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The Alaska Mental Health Trust Land Office has recommended a timber sale of approximately 1.2 million board feet of timber in the Wrangell area during the next two to three years. The Trust parcels subject to this decision are located adjacent to the Wrangell Institute property currently owned by the City and Borough of Wrangell. The property is zoned as Timber Management under Title 20 of the Wrangell Municipal Code. The proposed sale area is comprised of the parcel that will be conveyed as part of the Alaska Replacement Lands Program. An addi...
It was a busy night at City Hall on Tuesday, Aug. 28 as the Borough Assembly met in three sessions to hold a public hearing, certify the Wrangell Medical Center Board of Directors special election results, and to meet in regular session on a number of items. The public hearing, which began the evening, was to hold a second reading of a proposed ordinance that would clarify oversight of the WMC board and their powers in operating the hospital. One proposed change would restrict the board to a...
5 Seats *Marlene Messmer – 346 *Judy Allen – 332 *Robert Henry – 290 †Barbara Conine – 290 Betty Keegan – 264 2013 Seats *Terri Henson – 275 *Bernie Massin – 21 Marlene Clarke – 184 Mike Ashton – 173 Mike Nicholls – 118 Billie Younce – 114 2014 Seats *Cori Robinson – 368 *Megan Clark – 252 Rhonda Dawson – 235 Brad Williams – 206 2015 Seat *Woody Wilson – 290 Janell Privett – 274 † - The tiebreaker between Robert Henry and Barbara Conine was determined according to Wrangell Municipal Code section 2.28.160, which called for the drawing of lots...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly met in special session on Friday, Aug. 17 to introduce the first reading of a proposed ordinance that could dramatically shift the balance of power in the administration of the Wrangell Medical Center. The assembly voted 5-0 in favor of the reading, with assemblyman David Jack absent. Among the proposed changes the ordinance puts forth include new language, which would change the way the WMC Board of Directors manage the hospital and long-term care facility. In Section 3.32.020, a change is proposed to restrict...
Former Wrangell Medical Center administrator Noel Rea has filed an answer in the lawsuit filed against him and six members of the recalled WMC Board of Directors – and made a counterclaim of his own in the matter. In the filing, Rea’s attorney, David Shoup of Anchorage, denies that Rea had any advance knowledge of the board’s action in firing him on June 20 and denies that a Release of Claims and Covenant Not to Sue were attached to his most recent employment contract. The borough’s claim for a declaratory judgment, voiding a second amendme...
Members of the Borough Assembly, Borough Manager Tim Rooney, and Borough Clerk Kim Flores will be spending time during the next few months engaged in an exhaustive review of the Wrangell Municipal Code. Flores, who is working closely with the group on the code review, said the process will take nearly a year and is meant to bring Wrangell’s codebook into compliance with Alaska State law and Title 29, which covers the operation of municipal government. The review committee, which is comprised of Flores, Rooney, and assembly members Don McConachi...
As current law stands, Wrangell has the highest municipal sales tax in the nation. An application by two Wrangellites to place a proposed taxation ordinance before the Borough Assembly could change that, however, by seeking to reduce Wrangell’s sales tax to 5.5 percent from its current 7 percent rate. The initial application for a suggested change to 5 percent, filed by Wrangell residents Ernie Christian and Rhonda Dawson, failed last week in part due to requirements covering initiative petitions under the Wrangell’s Municipal Code. Chr...
With the loss of 8 members of the Wrangell Medical Center Board of Directors, the question of how those seats will be filled came to the forefront during the Borough Assembly’s June 26 meeting. The assembly, in conjunction with borough attorney Bob Blasco answered that question after an executive session. Blasco informed the assembly that the only method to fill those seats, under Alaska law, was to hold a special election on Aug. 21 – and that those elected to fill the vacancies would hold their seats for the remainder the respective sea...
Imagine, for a moment, a City and Borough of Wrangell without a hospital – any hospital. According to Wrangell Medical Center CEO Noel Rea, that could be the outcome if the June 19 recall election changes the majority composition of the WMC Board of Directors. The USDA, which was set to guarantee a $24.7 million loan for the hospital replacement project, has signaled that an overhaul in the makeup of the board would lead them to require the borough to obtain a general obligation bond to fund the facility, rather than a revenue bond paid for b...
