The Wrangell Borough Assembly met via teleconference last Tuesday evening, March 24. Since the COVID-19 pandemic has spread to Alaska even though not in Wrangell, city officials have taken precautions to mitigate any risk of the virus spreading in Wrangell by cancelling unnecessary meetings, and only holding necessary ones remotely. During last week's meeting, the assembly approved of a preferred alternative to a reservoir bypass project.
The city is under contract with Shannon & Wilson Engineers to develop an "Upper Reservoir Dam Tap Alternative Analysis," according to the meeting's agenda packet. The dam tap would create a direct connection between the city's upper reservoir and water treatment plant, which Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen said currently only directly connects to the lower reservoir.
"Having this second water intake line will improve raw water intake for the community, in that either reservoir could act as a backup in the event one is offline for maintenance or water levels are low enough to impact flow to the treatment plant," the agenda packet reads.
There were five proposed alternatives for this project: A spillway trench and siphon, horizontal direct drilling, sliplining the two existing drain lines, cured in place pipe lining of the two existing drain lines, and to pump around. Several of these alternatives were not recommended, however, largely due to high costs or large amounts of construction work. The highest-recommended option was the "pump around" option, which would increase flow rates to the water plant through pumps with variable frequency drives. However, this option came with a very high life cycle cost and capital cost. According to the agenda packet, this would be about $2 million.
The assembly's preferred alternative was the second-highest recommended, the spillway trench and siphon. This option would have an existing spillway trenched at a depth of seven feet below the reservoir surface and installing a siphon. After some discussion, the assembly agreed to move forward with this as their preferred alternative.
During the meeting, the assembly also heard reports from several officials about what their organizations are doing to prepare for any future spread of COVID-19 to Wrangell. Leatha Merculieff, representing the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium and the Wrangell Medical Center, said they are prepared for any local outbreak. At the corporate level and locally, she said they are continuously meeting and sharing the latest information. The hospital is completely on lockdown, she said, and hospital staff are being kept separate from the Long Term Care staff. They are planning alternative care sites if they become necessary, she said, and also have a plan in place to safely move Long Term Care residents out of the hospital if the extra space is needed. Anybody needing medical attention is asked to come through the emergency room, where people will be initially screened in a tent outside of the hospital. Several community members have also started donating face masks for hospital staff to use, she added.
"Right now we are currently planning for Tier 3, which the definition of Tier 3 in our disaster plan is one positive confirmed case admitted to the hospital and members of the community," Merculieff said. "Numbers being still very vague, I don't have an exact definition of how many would be in the community. We are planning for alternate care sites, if needed, and planning for our surge capacity."
Dorianne Sprehe, with the Wrangell Fire Department, talked about what her organization is doing for any cases of COVID-19 coming to Wrangell. Their main goal right now, she said, is to make sure EMS and firefighters are properly trained on all the latest safety protocols. Providing information and holding meetings via telephone and internet resources was initially challenging, she said, but it is going fairly well now. Providing public information through social media and Nixle has been going very well, as well.
"We're not responding with our 10-15 folks like the community is used to, we've really limited that, to limit our exposure," she said.
Police Chief Tom Radke said his department is taking an educational approach to the situation. Officers are encouraging people to stay home as much as possible, he said, and to follow local and state mandates regarding self-isolation.
"We're at the airport when planes come in, we're fielding complaints from the community about people not understanding the rules regarding isolation, we've reached out to certain people that have been reported to us, again in an educational role," he said. "We're not there as a confrontation or talking down to people. We're trying to be educational and positive."
During the meeting, the assembly also adopted a hazard mitigation plan, amended the job description of the assistant diesel mechanic position, and approved a purchase of a Quantifit Respirator Fit Testing System in the amount of $8,373.10.
Reader Comments(0)