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The future of the Thomas Bay Power Authority and the commission governing it took center stage at Tuesday’s borough assembly meeting. The heart of the matter focused on the role the Thomas Bay Power Commission will play in future negotiations about the future of the Tyee Lake electric plant. James Stough, the sitting president of the Thomas Bay Power Commission issued the cease-and-decist letter April 4 on TBPA letterhead in his authority as TBPC president without notifying other members of the commission of the letter in advance. He claims t...
Alivia Haggard, 5, Becca Haney, and Roger Williams work together dyeing eggs Saturday at the Wrangell Medical Center. The event was held for Long Term Care residents and their grandchildren and adopted grandchildren in celebration of Easter....
Nondas Haux kisses the hand of husband Ted Haux Satuday at Wrangell Medical Center. Nondas will turn 100 Monday. The two of them have traveled across the country 42 times for missionary work, bringing with them their priceless D'Angelico guitars and singing voices. Nondas was an amazing public speaker, Ted said. The two of them have been married for more than 60 years. Nondas has also authored a book about their travels, titled "In Journeys Oft." A celebration is planned for Monday at 3 p.m. in...
While attendance figures for Saturday's health fair may not be available for some time, organizers said attendance was steady this year. The fair is a perennial draw, in part because of reduced rates offered for things like a health profile and recommended screenings, and in part because of numerous booths representing community activities. Last year's events drew between 500 and 600 adults and children to the fair. A count of returned free entry forms for an annual raffle show at least 300 had...
Health consumers are ready to descend on the Nolan Center this weekend for reduced rates on a health profile and five other screenings. The reduced rates on a health profile, prostate screening, hemoglobin A1C (a type of diabetic screening), vitamin D screenings, and a hepatitis C test are the centerpiece of the annual Health Fair, set for Saturday from 7 a.m. to noon. Officials with Wrangell Medical Center held a preregistration March 21 and 22, but people looking to get a reduced rate on...
Water main breaks at two locations this week kept borough crews busy. The first break caused the closure of St. Michael's Street twice during the week, most recently on Monday afternoon. Another break hit the main supplying water to Wrangell Medical Center and Evergreen Elementary School in front of Senior Housing, said Public Works Director Carl Johnson. In both cases, materials used to construct the mains were responsible, Johnson said. The mains use ductile iron, or iron pipes with a cement...
ct plans for the Wrangell Medical Center’s trauma center. According to the most recent figures provided by the Legislative Finance Division, the governor’s proposed budget would reduce a state contribution to the Alaska Trauma Care Fund from $1 million to nothing. The fund distributes money to hospitals which pursue and obtain various trauma designations as obtained by state statute. Designated Level IV facilities – which the Wrangell Medical Center is presently seeking through a combination of equipment purchases and personnel certi...
The Wrangell Medical Center just got a little warmer. As part of the hospital's ongoing pursuit of a Level IV Trauma Center certification, which officials say could both enhance treatment and open up new avenues of funding, the Hospital Auxiliary recently purchased a fluid warmer. The new warmer – which cost about $4,000 according to a press release – is used to treat patients suffering from hypothermia in the emergency room. The auxiliary contributed $3,500 toward the machine's cost. Off...
The borough assembly voted 5-0 Tuesday to approve a joint letter inviting the Southeast Alaska Power Agency (SEAPA) to submit an offer on Tyee Lake. A widely disseminated informal offer for SEAPA to take over operations at the Wrangell hydroelectric plant has been circulated since early September. The letter, which has already been approved by the Petersburg borough assembly, requests “SEAPA review the attached resolutions and provide a written proposal back to the two communities under what terms SEAPA would accept this transfer.” The request...
The Wrangell Medical Center (WMC) board of directors discussed collaboration at the Feb. 19 board meeting. Specifically, board members and medical center officials discussed the growing number of shared services between Alaska Island Community Services (AICS) and the hospital. While medical collaboration has long been a component of overlapping clinical services at both healthcare institutions – AICS and the WMC share a social worker, for example – recent personnel shifts have led to a growing administrative collaboration. The two institutions...
Rilyn Joy Young was born Jan. 7, 2014 at Rogue Valley Medical Center in Medford, Ore. to Nonay and Cherrith Young. Rilyn weighed 8 lbs 1 oz at birth and was 20 1/2 inches long. Rilyn joins sisters Taylor, 5 and Brynlee, 3. Paternal grandparents are Cherie and Frank Young of Wrangell. Maternal grandparents are Ilene and Brian McCoy of Grants Pass, Ore....
Mary Parker and Ronan Rooney were married on Jan. 18, 2014 at The Seattle Aquarium in Seattle, Wash. The bridegroom is the son of Alice and the late Bob Rooney of Wrangell, Alaska and the bride is the daughter of Douglas and Janice Parker of Lake Oswego, Ore. The bride was given away by her father, Douglas Parker and her matron of honor was her friend Jennifer Schmitt. The best man was Aaron Comstock, a friend of the groom, of Anchorage, Alaska. The newlyweds honeymooned on the island of Oahu,...
A possible hit-and-run sent one man to the hospital late Monday evening, authorities said. A man said to be in his 60s was discovered laying on pavement between the L N M Services gas station and the Elks Lodge about 10 p.m., in a short alley which connects Front Street to parking lots located behind those buildings. Passersby told the Sentinel they'd found the man and called 911, but declined to be identified for the newspaper. Paramedics transported the man to Wrangell Medical Center for...
