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 Wrangell Medical Center Board of Directors, told Young about the challenges facing the hospital project. Robinson said WMC has secured about $29.3 million to build a new hospital, but remains $1.8 million under its goal.
The City and Borough of Wrangell has asked for $1.8 from the State, Robinson told Young.
The congressman suggested, if possible, the WMC “overbuild” a new hospital, so there is room to grow in the future.
Mark Walker, executive director for Alaska Island Community Services (AICS), talked about the new AICS clinic being built at the medical campus. The site is also where the new hospital will be constructed.
Walker said AICS is currently short on funding to provide a new space for a dental clinic.
“So that’s the one thing AICS is looking for — some funding to support renovating space up at the medical campus or at one of our buildings in town,” he said.
Walker said this has been an issue he has discussed with Rep. Young and his staff in previous years. Young said he would continue to look for funding for the project.
Wrangell School District Superintendent Rich Rhodes and Assembly Member Bill Privett talked about how the loss in the local timber industry contributed to a decline in the student population.
Because of the loss of jobs, it has been a struggle to keep young families in Wrangell, Rhodes said.
Young agreed that posed a problem to a community.
“A young community is a growing community,” Young said. “A retiring community is a dying community.”
To that effect, Julie Decker, member of the Wrangell Economic Development Committee, told Young about the committee’s efforts to try to attract more young people and young families to the island.
“These days, there are so many people working on the internet that have the ability to telecommute, that people can move to Wrangell, get cheap real estate, live in a beautiful environment, have a safe place for their kids, great educational system…,” she said. “And, they can bring their job in their briefcase with their computer.”
The challenge is figuring out how to attract that demographic to Wrangell to help make it a younger community, Decker said. However, if Wrangell does figure it out, Decker said it could become a “pilot project” for all of Southeast Alaska to follow.
Young said the key for a community to attract young people who work from their computers is having cheap energy.
“If you have cheap energy, you can do almost anything,” he said.
Young suggested residents push their state legislatures for more hydroelectric projects to help offer that cheap energy.
“That would help the community of Wrangell, it would prove very beneficial for the schools, the new hospital…,” he said.
However, Young said Wrangell is in a difficult situation, as most of the island is made of U.S. Forest Service Land. The federal agency, along with the Environmental Protection Agency, impose restrictive regulations and don’t understand the benefits of “clean energy” projects, Young said.
Young started his tour through Southeast Alaska in Ketchikan March 10. Wrangell was his second stop before heading to Petersburg Tuesday and Juneau today.
Young said he would likely be returning to Wrangell this summer.
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