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After being kept away for most of the year while a petition for residency was processed, the Balansag family returned to Wrangell earlier this month. The Balansags – Vincent, wife Lynn, and children Jade, Lee and Chrysalis – have been calling Wrangell home since January 2011. They first moved here from the Philippines – an island nation off the coast of East Asia – after Vincent found employment at the local hospital, where he still works as a medical technician. His three-year work visa ha...
Following talks earlier this month with the city, the hospital board drafted a letter requesting that it move forward with finding a third party partnership. At their November 15 meeting, Wrangell Medical Center governing board members discussed the pros and potential cons of partnering up with another organization. A major reason for considering the move is seeking out project support for construction of a new medical facility, an elusive goal for much of the past decade. Among the board’s more immediate concerns is maintaining cash flow to t...
In a special workshop at City Hall on Monday, administrators at Wrangell Medical Center and members of its governing board met with the City and Borough Assembly to discuss the cost of a new facility. The municipally-managed hospital has been interested in constructing a new facility for at least a decade, with its current building in use already for the past four decades posing a number of maintenance and compliance issues. The Assembly had directed WMC staff a year ago to seek architectural...
The City and Borough Assembly authorized a pair of grants to be applied for in its name while narrowly nixing a third. Meeting Tuesday, the first item the body considered was participation in the Community Development Block Grant program offered by the Department of Agriculture. An application put forward to the program for $304,297 in funding would fund just over half of rehabilitation work to the building envelope of the Public Safety Building. A recently revised cost estimate for the project put together by Jensen Yorba Lott totals...
The hospital is scheduled to implement a new smoke-free campus policy at the start of the new year. Wrangell Medical Center administrators and key staff signed the new policy on October 24, to take effect on January 1. Currently the hospital sports designated smoking areas for staff, patients and visitors, one of the few hospitals in the state still to do so, reckons Scott Glaze, WMC compliance and risk manager. Its health provision counterpart Alaska Island Community Services has had such a policy in place since February 2015. The new policy...
This year open enrollment in the state’s health insurance marketplace has been shortened to six weeks, beginning yesterday and running through December 15. Enabled through the Affordable Care Act, Americans meeting certain criteria can apply for government subsidies for participating insurance plans. Before the start of each calendar year, they are required to prepare submissions for new or renewed coverage through the HealthCare.gov website during this open enrollment period. As previously announced last month, Southeast Alaska Regional H...
Cash flow problems have again been ailing Wrangell Medical Center, with the public hospital putting forward a request for $250,000 to the city on Tuesday. At its own board meeting on October 18, WMC’s chief financial officer, Doran Hammett, explained the situation. Cash on hand had by the end of September dropped to $311,069, down from $838,604 at the start of the fiscal year on July 1. It costs around $28,000 a day to operate the hospital, meaning WMC had only around 11 days’ worth available for its payroll and other expenditures. The hos...
At Wrangell’s regular meeting of the Borough Assembly Tuesday, members opted not to withdraw their opposition to a proposed timber sale package. The United States Forest Service has over the course of years been putting together a timber sale for Wrangell Island, of which it manages 93 percent of the borough’s land area, which has been nearing its final stages. In August the city responded to the project’s final draft record of decision with an objection letter. After speaking with staff, Tongass National Forest supervisor Earl Stewart propo...
The open enrollment period for obtaining or changing insurance plans through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s Health Insurance Marketplace has been shortened this year to just six weeks, a regional health provider cautioned residents. Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium has offered to help people navigate the application process of applying for health coverage through the Marketplace, hosted at HealthCare.gov. During the open enrollment period from November 1 to December 15, SEARHC Outreach can help applicants prepare th...
In its Tuesday evening meeting this week, the City and Borough Assembly decided to shift focus for block grant funding to remodeling the Public Safety Building. Sited centrally to town at the start of Zimovia Highway, the aging facility has already neared the top of the city’s capital improvement priorities. In its project outline, city staff recommended putting the building forward as a candidate for Community Development Block Grant funding, a competitive program sourcing $2.4 million of Housing and Urban Development funding each year into A...
Celebration of the state’s sesquicentennial anniversary next week in Wrangell will be on the quieter side, with the 16th annual senior luncheon and yearly flu clinic both scheduled. Island of Faith Lutheran Church is inviting area seniors to join them for lunch next Wednesday at noon. “We kind of started it when our church was newly built,” said Joan Kading, a parishioner. “It seemed like a way to honor the senior citizens of Wrangell.” The informal meal has featured homemade soups and bread, with both a vegetarian and carnivorous option to...
Results from last week's elections were certified and accepted by the City and Borough Assembly in a special meeting Monday. Turnout in the largely uncontentious October 3 municipal elections had been low, with only 16 percent of the borough's 1,721 registered voters polling in. Of these, 242 cast votes on election day, with 29 others turning in absentee ballots ahead of time. Two other ballots had been rejected, due to the voters not previously being registered in the Wrangell polling area. Of...
The last ballots were cast and polls closed Tuesday evening on the 2017 municipal elections. Turnout was low in a relatively low-key election, with no ballot measures to consider and candidates running for six of the eight available seats uncontested. No letters of interest were put forward to be considered as a write-in candidate, and one unexpired term on the Wrangell Medical Center Board garnered no interest. The only race in contest was for an unexpired two-year term on the Public School...
