Wrangell Medical Center project update

The Wrangell Medical Center renovation project team made a triumphant return to Wrangell this week as the new hospital came inches closer to becoming a reality in the borough.

The team is composed of architect Julia Covington of David E. Johnson Architects in Nashville, Tenn., and staff from American Health Facilities Development, Layton Construction and Sanderling Healthcare.

The modular buildings to be used in the new hospital are to be provided by Sanderling, a Nashville-based firm that specializes in building modular medical facilities.

Before the site visit, the WMC Board of Directors voted to approve an agreement between the hospital, Borough Assembly, and InnoVative Capital that would terminate a pair of legal actions between the three.

The action, an arbitration between InnoVative and WMC, is in the process of being terminated after the borough agreed to drop a request in First District Court to be legally severed from the arbitration.

Borough Manager Tim Rooney said the dropping of cases would allow the process of building the hospital to move forward.

“We approved the agreement at the last meeting, and the WMC board approved it during their most recent meeting,” Rooney said. “InnoVative also approved it and we are moving forward with dropping the request while InnoVative is moving forward with dropping the arbitration.”

InnoVative CEO Alan Richman also explained the process from his side of the agreement.

“The agreement was necessary to secure the transaction and allow us to continue to work together,” Richman said. “What still has to be done is as soon as litigation is dropped, my attorney will go to our arbitration case manager and withdraw our claim. Once we do that we’ll send the borough a notice of our withdrawal.”