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The 18th annual Health Fair will be held in Wrangell on Saturday. This year’s event will offer an additional blood test used for diabetes management. Called hemoglobin A1c, the blood test will show how well diabetes is being controlled in a patient who has already been diagnosed with the disease, said Health Fair Organizer Cathy Gross. The blood test can also be used as a screening test for pre-diabetes, she said. The test helps patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes monitor blood sugar levels, as it provides information about such levels ove...
As a result of the City and Borough of Wrangell hosting two days of classes last month on the Alaska Open Meetings Act, some local boards have proposed revisions to charters and operations. Borough Clerk Christie Jamieson said the city’s municipal code needs to be revised and updated. State laws change year to year, and Wrangell’s charter and 20 titles of the municipal code should be in sync with those laws, Jamieson said. “I think it’s definitely needed, some things just need to be cleaned up,” she said. Ideally, the municipal code would be...
Goldie Sivertsen, Wrangell’s oldest resident, has left Southeast Alaska for Port Angeles, Wash. Siversten, 102, was raised in Petersburg, where she graduated from high school and met her husband. She moved in to Wrangell’s long-term care facility at the Wrangell Medical Center when she was 99 years old. During her time in Wrangell, she has been the Grand Marshal for the Fourth of July parade. She is also popular for her beadwork, which is on display at the art gallery in downtown Wra...
Oral arguments were heard in Wrangell’s courtroom Tuesday afternoon regarding local physician Greg Salard’s request to be allowed to work at the Wrangell Medical Center (WMC) pending his appeal to a previous hospital board decision. The WMC Board notified Salard in early March that his request for permanent privileges at the hospital had been denied. Salard is employed through Alaska Island Community Services and was previously contracted to practice at WMC on a temporary basis. A week after the March 2 WMC Board decision, Salard filed an app...
The Borough Assembly approved an amended ordinance regarding the membership of the Wrangell Medical Center Board of Directors on its first reading Tuesday night. If eventually passed by the Assembly, the amended ordinance would allow employees or contractors providing medical care in Wrangell to run for the WMC Board. It would also allow the Borough Mayor and Assembly to fill a vacancy on the WMC Board until the next annual election, according to the proposed ordinance. A second reading and public hearing on the ordinance will take place at the...
To the Editor: I would like to add my comments to those of Mark Seimears regarding Dr. Salard. Though our circumstances are somewhat different, my husband, like his father was medivaced out by Dr. Salard just in time. I appreciated his professionalism in dealing with my husband and in seeing him subsequently. After a positively terrible experience with a visiting doctor, my husband is now refusing to go anywhere near the hospital unless he knows he will see Dr. Salard. We are getting older and that means more chance for illness so I am very...
Last week, the Wrangell Medical Center filed an opposition in court to local physician Greg Salard’s request to have his privileges restored at the hospital pending his appeal process. The WMC Board of Directors, acting as a review committee, voted in early March to deny Salard the right to practice at the hospital. A week later, on March 9, Salard filed an appeal to that decision in Wrangell trial court, and also requested he be allowed to work at WMC pending the court’s decision on that appeal. In its memorandum of opposition, WMC states Sal...
Borough Assembly member Dave Jack has proposed changes to several ordinances that would create additional responsibilities for the Wrangell Medical Center (WMC) and its board of directors. Another amendment would change the necessary qualifications needed to be a member of the WMC board. Jack introduced his amendments at an Assembly meeting last month, at which time Assembly members decided to discuss the proposal at a later date. The topic is on the agenda for the March 27 Assembly meeting. One of Jack’s proposed ordinance changes relates t...
Charles (Skip) McKibben, 74, passed away peacefully after a long and courageous battle with cancer on March 12 at the Wrangell Medical Center. He was surrounded by family and friends. Skip was born in Wrangell on May 19, 1937. He was an original river rat, having been conceived on the Stikine River. The middle child of Lena (Ellis) McKibben, he was raised on the river where he acquired his life long love for nature and the great outdoors. He was known for constantly building and testing water...
The lack of a trusting relationship between the Wrangell Medical Center (WMC) leadership and that of City and Borough of Wrangell is a “crisis” in the community, according to a report written by a private consultant hired by WMC. To not improve this relationship is to “fundamentally risk the health and welfare of the community,” states the report, which was recently released to the public and written by consultant Marv Erisman, Ph.D. Erisman conducted interviews with WMC staff and Wrangell’s mayor and assembly members last fall. The report Er...
Wrangell Medical Center (WMC) has filed an opposition to local physician Greg Salard’s request asking the court to expedite his appeal process. The WMC Board of Directors, acting as a separate WMC committee, met March 2 and decided not to allow Salard to continue working at the hospital. A week later, Salard filed a civil appeal in Wrangell court to the WMC board’s decision. Salard and his attorney Lee Holen also filed a motion for “stay pending appeal,” which would allow the doctor to continue practicing at WMC pending his appeal. A motion...
Friday afternoon an excavator fell into a trench on Front Street located between the Sentinel office and the Kadin building. The incident occurred shortly before 4:30 p.m. Friday, March 9. The trench, approximately six-feet-deep, had been dug to install a new water line as part of Wrangell’s road and utility improvement project. The fall crushed the cab of the 320 excavator. An operator employed by Southeast Earthmovers was inside the cab at the time of the fall, but was able to escape from t...
