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Looking to ensure that all property is taxed fairly and equitably, the borough is considering a reassessment of all residential and commercial properties for next year’s tax bills. The goal is for assessments to be consistent and “fair and equitable for everyone,” Borough Manager Jeff Good said last week. It’s not about raising taxes, it’s to ensure that similar properties are assessed accordingly, he said. Generally, the borough’s property assessor — a contractor from out of town — reviews the value assigned to about a third of the property...
Sealaska Heritage Institute has made available online for the public recordings of two important treasures in the preservation of traditional Southeast Native culture, knowledge and history: Radio interviews with Native leaders that go back almost 40 years and the biennial Celebration festival. The 164 radio interviews preserved in digital files are from an hour-long program, “Southeast Native Radio,” that aired on Juneau public station KTOO 1985 to 2001. “The collection is remarkable, as it offers so many interviews with people on topic...
SEARHC is continuing to expand its behavioral health services in Sitka and also to serve residents of other Southeast communities, an official of the health care provider has told the Sitka borough assembly. “I wanted to bring your attention to some of the changes, the evolution of the behavioral health service line at SEARHC,” said Dr. Elliot Bruhl, senior vice president and chief medical officer at the Sitka-based SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium. He called behavioral health “one of our number of areas of emphasis in terms of our c...
The Alaska Supreme Court is considering a case that could redefine the extent of legal protection for corporations — including health care consortiums — jointly operated by Alaska Native tribes. The verdict could have implications across the state. In written arguments and in court on June 21, attorneys representing the state said that if the court rules broadly it might limit the state’s ability to enforce a wide range of laws, including tax collection, consumer protection and antidiscrimination rules. But tribal health care consortiums argue...
The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium has placed its order with the state for COVID-19 vaccination doses for children as young as 6 months old, and could start distributing them to its facilities across the region this week. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday approved the children’s doses of Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech. “At this point in time we do not have pediatric vaccine clinics scheduled, as we are waiting for approval and a definite timeframe for receiving our supply of vaccines,” Randi Yance...
One of Alaska’s largest private COVID-19 testing providers plans to close its public testing sites in the state by the end of June. The decision by the private company will not affect SEARHC’s continuation of testing services in Wrangell. The decision by Capstone Clinic is mainly driven by financial considerations, said Matt Jones, Capstone’s director of non-clinical operations. Jones said it began with an abrupt move by the federal government earlier this year to no longer cover the costs of COVID-19 tests or treatments for those without healt...
A mass casualty exercise June 7 was the first one held at the Wrangell Medical Center in its 16-month-old facility. The drill, which simulated a plane crash, was used to see where improvements could be made in the emergency operations plan. It involved about 70 staff members from the hospital, EMTs and volunteer firefighters. Eleven community volunteers of various ages were made up to resemble victims with head wounds, lacerations and other traumas requiring stabilization, medevac or blood...
The borough has listed the former Wrangell Medical Center for sale to the highest bidder until June 30, at a minimum bid of $830,000, the value assigned by an April appraisal. The hospital has been vacant since health care provider SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium moved into its new building in February 2021. The borough has been spending close to $100,000 a year to heat and insure the empty structure, and the assembly has decided to sell the surplus property. The lot is 1.95 acres, o...
At the assembly’s May 24 meeting, members unanimously approved a resolution setting the property tax levy for this year at 12.75 mills, which is $1,275 on every $100,000 in assessed value, the same rate as last year. The tax rate is 4 mills for property outside the borough’s service area, such as Thoms Place toward the southern end of Wrangell Island and Meyers Chuck. Property tax payments are due by Oct. 15. The borough estimates it will collect almost $1.8 million in property taxes in the fiscal year that starts July 1, with more than 96%...
The borough assembly and SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium have come to an agreement of voluntary payments by SEARHC of $45,000 per year for 10 years on property owned by the nonprofit health care provider in town. In negotiations that began in November, the borough had been asking for $225,000 a year, and SEARHC had asked for a refund on a $331,287 property tax bill it paid in full on the new Wrangell Medical Center in 2021. As a nonprofit, SEARHC is exempt under state law from property taxes. In the agreement approved by the...
The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium plans to break ground in June on a four-room expansion to the 14-bed long-term care facility at Wrangell Medical Center. The 1,800-square-foot expansion was prompted by the community’s need for long-term care rooms “that are typically hard to come by,” SEARHC spokesperson Lyndsey Y. Schaefer said via email on Friday. SEARHC is adding to the building for the extension, she said Monday, but declined to provide a cost of the construction. “As it’s a pure estimate at this point, I’d rather not...
The borough assembly on May 10 approved a resolution to put the former hospital building up for auction, with the borough running the sale rather than turning it over to an online surplus property vendor and paying a 5% commission. Assemblymember Jim DeBord voted no; everyone else voted yes. The borough has been spending almost $100,000 a year on insurance and heat since SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium moved out of the 30,596-square-foot building and into a new facility on Wood Street more than a year ago. The property reverted...
The borough assembly was scheduled to hold a special meeting Tuesday evening to consider an agreement for the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium to make voluntary payments on tax-exempt property it owns in town. A draft agreement had been on the agenda at the assembly’s May 10 meeting but discussion was postponed. Mayor Steve Prysunka is leading the negotiations on the borough’s side, Borough Manager Jeff Good said last Thursday. The borough had started negotiations by asking for $225,000 a year, and SEARHC offered $45,000 per year for...
