investment.

“I’m just in a situation where, you know, just my reputation and my intents are very positive towards the city of Wrangell,” he said. “I felt like the headline, unfortunately, and even portions of the story, misrepresented what the city and I had agreed to.”

He said withdrawing from developing the lots removes any doubt others might have in him.

The Wrangell Sentinel’s publisher, Larry Persily, disagrees that the headline was wrong.

“I felt the story was accurate. The headline was accurate,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that Mr. Johnson has decided to cancel his investment and development plans in Wrangell.”

Originally, Johnson was supposed to close on the purchase by May 31. But then he asked the borough for the adjacent land at a reduced cost.

The borough agreed to change the contract to include a requirement for demolishing the building, which would save the borough from liability. And, in return, Johnson would get the six lots for free.

Persily questions whether it really was the headline that changed Johnson’s course.

“So it all changed because of a headline, which I find somewhat a convenient excuse for someone who maybe didn’t want to follow through after all,” he said.

Persily has been in Alaska journalism and politics for decades. He said he does not feel a need to defend the headline.

“I’ve been at this for 50 years,” he said. “I’ve been called worse things by better people. No, I don’t (think I need to defend myself). I feel I should explain myself when people ask.”

Earlier this year, Persily said he had a few interactions with Johnson when reporting on the development project. He said their interactions were cordial until June 28, two days after the headline came out.

He said that Johnson accused him of purposefully writing the headline for clickbait or sensationalizing it for attention.

“Look, clickbait,” Persily said. “I think (what) people in Wrangell use bait for is fishing, not social media.”

Borough Manager Mason Villarma said he doesn’t have much to say on the withdrawal, except that he appreciates the time everyone spent on planning.

“A lot of staff worked hard on seeing through as far as we could go,” he said. “Moving on and what I hear is we have two interested parties already.”

The borough spends approximately $100,000 a year to maintain the old hospital building. It was estimated that demolishing the building would cost $2 million.

As for Johnson’s future in Wrangell, the Georgia resident said he intends to continue to visit often. He has a two-year lease on the island, has two boats docked in town and is looking for land to build a house on. He also brought a food truck to Wrangell to sell boiled crab.

And he’s running as a Republican for U.S. Congress in Georgia this year.

“I will be leaving in a couple of weeks to head back to Georgia to fully engage in my campaign for the United States Congress,” Johnson said. “It’s going to be a very intense few months.”

About 70 people in six canoes paddled north from Wrangell to Juneau last month for Celebration, a biennial cultural gathering that celebrates Southeast Alaska tribes.

The canoe journey to the event took a week, and veterans of war paddled one of the canoes. Many of the vets found solace during the expedition, where they were able to be together.

By Tracy Arm, a fjord about 70 miles north of Petersburg, flames crackled while a large group of paddlers sat around a campfire. People said gunalchéesh and dedicated songs  to the veterans, who introduced themselves and briefly spoke about their position in the military.

Dennis Jack, one of the founders and a previous president of Xheighaa Warrior Veteran Canoe Journey Inc., was one of the vets who spoke.He said the organization started back in 2015 when he visited his friend, Doug Chilton, who organizes canoe journeys with the One People Canoe Society.

Jack asked him if there was any representation with the veterans during the journeys, and Chilton replied no. He encouraged him to start an organization.

“It was three months later where I posted on Facebook that we have a veteran canoe journey taking place from Angoon to Juneau, and we’re looking for paddlers,” Jack said. “Maybe 20 minutes later, after it was posted, phone calls started coming in.”

Eight veterans participated during the first canoe journey in 2016. Two years later, there were 27.

“The purpose of the veteran canoe journey was so that we can help other combat veterans cope with PTSD and suicide, because we had been losing one veteran every 22 minutes to suicide,” Jack said.

He said the canoe journey is what they call a healing journey, where participants get in touch with their culture, ancestry and process personal concerns.

This year, 28 veterans paddled.

“There are others that are paddling in memory of one of their brothers or sisters or auntie or uncle who were killed in action, either in Iraq, Afghanistan, or even Vietnam,” Jack said.

Jack said that the journey has helped him deal with his own PTSD from when he was deployed to Iraq.

“I have a hard time on July 4 because of all the fireworks, and a lot of the really loud fireworks,” he said. “It sounds like a cannon or a mortar that’s going off.”

To him, it sounds like war. He said there were several times in Iraq where he’d be in the middle of a firefight, and his seven man recon unit would have to split up and meet at a rally point.

“There were times where….I’m sorry,” Jack said as he choked back tears. “There were times where our buddies wouldn’t make it and so we’d pack them out.”

“He would have loved to be on this journey”

His wife, Roberta, has witnessed his PTSD and helps him deal with it. She joined him on this year’s journey.

“He’s been asking me to come, how many years? And I kept telling him no,” she said. “I don’t know what it was about this year. I finally told him okay, I’ll go. This is all pretty amazing.”

