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After the start of the new fiscal year on July 1, Wrangell seems set to be permanently without a residential nurse at its Public Health Center due to anticipated budget cuts to the program. In March the Wrangell office’s nurse Ty Esposito retired from her position. At the time, the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services had dispelled concerns that the office and another in Haines would be closed down. The nursing position for Haines’ PHC had been vacant since October. As the Legislature creeps ever closer to finalizing a budget for nex...
Wrangell will temporarily be without a residential nurse at its Public Health Center for the foreseeable future. Public health nurse Ty Esposito retired from her position last week, departing from Wrangell on March 22. In the interim, nurse manager Sue Bergmann from the Ketchikan PHC will be making visits a couple times each month. “Wrangell will be covered through Ketchikan as of right now,” Bergmann confirmed. Appointments can be scheduled in advance through either the Wrangell or Ketchikan offices, for testing, immunization or family plannin...
Cleanup operations of the former Byford junkyard were initiated by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation late last month. A report of its progress was published on the City and Borough of Wrangell’s website on Monday. Located alongside 4-Mile Zimovia Highway, the junk yard operated from the 1960s to the 1990s, disposing of more than 1,500 automobiles and a variety of other objects during its run. The property was acquired by the City and Borough of Wrangell through foreclosure in 2009. After receiving the property, in 2010 the c...
Alaska's Legislature returns to work next week to begin its second regular session, and by far its biggest task will be to make the state's budget sustainable. Convening in Juneau on Jan. 19, legislators in the House and Senate will begin putting together budgets for the 2017 Fiscal Year, which will have to address a projected $3.6 billion spending deficit. Last month the office of Gov. Bill Walker released its budget plan, which proposes $100 million in net cuts to agency spending and $360...
In the Sentinel 100, 75, 50 and 25 years ago. December 2, 1915: Commissioner and Mrs. Sowton of the Salvation Army arrived on the Princess last Tuesday morning and since have been holding a Congress here among the workers from the different camps of Southeastern Alaska. About seventy delegates attended. In an interview, Commissioner Sowton states: “My trip to Alaska has been very successful and very pleasant. In my conference of the three days I have held many delightful meetings, and I feel that we have materially strengthened the Army work in...
PETERSBURG – United Fisherman of Alaska members gathered in Petersburg last week when it conducted its 2015 Fall Board Meeting. Board members representing 35 Alaska commercial fishing organizations began their meeting Tuesday Oct. 27 where representatives of Governor Mallott, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, University of Alaska Anchorage and other independent commercial fishing agencies gave presentations to the board. Much of the time was devoted to internal discussion regarding seafood industry taxes and fees and was not open to the p...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – The Alaska health department says it has enrolled more than 1,000 people in health care coverage in the first two weeks of the newly expanded Medicaid program. The Alaska Dispatch News reports that state officials are projecting that 20,000 low-income residents will sign up for the expanded Medicaid program in its first year. Expanded enrollment began Sept. 1 after the Alaska Supreme Court refused to temporarily block the expansion, which Gov. Bill Walker announced without approval of the Legislature. Alaska D...
Wrangell's Public Health Office will be participating in a wider effort to reduce infant mortality in Alaska. Spearheaded by PeaceHealth Ketchikan, the "Little Alaskan Dream Box" project distributes special sleeping boxes and postnatal care items to new mothers. The sudden death of seven Alaskan infants in July 2014 highlighted a statewide problem. Alaska has an infant mortality rate about one-and-a-half times higher than the national average. Of the 195 infant deaths reported in the state betwe...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – A team of aviation investigators worked over the weekend in a remote, mountainous site in southeast Alaska to determine what caused the crash of a sightseeing plane that killed eight cruise ship passengers and the aircraft’s pilot. The DeHavilland DHC-3 Otter turboprop – also known as a floatplane – went down June 25. The excursion was sold through the cruise company Holland America. Seven investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board made it to the crash site on Saturday morning and are spending the day sco...
As of Tuesday, the Alaska Legislature meeting in a special session in Anchorage had still not passed a budget for the new fiscal year, which begins July 1. On Sunday, the Senate Finance Committee rejected a compromise budget passed by the House the previous day, which included some small concessions to the minority such as reversing cuts to the ferry system and per-student funding. A conference committee between the two chambers was being organized to negotiate an amended budget as legislators posture around various funding priorities....
On Monday, the City and Borough of Wrangell announced the results of a preliminary analysis of soil samples collected at the former Byford junkyard at approximately 4-mile on Zimovia Highway. Conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) late last summer, the tests show high levels of lead and other metals at the property that could pose a risk to human health. The tests were requested by Wrangell in order to begin developing a cleanup plan to enable reuse of the property. The yard—Lot Y2, Tract Y, USS 2321—was previously used for sal...
Wrangell residents and other Alaskans from around the state were given more opportunity to voice concerns over impending cuts to state programming during a public hearing held Monday evening for the draft of next year's budget being considered by the Senate Finance Committee. Six Wrangellites came to their local Legislative Information Office to provide testimony via telephone, along with residents of Petersburg and Ketchikan. “I am speaking in opposition to the cuts to the Alaska Marine Highway System,” borough manager Jeff Jabusch told the...