The borough assembly on Tuesday was to consider a draft agreement for the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium to make voluntary payments of $45,000 per year for 10 years on property owned by the nonprofit health care provider in town. The borough had initially asked for $225,000 a year. SEARHC is not legally required to pay taxes — state law exempts nonprofit religious, charitable, hospital or educational organizations from municipal property taxes — and it has been in negotiations with the borough for several months for a vol...
SEARHC plans to offer a paid, six-week, on-the-job training program in Wrangell in June for certified nursing assistants (CNAs). After successful completion of the program, a student is eligible to sit for the state certification exam. As of last Friday, the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium had openings posted on its website for eight nursing assistant jobs in Wrangell. “CNAs are an important part of our workforce, with 20-plus on staff at any time,” said Carly Allen, hospital administrator. “The course is a hybrid of in-pe...
Regard Recovery Centers, a Fort Lauderdale-based for-profit substance abuse treatment chain that has expressed interest in the former Wrangell hospital, has been waiting on a commercial appraisal of the building — and last week the borough said it’s found a company to do the work. The borough is paying Anchorage-based Reliant $42,000 to appraise the value of the former hospital building as well as the former sawmill site at 6.5 Mile Zimovia Highway, Economic Development Director Carol Rushmore said last Thursday. “The hospital appraisal quote...
The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium and the borough are negotiating another year of voluntary payment in lieu of taxes on the nonprofit’s property in town. SEARHC paid property taxes when the clinic and hospital were under construction, Finance Director Mason Villarma said March 2, even though those tribal-owned parcels are exempt from property taxes. Construction on the $30 million hospital started in 2019; the facility opened in February 2021. SEARHC paid $331,000 for the 2021 tax year. Payments in lieu of taxes, or PILTs, “are re...
The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium is providing free COVID-19 at-home test kits on a first come, first served basis. A Feb. 7 post on SEARHC's Facebook page said it is providing two boxes per household, but the Wrangell Medical Center pharmacy, where the test kits are being handed out, is not tracking who is asking or how many times. "We're just asking people to be respectful so there's more for the community," Carly Allen, hospital administrator, said last Thursday. After a...
The fire department is continuing to hand out free, at-home COVID-19 test kits as the community’s level of new cases declines after a record-breaking January. Starting Dec. 30 and continuing through Jan. 30, the borough reported 185 cases in the community, the worst outbreak by far of the pandemic. Since then, the borough has reported 13 new infections, including six reported on Monday evening. As of Monday, the fire department still had 325 test kits, said Capt. Dorianne Sprehe. A shipment of an additional 242 boxes is on the way from the s...
SEARHC's announcement last week that it was shuttering the 21-year-old Alaska Crossings program in Wrangell, a wilderness therapy program for at-risk children that the health care provider took over in 2017, disappointed much of the community. The news release cited rising costs. Spokesperson Maegan Bosak, senior director of lands and property management at SEARHC offices in Sitka, said Friday she didn't have an operating cost for Crossings but would ask the finance department for the...
Posted Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 12 Alaska Crossings, a program that helps at-risk teens and takes them on guided wilderness expeditions throughout Southeast, is closing its Wrangell base of operations and moving to Sitka. Crossings has been based in Wrangell since it was founded in 2001. The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium took over the program in 2017. SEARHC announced in a press release Wednesday it would permanently shut down Crossings in Wrangell. “SEARHC made the extremely difficult decision to permanently close Crossings i...
The state has decided to stop offering walk-up COVID-19 testing at Alaska’s larger airports, and to stop paying for similar free testing operations in communities statewide, including Wrangell, effective Jan. 31. The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium will shut down its walk-up, no-appointment-needed free testing operation in Wrangell on Jan. 31 but will continue offering testing by appointment. The change in testing comes as Wrangell is seeing the start of a post-holidays surge in infections, with 14 new cases among residents reported...
Eat your fruits and veggies, move around plenty and drink lots of water – a combination of these recommendations have come from health care providers for generations. Doctors have always told patients exercise is important, said Dr. Victor Sanoe Harrison, lead hospitalist at Wrangell Medical Center under the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium. What's new is that an entity like SEARHC is helping to pay the costs for exercise. "Exercise has been prescribed forever," Harrison said, "just f...
Nov. 24, 1921 Mayor Grant this week circulated a petition to the governor setting forth that on account of the great destruction of deer by wolves in Southeast Alaska, more drastic methods of wolf extermination should be employed at once. The petition was eagerly signed by local citizens, and will be forwarded to the governor on the next northbound steamer. An offer was made by the U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey for the free use of the gas boat Regal and services of two trained men to work for wolf extermination, giving two months service for...
It's commonplace in most communities to see a big, brown delivery van lumbering down the street, or parked curbside with its hazard lights blinking. In Wrangell, the familiar UPS brand is replaced by a white cargo van belonging to C&D Deliveries. The family owned service puts in a lot of hours, especially during the holidays, to ensure people receive their packages despite adverse weather, unknown addresses or unfamiliar names. Since April 30, 2019, when Chris Booker and his wife, Dixie,...