Roberta said it won’t be her last — she has two brothers who fought in Vietnam. One lives in Angoon, and they lost the other in 2015. She said he never got the help he needed.

“He just drank and drank and drank,” she said. “His last couple of months or so, he started talking to us about what he went through.”

She said she’s thinking of him while on this journey.

“I know if he was here, he would have been on this. He would,” Roberta said. “He would have loved to be on this journey.”

Paddling with other veterans helps her feel less alone

Another veteran, Bethany Remi Onibokun served in Afghanistan and lives in Juneau. This is Onibokun’s third canoe journey to Celebration. She said paddling with other veterans lets her realize that she’s not alone, and other people are going through tough times like her.

“Things progress, and sometimes healing takes a long time,” she said. “I feel like every time I get on the water is like something gets a little bit better.”

The journey helps her take focus off her troubles. She said her mom, Val Cooday, heard about the journey through Southeast Alaska Native Veterans.

“She thought it might be good for my PTSD and my other issues that I was going through, like my legal problems and my mental health issues and my help with my physical home,” Onibokun said. “They thought that it would be a good way to get me back outdoors.”

“It’s a spiritual, cultural, reawakening back to the culture”

Val Cooday served in Vietnam with the U.S. Army and also lives in Juneau. She joined her daughter on this year’s canoe journey, which is the second one she’s participated in. Her first one was in 2018.

Cooday said it’s inspirational — where the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people are going back to the canoe.

“It’s the culture, the songs, the stories, the people, the humor, everything,” she said. “It’s a spiritual, cultural, reawakening back to the culture.”

As for the weather? It rained for most of the trip, with little spurts of sunshine sprinkled in. But it didn’t discouraged Cooday.

“The weather hasn’t been great, but that’s okay. It’s beautiful,” she said. “The area’s spectacular. The sights are spectacular. So it’s a beautiful journey, really. And for those of us, we grew up here in Southeast. We are used to the rain, so I’m not traumatized by rain.”

Sobriety in the canoe

The captain of the veteran’s canoe, Ketchikan resident Tim Flanery, served three years as an electrical mechanic in the military during peacetime, between 1998 and 2001.

“Gaaná aya yáada yóo duwasáakw. Yeíl naax xat sit.ee, Gaanax.adi xat sit.ee, Teikweidi yadi aya xat, L’awaa kwaani aya xat,” he said. “That means Tim Flanery in Tlingit.”

(I am of the Raven moiety, I belong to the Gaanax.adi clan, my Grandfather was Teikweidi, I am from Klawock.)

This was his fourth Paddle to Celebration as a skipper — or captain. He said he didn’t have a reason — or a purpose — to paddle the first time he was invited to. He wasn’t sober before that first journey, but that changed.

“They said it’s a sobriety event, and I was looking for something different,” Flanery said. “I just really love it. How it brings all the people together — Native, non-Native, people who are interested in a different way of life.

He said his spirits are up and they’ve got a good crew this year.

“It’s an amazing event that brings us together and allows me to feel more connected to my ancestors,” Flanery said. “The way of life that they lived, you know, camping along the side of the beach.”

The group wasn’t able to paddle every day because of rough weather, but Flanery said he loves seeing all the wildlife, like killer whales, seals and eagles anyway.

“It’s a nice break away from civilization,” he said. “But I think I’m missing a shower now.”

He said no one’s complained, so he thinks he’s O.K.

When he and the other veterans got to Celebration in Juneau, they joined each other with song and dance on stage.

Mountain lions aren’t known to live in Wrangell, but that doesn’t mean the Southeast Alaska island hasn’t served as stomping grounds for the apex predator.

In fact, a mountain lion was shot and killed on the south end of Wrangell Island recently.

Alaska Wildlife Troopers and the Alaska Department of Fish & Game were notified of the death on June 3 and took possession of the carcass. Troopers are leading the investigation, but did not immediately return calls for comment.

Frank Robbins, the state’s area biologist in Petersburg, said it’s the second known mountain lion killed on Wrangell Island. The first was in 1989. Another was accidentally trapped on Kupreanof Island in 1998. All three were males.

“It’s not unprecedented and it appears to be a young male,” he said. “The Stikine River acts like a corridor, essentially for travel. So it’s likely that, you know, young males dispersing down the Stikine River ended up on Wrangell Island.”

He said that young male lions can travel great distances in search of their own home ranges.

Robbins said there are a lot of trail cameras out on Wrangell and nearby islands associated with elk and deer research. They haven’t gotten a photograph of a mountain lion yet, because the species is rare in the area.

“It’ll likely happen again, at some point,” he said. “It’s very interesting. We’re the only area in Southeast Alaska that has had documented lions, mountain lions.”

Robbins said that at some point another young male mountain lion will likely go down the Stikine River and show up in Wrangell again. But it’s anyone’s guess as to when that will happen.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski traveled to Wrangell last week to see the site of its recent deadly landslide.