Rep. Don Young was in Wrangell Monday as part of a Southeast Alaska tour this week for the state’s sole U.S. congressman. During his quick visit, Young met with community members and business representatives at the Nolan Center for lunch where he heard about a number of issues facing Wrangell as well as local economic development projects. Nearly a dozen people attended Monday’s event with the congressman. Members of the Wrangell Cooperative Association talked about the restoration projects on Shakes Island. Mark Robinson, chair of the Wra...
A Wrangell resident and AmeriCorps member has teamed up with the Parks and Recreation Department to offer a number of fitness programs to residents this year. Holly Hammer is a member of the Building Initiatives in Rural Community Health (BIRCH) AmeriCorps Program, which supports health education and wellness activities in rural communities throughout Alaska. This is Hammer’s second year as an AmeriCorps member in Wrangell. Last year, Hammer worked with the Wrangell Medical Center, but this year will be working mostly out of the Wrangell p...
Local physician Greg Salard has filed an appeal in Alaska trial court concerning the Wrangell Medical Center (WMC) Board of Director’s decision not to grant him privileges to work at the hospital. The appeal was filed in Wrangell court March 9, exactly a week after the WMC board, acting as the “fair hearing committee,” voted in favor of denying Salard permanent privileges to practice at the hospital. “We’re appealing the board’s decision to the court,” Salard said this week. Salard is employed through Alaska Island Community Services (AIC...
Members of the Wrangell Medical Center (WMC) Board of Directors have denied local physician Greg Salard permanent privileges to practice at the hospital. Board members, acting as the “fair hearing committee” made the decision at a private meeting Friday, March 2. WMC Board President Mark Robinson said Salard was notified of the committee’s decision in the form of a letter. On Monday, Salard and his attorney Lee Holen said they would be appealing the committee’s decision. Holen said a “temporary injunction” would also be filed in court to try to...
Local physician Dr. Greg Salard said he expects his full privileges to be restored at the Wrangell Medical Center (WMC) following a review hearing held last week between him and the hospital’s board of directors. “I fully expect to get my permanent privileges back,” Salard said. Salard is employed through Alaska Island Community Services (AICS), and was contracted to work at the WMC with provisional privileges through early February 2011. After his contract expired, Salard was required to reapply to the WMC for permanent privileges to conti...
At its meeting Tuesday night, the Wrangell Borough Assembly approved a proposed budget of nearly $29.4 million to build the new hospital. The Assembly also approved the future installation of a low-slope roof on the new hospital, though Assembly members agreed it was not the preferred roof option. The budget passed Tuesday night sits at nearly $1.8 million less than the current projected cost of building the hospital. That budget is, however, in the amount approved by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) last August. At that...
To the Editor: I have a comment on the article in the January 12, 2012 Wrangell sentinel regarding David Jack’s concerns over spending of capital reserves at Wrangell Medical Center in relation to the WMC Renovation project. He indicated “several assembly members have expressed concern over the spending of the hospital’s reserves.” Although I am no longer on the board of Wrangell Medical Center and therefore do not know what current expenditures are being paid from reserves, I must respond. Wrangell Medical Center had $3,000,000 in reserve...
The Wrangell Medical Center (WMC) and the Local Community Preparedness Committee (LEPC) is planning to stage its annual emergency disaster drill on the flats of the Stikine River this year. Janet Buness, who works on emergency preparedness at the hospital has been tasked with planning the drill. Buness said she is hoping to stage a boat wreck on the flats with 30 “victims.” The drill should take place in late summer, Buness said, and should be a collaborative effort between WMC, the fire and police departments as well as other community org...
Members of the Wrangell Medical Center (WMC) staff and Board of Directors met with Dr. Greg Salard Tuesday for a hearing to review his hospital privileges. The hearing was the result of a court order from December and comes after a nearly yearlong battle between Salard and the WMC. Both Salard’s attorney and those of the WMC were also set to be present at the closed-door hearing at the medical center. Salard said the WMC would have the opportunity to “present their case” for revoking his privileges at the medical center, and he would also...
Kris Reed of the volunteer “Tree Care Committee” asked Wrangell School Board members Monday night if they would consider using space in front of the elementary school to plant a future fruit tree orchard. Wrangell was granted an orchard last year through the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation (FTPF) Communities Take Root program, after the Wrangell Medical Center submitted an application. FTPF Aborist Rico Montenegro visited Wrangell last month to scout locations of where some 30 to 40 trees could be planted to create the orchard. Reed said Monday...
At its meeting Tuesday night, the Wrangell Borough Assembly accepted a list of prioritized city-wide projects for which State funds will be requested. Borough Manager Tim Rooney presented the list to Assembly members Jan. 31 at a work session. This week Assembly members voted in favor of forwarding the list to the State. Wood Street construction and utility improvements at the medical campus and the new hospital sit at the top of the project list. Wrangell is asking $1 million from the State for the Wood Street project and $3.8 million for the...
Wrangell is set to have its first community market in May, giving residents the opportunity to purchase Alaskan-made or manufactured goods including locally grown vegetables, homemade pottery and crafts and possibly fresh seafood. Markets will take place every third Saturday of the month beginning May 19 and could continue through September. The market steering committee – a group of community volunteers and members of city and Wrangell Medical Center (WMC) staff— held a public meeting Feb. 8 to generate input on the possibility of beg...
Anna Curtis picks chocolate treats to put in her box at Chocolate Fest held Saturday in the lobby of the Wrangell Medical Center. The annual fundraiser for the Hospital Auxiliary offered boxes for $15 each for people to come fill with locally baked and donated chocolate desserts. The fundraiser garnered about $1000, according to Hospital Auxiliary President Kathy Gross, which is about $500 more than last year. A higher number of donations and the addition of a silent auction at the Fest helped...