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James “Jimmy” Shirai, 75 died on December 7, 2012 at Alaska Native Medical Center from complications of a stroke suffered on November 30, 2012. He was born on June 1, 1939 in Ketchikan, Alaska to Harvey and Minnie Eshanclan Shirai. Jimmy was a Raven from the Kids.adi people of Wrangell. He went to Wrangell Institute as a young man and lived with his great-aunt and uncle, Alice and John Joseph. His adopted family were Jim and Edith Stevens and he loved his siblings, Harvey Shirai , (Audrey) and...
It’s official – the City and Borough of Wrangell has decided to purchase a 300-ton travel lift from Ascom S.p.A., an Italian manufacturer that recently won the bidding contest for the right to supply the Marine Service Center with its new haul out equipment. The decision to buy the new lift became official after the Borough Assembly approved the bid in a unanimous vote during their Jan. 8 regular meeting, which was their first of the New Year. Debate had initially raged about whether the Modena,...
A new mayor, renovations to the Shakes Island Tribal House and Marine Service Center, and the ongoing Wrangell Medical Center debate – all of these stories were newsmakers in 2012. Let’s take a look back at some of the biggest stories in Wrangell over the past year. JANUARY A late night blaze destroyed a trailer and sent a woman to Wrangell Medical Center with severe burns on Dec. 22. The fire, which began at 10:30 p.m. in a small pull-behind trailer near the top of the park, severely inj...
Dawn Hutchinson – Stevens, 66, passed away on December 5, 2012 with family by her side. Dawn was born April 11, 1946 in Wrangell to Fanny Stepetin (Nauska) and Henry Bradley. Dawn picked up the nickname of Butchie as a young child and some still called her that. She was also proud of her Tlingit name - Glaintz. She graduated from Wrangell High School in 1964 and obtained a BA in Fine Arts from Washington State University in 1982, with a minor in Native American Studies. Dawn returned to W...
In addition to approving a bevy of capital projects that will likely come to fruition in 2013, the Borough Assembly added two new members to the Southeast Alaska Power Agency Board of Directors this week during their last regular session meeting of 2012 on Tuesday, Dec. 11. Before beginning the meeting in earnest, however, Desiré Shepler of Alaska Island Community Services made a community presentation to the Assembly on her speaking tour of Wrangell and Petersburg regarding the State of...
To the Editor: Wrangell, many of you have prayed for and with us this past year since our son’s massive stroke, then aneurysm, craniotomy, cranioplasty and nine months later ruptured appendix. Many Wrangellites contributed financially to their need. This past Sunday their church, Mountainside Bible Chapel in New York, celebrated the one year mark of the stroke. It was a grand day, all of his current therapists and their families were there and upon being introduced the crowd gave them a standing ovation - they were touched and saw first hand ho...
The battle over a laptop computer and iPad device are still at the heart of a lawsuit filed by the City and Borough of Wrangell against former Wrangell Medical Center administrator Noel Rea and six former members of the WMC Board of Directors after a hearing showed attorneys for both sides debating the merits of a settlement conference in the matter. A hearing held Dec. 6 in Wrangell’s First District Court seemed at first to be an opportunity for all sides and their attorneys – Rea, the six rec...
The City and Borough of Wrangell are talking about capital projects for 2013 – with a large emphasis resting upon utilities and other new projects in downtown as city officials and the public look ahead to a new year and new development. To that end, a workshop on proposed capital improvements for the borough was held Tuesday, Dec. 4 at City Hall, with Borough Manager Tim Rooney, and members of the Borough Assembly present. During the workshop session 12 priority projects were discussed as k...
For nearly the first twenty minutes – and a later part of the Nov. 28 meeting of the Wrangell Medical Center Board of Directors – concerned citizens spoke up during public comment about the credentialing of Alaska Island Community Services physician Greg Salard and included a pointed request coming from the doctor himself. Salard, who has not worked in the medical center since losing his credentialing in March when the former board, acting as a “fair hearing committee” made the decisio...
One of the most discussed items on the agenda of the Nov. 28 Wrangell Medical Board of Directors involved money – and how the hospital is faring financially headed toward 2013. A report from WMC Chief Financial Officer Garth Hamblin stated that the hospital is operating at a loss from the previous year due mostly to a $520,788.58 payment made to former administrator Noel Rea after his firing in June – and that the numbers in the most current audit of the hospital are slightly deceptive. “Total assets, as you look at the balance sheet and other...
The progression of a court case against former Wrangell Medical Center administrator Noel Rea and six former members of the WMC Board of Directors was a main topic discussed this week during the regularly scheduled Borough Assembly meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 27. After coming out of executive session, Mayor Don McConachie informed the public that the Assembly had directed Borough Manager Tim Rooney and Borough Attorney Bob Blasco to continue in negotiations to settle the matter. The offer would...
The jury trial of a Wrangell man for a 2011 assault is now on hold after an indictment against him was dismissed in First District Court. Steven Marshall, 53, who was arrested on Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011 at a residence in the Bloom Trailer Court after Wrangell Police Department officers responded to an argument between him and his girlfriend, will not go to trial next week as originally planned after Judge William B. Carey dismissed the indictment because of an error in the instructions given to...
