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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...
The Wrangell Medical Center board unanimously elected Terri Henson to the board presidency Oct. 16, replacing Woody Wilson. Board members elected Bernie Massin vice president, Cori Robinson as secretary and Barb Conine as treasurer. The board re-organization meeting took place in the wake of the Oct. 1 election, in which Henson and Massin were re-elected to the board without opposition. Wilson served as board president from Aug. 29 and was the first medical center board president after a recall election removed six board members. Wilson lead...
Local residents ran, heard speakers, and dined on soup to celebrate Alaska Day Friday and Saturday. The state holiday, observed Oct. 18 every year, commemorates the day Russian officials signed the territory of Alaska over to American officials at Sitka in 1867. The day features prominent displays of the Alaska state flag, and in at least one case a big fur hat. The hat in question belonged to Bruce Jamieson, who won the Alaska costume competition at the Alaska Day run Saturday, and the...
For Rhonda Christian, life as a breast cancer survivor is filled with moments of small horror. She remembers the moment in March when tests at Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center revealed what might be a small mass, amid planning for her and husband Ernie’s honeymoon in Jamaica. There was the moment when her husband insisted on getting it checked out in Seattle, on a more accurate, updated machine. And then there was the moment when she woke up from anesthesia and looked down, and her breast was gone. “I don’t know how to describe it,” she said. “The...
Widely reported technical glitches and uncertainty over how a new influx of insured patients would affect the local medical business greeted the Alaska version of the Federal government’s new health insurance exchange program. Users seeking to enroll in the exchange via the Federal government website www.healthcare.gov were allowed to create an account, however, the transition from the Federal site to the State-specific site Enroll Alaska were greeted with a simple page reading “Downstream Error” most of the weekend. The site was tempo...
The Wrangell hospital board voted 4-0 Sept. 18 to pursue a Level IV trauma certification for the Wrangell Medical Center. The certification would establish the medical center as a primary care giver for traumatic injuries, meaning life-saving care could be available to trauma victims immediately, according to the American College of Surgeons and hospital officials. For victims themselves, it could mean the difference between flying to Wrangell and having to make the sometimes-perilous trip to Ketchikan instead. That issue was on the mind of...
Name: Ernie Christian Age: 48 Occupation: Manager, Ottesen’s Inc. What background or experience do you have that qualifies you to be an Assembly member? I have previously served on boards, committees, councils, and assembly. I am currently serving as Vice-Mayor on the City and Borough of Wrangell assembly and Vice-President on the Wrangell Cooperative Association board. I understand budgets and ask questions to make sure that I am accountable to the electorate. Why are you running for the A...
Name: Terri Henson Age: None given Occupation: Civic Center Director/City of Wrangell What is your previous experience on boards or other relevant experience that would qualify you as a member of the Wrangell Medical Center Board of Directors? During the time I’ve lived in Wrangell I’ve been active in various clubs and organizations. I have experience sitting on a board and I have experience answering to them. I’ve been an active planning and zoning commissioner for the last 10 years or so, c...
PETERSBURG — Borough Assembly and Petersburg Medical Center hospital board members discussed the financial state of the hospital and funding assistance for capital projects from the borough last Thursday morning. The discussion was also directed at how the public will perceive a potential tax levy to help fund a hospital that has remained financially independent of the city, now the borough, throughout its existence. “The public has a healthy skepticism on the borough’s spending habits,” assembly member John Hoag said. Hoag referenced high co...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly approved a controversial $100,000 reimbursement during its August 27 meeting after services had been rendered. The reimbursement goes to Alaska Island Community Services to offset expenses incurred after it relocated its clinic to a new building site. Wrangell’s previous borough manager Timothy Rooney negotiated with AICS in 2009 to relocate its clinic, for the sake of convenience, next to where the Wrangell Medical Center would build its new facility—the Alpine site. In an e-mail sent to the assembly in 2011, Roon...
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...
Former Wrangell Medical Center CEO Noel Rea has accepted a position as the head of Sitka’s Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium hospital. In a newsletter to SEARHC members and employees, Charles Clement, the organization’s CEO, said Rea was taking over as the interim administrator of SEARHC Mt. Edgecumbe’s operation. “It is with a heavy heart that I announce the resignation of our friend and colleague, Dr. Marty Grasmeder, Hospital Administrator/Medical Director of the SEARHC Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital. His last day will be at the end of...
For more than two decades Wrangell Medical Center Chief Financial Officer Garth Hamblin has served the healthcare community in Alaska and the Lower 48. Now, he’ll get to serve a higher power – in paradise. Hamblin, who is a past Stake President in the Juneau Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has been called, along with his wife Sandy, to serve the church’s ministry in the Kingdom of Tonga beginning next month. As CFO, Hamblin took the place of longtime department head Oli...
Physician Lynn Prysunka has stepped down as Chief of Staff at Wrangell Medical Center – a move that will see Dr. Greg Salard step into the position. On Monday, July 8, Dr. Prysunka offered her resignation after serving in that role for several years, according to WMC CEO Marla Sanger. “Dr. Greg Salard agreed to assume these duties effective immediately,” Sanger said. “WMC greatly appreciates all of our physicians and wishes to acknowledge in particular the highly professional and skillful leadership that Dr. Prysunka has provided to WMC in...
The Nolan Center is currently undergoing work to beautify and improve the look and feel of the facility, according to Borough Manager Tim Rooney. The majority of the work is on the waterside green space. “Staff hopes to have the grass planted soon,” Rooney stated. “This area will become ‘Pet Free’ in order to have an area where citizens and visitors can sit on the grass. There has been a new picnic table donated by the Murkowski family that will be installed under the covered area. According...
Margaret Rose Seimears, 85, passed away at the Wrangell Medical Center on June 30, 2013. A Celebration of Life will be planned for a later date. A full obituary will follow....
The Borough Assembly officially accepted the resignation of Borough Manager Tim Rooney during their June 25 regular meeting and cleared the path for Borough Clerk Kim Flores to advertise the position both statewide and nationally. After a unanimous vote accepting the resignation, Assembly member Christie Jamieson spoke about her feelings on the tenure of Rooney as the administrative head during the past three-and-a-half years. “I would like to thank Tim for all of his hard work and efforts,” Jam...
A seventeen year-old girl was fatally injured when an ATV crashed on Thursday afternoon at Lab Bay, near Port Protection just before 5 p.m. An Alaska State Trooper dispatch released on Friday states that Paulette James of Port Protection was the victim in the incident and “had sustained fatal injuries while operating a 'dune buggy' style ATV.” Alaska State Troopers, Alaska Wildlife Troopers and Emergency Medical Services from Klawock responded to the scene and began an investigation. The ini...