On the morning of Oct. 15, Wrangell physician Greg Salard was arrested for the alleged receipt, possession and distribution of child pornography following a search of his home by law enforcement personnel representing federal, state and local agencies. According to an affidavit in support of application for an arrest warrant, the arrest came following a five-month investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Anchorage office in which FBI Special Agent Anthony Peterson monitored...
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — State health officials say Alaska is at a lower risk of an Ebola outbreak than Lower 48 states but they're not taking the threat lightly. The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports the Division of Epidemiology within the Department of Health and Social Services last week listed steps it has taken to prevent an outbreak. They include distributing guidelines to health providers for early recognition of patients who may be infected. The Ebola virus spreads through direct contact with blood or body fluids. It spreads only w...
Feeling the bug? Pay a visit to Ty Esposito, the new public health nurse at Wrangell Public Health Center. "They can come talk to me about anything," she said. "I'm everybody's nurse." Recently transferring from her post in Haines, Esposito has been with the Alaska Division of Public Health for five of her nine years as a nurse. "Immunizations is our focus," Esposito explained, providing the necessary shots "from infancy on." August is National Immunization Awareness Month and some individuals...
By Representative Peggy Wilson Hello and welcome to week eleven of Peggy’s Corner of the House. If you are following the legislature at any level right now you will see that bills are moving rapidly as much of the behind the scenes work and committee deliberations have been completed. Committee meetings have expanded hours and weekend meetings are regularly happening to be sure that everyone has adequate information on all of the matters before us. This is in addition to the major session issues such as education, gasline, omnibus crime b...
Hello and welcome to week nine of Peggy’s Corner of the House. Although the deadline has passed for all personal legislation to be introduced, committees still have the ability to introduce legislation that is specific to a committee. This has happened in my Transportation Committee. The Department of Administration, that oversees the Department of Motor Vehicles, (DMV) has asked that we carry HB 378 which relates to keeping Alaska compliant with federal regulations pertaining to our commercial driver license (CDL) program. This bill is i...
By Molly Dischner Alaska Journal of Commerce ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) A recent state analysis of injuries treated at a Dutch Harbor clinic provides some patterns on who is injured, and on what vessels, in Alaska’s fisheries. According to a report from the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services Division of Public Health: “It is not surprising that the majority of the non-fatal injuries occurred on catcher processors, as they employ the largest number of workers and process the largest volumes of seafood relative to other vessel typ...
When he was nine months old, Spencer Petticrew’s parents tried to give him a single pea. The pea didn’t quite make it into his mouth, but only brushed his lips, his mother, Sherri Pettcrew, said. However, Spencer turned bright red within 30 seconds, and started having difficulty breathing. The Petticrews rushed their son to an emergency room, where doctors determined that Spencer had a severe food allergy. “His entire face turned red, he got hives all over his body and he couldn’t breathe and we had to go to the emergency room,” she said. “It...
By Brian O’Connor Sentinel writer The borough assembly cut an additional candidate from the list of applicants for the borough manager job during a closed executive session Sept. 10. Four candidates now remain in the hunt for the position. They are: retired borough clerk and former legislative aide Christie Jamieson, current interim borough manager and finance manager Jeff Jabusch, current Alaska Commission on Aging planner Jon Erickson, and Kyle H. McCain of Shavano Park, Texas, where he was most recently city manager for just under two y...
The Alaska State Department of Social and Health Services has named Alaska Island Community Services physician Greg Salard to the Alaska Medicaid Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee. He is also a member of the Alaska Medicaid Drug Utilization Review Committee, beginning his three-year term late last year. Salard, who is currently on vacation in the Lower-48, could not be reached for comment. However, in a 2012 interview, he said he volunteered for the spot on the committees in order to assist...
Hello and welcome back to Peggy’s Corner of the House! The House passed the state-operating budget after vigorous debate this past week. There has been tremendous work done on the budget since session started -many long days and nights have been spent trying to accomplish this in the very short time period that we are allotted. I actually wish we were back to a 120-day session. Over the last ten years, the General Fund (GF) portion of the departments’ operating budgets has grown an average of...
A new confidentiality agreement related to credentialing of medical staff, and changes to a number of personnel policies at Wrangell Medical Center, were the main topics of discussion and action during the Jan. 16 WMC Board of Trustees meeting. The board began with a new agreement that each member must sign agreeing to, “hold as confidential all credentialing and privileging information obtained during the course of and following my association with the Wrangell Medical Center Governing Board.” Members will also not be allowed to make copies of...
A team of four Alaska State Department of Health and Social Services surveyors were onsite in Wrangell last week to conduct Wrangell Medical Center’s annual re-certification and State licensure surveys. The surveys were conducted in the Long Term Care Center and the Critical Access portion of the hospital. These visits, which are unannounced standard surveys, are conducted annually to determine compliance with Federal Medicare/Medicaid and State Licensure participation requirements for s...
A Wrangell resident is still sitting atop the board of directors of Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, thanks to his re-election to the post late last month. The AHFC board re-elected Frank Roppel to serve as the chair of the group at its annual meeting in Wrangell July 25. Former governor Frank Murkowski appointed Roppel in 2003. He has chaired the organization ever since. Roppel is also the chairman of the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation, which is a subunit of AHFC, and he previously...