In a media release from Wrangell Medical Center, the hospital announced that for the month of October it will be discounting mammograms. Nationally, October is informally recognized as Breast Cancer Awareness month, during which women are encouraged to focus on this important healthcare issue. Outside of skin cancers, behind that affecting the lungs, breast cancer is the second most common form of cancer among American women. According to the American Cancer Society, the average rate of risk over a lifetime is 12 percent, or one in eight...
Polling booths and complimentary cookies are being prepared for next week’s municipal elections, set for October 3 inside the Nolan Center from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Absentee voting has already been underway, and early ballots can still be submitted inside City Hall until 5 p.m. Monday. Most of the seats up for election have at least one candidate, with a two-year position on the Wrangell Medical Center Board attracting no interest. In the event it passes the election cycle unfilled, clerk Kim Lane explained the city will advertise for the position...
Long-term care programs for a pair of regional hospitals have been recognized for their quality of care. Federal organization Mountain-Pacific Quality Health named the LTC programs at Petersburg Medical Center and Wrangell Medical Center as two of its four recipients for the “Quality Achievement Award,” the other two being in Fairbanks and Ketchikan. Facilities considered for the recognition participated in a nationwide Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services collaboration, which scores programs based on their practices, resident sat...
The city’s new manager sat down with the Wrangell Assembly last week to hammer out priorities for the coming year. Beginning the position in mid-July, Lisa Von Bargen decided she preferred to work more closely with the city’s elected officials, and recommended the goal-setting work sessions as a means to that end. “In my contract with the assembly, I said I wanted to have a goal setting and work session with them to establish what the priorities were that they wanted to see done,” she explained. Preparing a list of three dozen differe...
Running unopposed for one four-year term on the Wrangell Medical Center Board Age: 45 About: "I am a stay-at-home mom. My husband started a business here, CTT Marine. We moved here about a year ago, and we want to settle here and serve our community." Why do you want to serve on the WMC Board? "We thought that the hospital board would be good for me, because we have two kids with medical issues. I've spent a lot of time in hospitals down south. Our nine-year-old was in the hospital for six...
A deadline passed last week for getting placed on the October 3 municipal election ballot. Most seats up for election have at least one candidate, with one seat still without candidates and another to be contested in a three-way race. Contending for one unexpired seat on the Public School Board are incumbent Robert Rang, Caitlin Cardinell and David Wilson. The position would be for two years, expiring in 2019. Jessica Rooney will be running unopposed for one three-year seat on the board. On the Borough Assembly, two three-year terms are up for...
With one week left to file, candidates are still being sought for a number of Wrangell’s municipal committees and elected seats. As of Tuesday, four residents have put in their names for the October 3 ballot, ahead of the August 31 filing deadline. Assemblyman Mark Mitchell will not seek another term on that body, but will be running instead for one three-year term on the Port Commission. Current commissioner Walter Moorhead has not yet submitted his name for another term. For the Wrangell School Board, Jessica Rooney has also put herself up f...
Fifty women from Petersburg and Wrangell played in a golf outing on Saturday to raise money for cancer patients in southeast Alaska at the 2017 Rally for Cancer Care. The outing, sponsored by the Wrangell Medical Center Foundation, generated more than $3,200 to help pay for travel costs that cancer patients have. The Muskeg Meadows Golf Course hosted 34 players from Petersburg and 16 from Wrangell. Others came just to donate, participate in the silent auction and eat breakfast and lunch with...
Candidates are being sought for Wrangell’s various municipal committees and elected seats. Beginning August 1 and extending through the remainder of the month, the city clerk’s office will be accepting declarations of candidacy and signature petitions for the October 3 ballot. Two three-year terms on the Borough Assembly are coming up for election, with the seats of Stephen Prysunka and Mark Mitchell both expiring. Two seats on the Public School Board – one a full three-year and the other an unexpired two-year term – are likewise up for ele...
Wrapping up a visit to Wrangell over the weekend, cruise ship The World was on its way to Petersburg late Monday when a medical emergency took precedence. Wrangell Fire Chief Tim Buness received a call from the local emergency dispatcher at around 8:15 p.m., relaying that the vessel required assistance. He contacted the United States Coast Guard about the situation. At 644 feet, The World is the largest private residential ship on earth. During its several-day stay in Wrangell it remained...
With activities for Alaska Bearfest 2017 already underway, running enthusiasts are gearing up for its finale on Sunday. This year’s Bearfest Marathon-1/2-5K will be featuring three separate but concurrently run events, with participants taking on either the five-kilometer (3.1 miles), 13.1-mile or 26.2-mile runs. The start time is at 8 a.m., outside the Nolan Center, but day-of registration opens up at 7 a.m. Becca Rice has been organizing this year’s event, which has been a component of Wrangell’s bear-related celebration for its past eight...
Harriet Crocker Jackson Schirmer, M.D., 90 died at Wrangell Medical Center, Wrangell, Alaska on July 10, 2017. She was born on September 25, 1926 to Myron Robinson Jackson M.D. and Mildred Wicker Jackson M.D. in Oyster Bay, New York on the outskirts of New York City. In high school she competed in sailing and ping pong, and played flute in the band. She continued to enjoy all three activities well into her 60s. Upon entering medical school at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, she felt strong...