A settlement in the City and Borough of Wrangell’s lawsuit against former Wrangell Medical Center administrator Noel Rea and six recalled members of the WMC Board of Directors will have to wait until at least early December. Attorneys David Shoupe and Jon Dawson, who represent Rea and the former board members and in the case respectively, asked Judge William Carey on Nov. 19 to schedule the hearing with the expectation that all parties will have agreed to the settlement – and that an iPad and...
Six Wrangellites have taken the first step into one of the fast-growing medical fields in the nation by completing a six-week course offered by Wrangell Medical Center that prepared them to sit for the CNA certification exam. The six local students - Rudy Briskar, Jennifer Clark, Cassandra Clark, Helen Molinek, Dale McMurren and Mieko Wenglikowski - recently completed the course. The CNA training offered at WMC is certified by the State of Alaska, which requires programs to have a minimum of 80...
The return of a laptop computer, iPad, and the scheduling of a hearing that might signal the end of the City and Borough of Wrangell’s lawsuit against former Wrangell Medical Center administrator Noel Rea and six former WMC board members was the topic of discussion during a status conference held Thursday, Nov. 8 in First District Court. The hearing, which was originally slated to be a scheduling conference for a trial in the matter, was changed to a status hearing last week when attorneys for the borough, Rea and the six recalled board m...
Now that you have been re-elected, what is the most important issue you see facing Wrangell, and how do you intend to deal with it in the Legislature? I think the issues facing all of Southeast Alaska are, basically, similar. We need to improve our economy and make ourselves attractive to new business ventures and increase the population of Southeast. There are three ways to do this; when a business comes into an area, they look at three things. First, they look to see if there are good...
By Greg Knight Sentinel writer With the retirement of Olinda White as the Chief Financial Officer and interim administrator of the Wrangell Medical Center, a leadership vacuum has been left which required someone of capable shoes to fill – at least in terms of crunching numbers. Enter Garth Hamblin, who most recently served as the CFO of Bartlett Regional Hospital in Juneau. Hamblin, who has used his extensive experience in balancing the books for Bartlett for more than 20 years, said he has a...
With their trip to Haines last weekend, the Wrangell High School Drama, Debate and Forensics team is mid-season in regional competitions involving teams from Ketchikan, Sitka, Mt. Edgecumbe, Juneau, Thunder Mountain and Haines. Wrangell's two Debate teams, comprising Tyler Eagle and Matthew Covalt, and Lorenzo Silva and Blaine Wilson, both won seven debates in the last two Sitka and Haines tournaments. The team of Eagle and Covalt also previously won four debates in Juneau before the second...
Wrangell Medical Center has yet another new administrator at its helm while the City and Borough of Wrangell and PeaceHealth Ketchikan search for a new, permanent replacement for former hospital chief Noel Rea. Rea was fired on June 20 in a 6-1 decision by the former WMC Board of Directors – a decision that resulted in a lawsuit against Rea and the members voting for his dismissal. The new administrator, Marla Sanger, arrived in Wrangell last week and began her first day of work on Monday, N...
Prosecutors in the criminal case against Wrangell resident Steve Marshall have opposed a motion to dismiss his case based on his attorney’s argument that the indictment against him is unconstitutional. Marshall’s attorney, Michael Heiser, filed a motion to dismiss a series of charges against his client in late September, contending the indictment contained language that was unconstitutional and prejudicial by directing them to return an indictment rather than giving them an option to not file ch...
The Borough Assembly met in open session on Tuesday, Oct. 30 to appoint a new member to fill the vacancy left by member Don McConachie’s elevation to mayor, and also to hold the first reading of a proposed ordinance amending the city’s municipal code related to the Wrangell Medical Center. With McConachie absent, Vice Mayor Bill Privett was charged with chairing the meeting. Among three applicants – former assembly member Dave Jack, and Wrangell residents Patti Gilbert and Holly Levine – Jac...
The end could be in sight for litigation filed by the City and Borough of Wrangell against former Wrangell Medical Center administrator Noel Rea and six recalled members of the former WMC Board of Directors. In an Oct. 25 press release Borough Manager Tim Rooney said the case would reach its conclusion when all parties have signed an agreement spelling out terms that will see a return of funds to the city. “Based on direction provided by the Borough Assembly on the afternoon of October 8, 2012, the City and Borough of Wrangell has accepted a s...
To the Editor: Dear WMC Board Members, It is my sincerest hope that you will read and consider this letter during the course of your meeting tonight as I write, once again, in my never ending support of Doctor Salard and the members of our community and hospital staff. I have been an R.N. at Wrangell Medical Center since June of 2010. On the date I accepted my position, there were four full time physicians on staff at this hospital and available to our community. Thank Heavens for our wonderful Dr. Prysunka, who works brilliantly but...
The Wrangell Medical Center Board of Directors met in open session on Wednesday, Oct. 17 at the James and Elsie Nolan Center to elect new officers after the Oct. 2 general election, to discuss the search for a new full-time administrator, and to provide an update on the construction of the new hospital on Wood Street. Before proceeding, elections were held for board positions – and each of the four members holding office; President Woody Wilson, vice president Bernie Massin, secretary Terri H...
Barbara Bigelow has been named as the interim administrator at Wrangell Medical Center after the departure of PeaceHealth’s original interim administrator Kendall Sawa, who announced on Oct. 10 his desire to make a move to Washington State. Bigelow, a native of Phoenix, Ariz., has lived in Alaska since 1979, and joined PeaceHealth in 1993. According to her biography on the PeaceHealth website, she has more than 30 years in healthcare management and brings a strong background in information manag...