The borough assembly voted 6-0 Tuesday to purchase a new truck. They also voted 6-0 to hold a public hearing Feb. 11 about potentially turning the high-traffic Brueger Street, which runs in front of City Hall to a high-traffic intersection between Bobs’ IGA grocery store and First Bank near the Nolan Center, into a one-way street. They also tabled an agenda item about the creation of a permanent standing energy committee, following a procedural discussion concerning a letter from TBPA manager Mick Nicholls. Assembly members voted 6-0 to add t...
The Wrangell Medical Center Board of Directors voted 7-0 Jan. 15 to approve the hospital’s 2014 budget. Budget figures project the hospital will take in $9,610,679 gross revenue in the coming fiscal year, while expending $8,763,556 in operating expenses, leaving a positive cash flow of $847,123 at the end of the present fiscal year. This is the second-highest cash flow in seven years, trailing only 2009’s $1,066,371, according to figures provided by hospital Chief Financial Officer Dana Strong. Revenues are projected to increase 4.9 per...
The article “Sentinel looks back on 2013” incorrectly stated who paid a $250,000 settlement ordered by a Wrangell judge. The Wrangell Medical Center’s insurance company paid that amount, not former CEO Noel Rea. The Sentinel regrets the error....
The Chief Shakes House rededication was easily the biggest event of 2013 in Wrangell. However, the year was filled with events and news stories big and small. On the first edition of 2014, the Sentinel pauses to recollect the stories throughout the year. January An electrical fire damaged the fish tank at the Nolan Center, causing it to be removed. A 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck off of Craig Jan. 4, rattling windows and nerves in town. The quake caused no major damage in town, but...
Sentinel writer The hospital board voted 6-0 to renew the contract of CEO Marla Sanger. Sanger has been the Medical Center CEO since Nov. 5, 2012, after the departure of former CEO Noel Rea and a recall election led to a period fraught with political instability for the Wrangell Medical Center Board of Directors. On her first day, Sanger was the Center’s fourth CEO in less than a year. The WMC board terminated Noel Rea in June 2012 after being recalled in a contentious election. Interim CEO Kendall Sawa departed for another job in Washington s...
In the Sentinel 100, 75, 50 and 25 years ago. December 25, 1913: In coming from Hollis yesterday in a 32-foot gas boat, Harry Webber and Angus MacKinzie met with one of those little incidents that remind me of the fact that he is ever a victim at the mercy of fate. In the Tongass Narrows, about eight miles from Ketchikan their propeller shaft broke, and they coaxed that 30 foot boat to town with a piece of shiplab and a barrel stave… Frank Morikawa of the Panama Café is building a great big three story wedding cake for one of the Wrangell bo...
An Alaska Division of Insurance ruling will effectively cancel a widely used medical evacuation membership plan across Southeast. The ruling, issued in a letter of judgment Nov. 12, effectively invalidates the Airlift Northwest’s Alaska AirCare membership plan. Airlift Northwest is a subsidiary of the University of Washington, and until mid-November the Alaska AirCare membership plan was designed to eliminate co-payments for emergency medical costs in Southeast. Wrangell citizens typically use a combination of plans to cover the costs of m...
Wrangell Medical Center board members voted 7-0 to approve the hospital’s 2012 financials, and discussed progress on a new hospital. The meeting was otherwise routine and brief, with two of the board’s nine members joining by phone. According to hospital documents, the hospital’s total assets have increased from $9,168,445 in the year ending June 30, 2012 to $10,462,459 in the year ending June 30, 2013. That increase, coupled with other asset increases totaling about $100,000, amounts to about 15.9 percent in the hospital’s total assets....
It didn't matter what Ben Florschutz might have wanted. He wasn't going to get a sucking chest wound. "No chest wounds tonight!" said Fire Department administrator Dorianne Curley, putting the kibosh on Florschutz's plans. The wounds in this case were thankfully all simulated, though you wouldn't know it with a casual glance at Wrangell High senior Hannah Armstrong's left arm, which dribbled fake blood from a fake gunshot wound as she cradled it in the auditorium of the Nolan Center Thursday...
Borough officials placed two items related to water use atop the 2014-15 capital budget request list. The list itself has yet to be completed. Borough assembly members said at the Nov. 12 assembly meeting they would work to revise items lower on the list, and possibly break one big-ticket item – the purchase and development of the former Mill property -- up into phases, which might be more palatable to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which plays a role in evaluating the r...
U.S. Rep. Don Young cancelled a planned public appearance in Wrangell and Petersburg Nov. 6 after reporting chest discomfort, according to a press release issued by his office. Young had originally planned for a public meet-and-greet following a tour of city facilities in Wrangell with borough department heads and assembly members. He completed the tour with department heads, according to Harbormaster Greg Meissner. When media representatives and officials later showed up for the 3 pm meeting with Mr. Young, a staff representative said Young...
When Zak's Café owner James George started to get sick, he knew the cause. Since doctors diagnosed him with diverticulitis in 2005, he'd gone a few rounds with the chronic digestive condition. "After you've had it for a while, you can tell if it's flaring up," he said. The uninsured restaurateur went to the emergency room at Wrangell Medical Center in the last week of August. Doctors then sent him to Ketchikan Medical Center to stabilize him and perform surgery. Instead of surgery, doctors in Ke...
