Recall may affect Medical Center funding

A special recall election set for June 19 is asking voters to determine the fates of eight members of the Wrangell Medical Center Board of Directors.

The election, which is seeking the ouster of all board members except Dorothy Hunt-Sweat, may have a larger effect, however, than changing the composition of the hospital’s leadership team – it may signal a change in the support of the USDA and their backing of a $24.7 million loan to finance the construction project.

According to Jim Nordlund, the director of the USDA Rural Development office in Alaska, he is most concerned over a wholesale shif...