Wrangell is one step closer to a budget as the Borough Assembly passed their 2012 draft budget with little fanfare last week during their regular session meeting at City Hall. Comment came, however, during the public hearing held before the regular meeting – and saw one local businessman asking for a reduction in the current 7 percent sales tax levied on goods and services sold in Wrangell. Ernie Christian, manager of Otteson’s True Value, asked the board whether a reduction to 5 percent might be feasible for the community. “Thinking back...
A special recall election set for June 19 is asking voters to determine the fates of eight members of the Wrangell Medical Center Board of Directors. The election, which is seeking the ouster of all board members except Dorothy Hunt-Sweat, may have a larger effect, however, than changing the composition of the hospital’s leadership team – it may signal a change in the support of the USDA and their backing of a $24.7 million loan to finance the construction project. According to Jim Nor...
At a special meeting Tuesday, the Assembly voted 4-3 in favor of a resolution that creates a special election in Wrangell June 19, allowing the public to vote on whether or not the majority of the hospital board should be recalled. Unlike the Assembly’s vote on the resolution last week, four Assembly members voted “yes” on the resolution Tuesday night. All Assembly members were present for the special meeting. Assembly members Bill Privett and David Jack spoke in favor of passing the resolution Tuesday. Privett said those who filed the recal...
On Tuesday night, the Assembly voted 3-2 on a resolution that will create a special election June 12 regarding the recall petitions filed against eight of the nine Wrangell Medical Center Board members. Early Wednesday morning the City and Borough of Wrangell announced that vote no longer counts, as it was determined four “yes” votes were needed. “An affirmative vote of four members of the assembly is required for adoption of a resolution,” the Wrangell municipal code states. Borough Clerk Christie Jamieson said Wednesday afternoon the Assembl...
The Borough Assembly voted in favor Tuesday night to create a committee that will review the City and Borough of Wrangell Charter and Municipal Code. The review process as been prompted by Borough Clerk Christie Jamieson, who said it became clear after the Open Meetings Act classes the city offered in March that various sections of the municipal code need to be revised and updated to comply with state law. Jamieson proposed creating a special “Charter and Code Review Committee” made of five members to complete the task. Assembly member Bil...
To the Editor: There is no finer example of small town politics than Wrangell. Mistrust, rumors, false accusations, lies, and some truths all blended together. Today I received an email from a former resident who lamented on all the negativity posted by Wrangell residents to Facebook. This person lived here over forty years and follows local news. He would like to blame weather, rain, and dark dreary days as the cause but it is his observation that no other community in all of SE Alaska acts like this. It is sad. I received my Wrangell...
The Wrangell Medical Center (WMC) Board of Directors has responded to the recall petitions recently filed with the City and Borough of Wrangell. The petitions ask to recall eight of the nine WMC Board members, including Chair Mark Robinson, Vice Chair Jim Nelson and Linda Bjorge, Sylvia Ettefagh, Jake Harris, Lurine McGee, Dee Norman, and LeAnn Rinehart. The WMC Board petition response addresses the charges filed alongside the recall petitions, stating the Board had violated the Wrangell Municipal code in three instances. The WMC Board petition...
Eight recall petition applications to remove all but one member of the Wrangell Medical Center (WMC) Board of Directors have been filed with the City and Borough of Wrangell. WMC Board members included in the petitions are WMC Board Chair Mark Robinson, Vice Chair Jim Nelson and Linda Bjorge, Sylvia Ettafaugh, Jake Harris, Lurine McGee, Dee Norman, and LeAnn Rinehart. The sole WMC Board member not included in the petitions is Dorothy Hunt-Sweat. Wrangell resident Gary Allen, Sr. is the main sponsor of the petitions, and Michael V. Ottesen,...
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...
Attorneys for Alaska Island Community Services are asking the Borough of Wrangell to look into possible conflict of interest issues and delays in physician privileging by the Wrangell Medical Center board. In a letter to Mayor Jeremy Maxand, dated Sept. 26, Danielle Ryman, an attorney for AICS, alleged that the board could be acting improperly after failing to adhere to their bylaws. The board, according to the letter, is not acting on a request by Dr. Greg Salard for emergency room privileges...
A strongly worded letter to Wrangell Medical Center CEO Noel Selle-Rea from Borough Manager Tim Rooney could be a sign of things to come between the borough and the beleaguered hospital replacement project. The letter from Rooney’s office, dated Sept. 28, laid the groundwork for an Oct. 4 filing in the First Judicial District court seeking declaratory relief to sever the borough from a contract entered into by Selle-Rea and InnoVative Capital. Innovative, a banking and financial advisory f...