While Murkowski was in town last Wednesday, she met with the fire department’s search and rescue team to talk about the town’s response to the Nov. 20 landslide and how Wrangell can stay safe moving forward. She also met with relatives of the five Keller family members killed in the slide and with Christina Florschutz, the sole survivor who lost her husband Otto that evening.

Murkowski said she was impressed by the dedication of the Wrangell Search and Rescue team as they described their teamwork after the fatal Nov. 20.

“It was actually quite inspirational to be listening to those who were on the ground, literally hours after this slide in the dark, in very, very tentative conditions,” Murkowski said.

Murkowski was born in Ketchikan and grew up in several Southeast Alaska towns, including Wrangell. She said she considers Wrangell home and she feels grief for the Wrangell community.

“It just hurt to look up the first glimpse of that scar on the mountain,” she said. “It was like just a cut through the body, to see that and to know the devastating impact and the loss.”

She said although the search may be over, the community will continue to face challenges like anxiety together. She said it’s important for her to continue to connect with people in Wrangell after they’ve been through so much.

“I just left Washington last night after votes and purposefully said I’m stopping here because I want the people of this community to know that they are not alone,” Murkowski said.

She said people in Wrangell are resilient and they’re used to doing it on their own, but people are stronger when they work together. She also said that she will continue to work with the people of Wrangell as they heal from their loss.

The City and Borough of Wrangell has suspended the search for 12-year-old Derek Heller, who is the only person left missing from Nov. 20’s disastrous landslide.

This follows 15 days of searching and clearing landslide debris by the Wrangell Volunteer Fire Department, numerous support volunteers, K9 scent dogs and local equipment operators.

Kale Casey, spokesperson for the Alaska Interagency Incident Management Team, has been at the landslide site with responders and says the teams all came together with one mission.

“The search has been absolutely monumental,” he said. “It’s a very dangerous slide path, they mitigated a lot of risks. They operated incredibly safely for days, 15 days in a row day and night. A lot of courage being there in inclement weather and, obviously, very emotional.”

Searchers found the remains of five people: 65-year-old Otto Florshutz and four members of the Heller family – 44-year-old Timothy, 36-year-old Beth, 16-year-old Mara and 11-year-old Kara. They also found one survivor – 63-year-old Christina Florshutz, Otto’s wife.

The slide was 4,000 feet long and the bottom of it stretched into the water which complicated the search. The slide around the destroyed homes was about 450 feet wide. Casey says searchers had to work through “endless amounts of clay and slippery surfaces” and the responders reached all accessible areas above and into the intertidal zone.

“They want to find Derek and bring closure to the family,” Casey said. “When you exhaust all your search areas, when you circle back and check them again, when you’re doing the kind of work they’re doing, there is a point where your search areas have been searched and that’s where they got to last night.”

A press release from the City and Borough of Wrangell says Search and Rescue volunteers and a K9 scent detection team will be available if there are any new leads or evidence in specific areas in the future.

Power was restored to Wrangell Island’s southside residents on Tuesday, but maintenance crews are still removing the debris from the landslide that killed four people on Nov. 20. Two people remain missing.

The Department of Public Safety said in a press release that the search in the slide zone is in reactive status, but the Alaska State Troopers might restart an active search if they get any new information. Scent detection dogs will be available on site for that.

Residents can now drive through the slide zone during scheduled 30-minute windows as the efforts to remove debris and stabilize the slope continue. Meanwhile, aerial surveys are being used to monitor the stability and safety of the slide area.

Community members have expressed concern about the integrity of the Wrangell Dam, but the Department of Natural Resources said that the dam does not show signs of failure.

Mason Villarma, Wrangell’s Interim Borough Manager, is in Washington D.C. where he is talking with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Alaska’s Congressional delegation. He said that Wrangell is in a good spot and that the landslide response is moving quicker than expected, although solutions will take some time.

“I don’t think the recovery is the, you know, one week to a couple of months thing. I think it’s going to be, you know, a five year process,” he said.

Villarma is expected to return to Wrangell on Friday.

LaNita Copeland is an emergency management specialist with the State Emergency Operations Center helping community members apply for state assistance. She says that in emergencies like the landslide, the state tries to replace or give funds for damaged homes and personal property, such as cars and appliances.

“Appliances are often covered, you know, like the refrigerators or the freezers, since subsistence is such a huge thing,” she said. “Not everything that you lose in a disaster will be replaced. But we try to do, you know, a reasonable amount that hopefully gets people back on their feet.”

She says that they try to help as many people as they can, but they do have limitations depending on how much a resident was involved in the incident.  She says individuals who have a home or personal property that was directly damaged from the landslide have the greatest chance of receiving assistance.

“The only ones that we would assume that they would be the type that would qualify would be the ones where it’s very clear cut,” Copeland said. “Like the family that was very, very close to the slide, and trees took out part of their property.”

People can apply for assistance at 1-844-445-7131 or online at ready.alaska.gov/recovery/IA.