The City and Borough Assembly took its next serious step in redirecting Wrangell Medical Center’s future on Tuesday, authorizing a resolution to pursue a strategic affiliation with Southeast Alaska Rural Health Consortium.
Earlier this year the city and regional healthcare provider began to cooperatively explore a new approach to managing WMC, a municipally-run critical access hospital. The hospital has been experiencing a revenue crisis for several years, and even with additional funds from city reserves has remained low on operating cash. Having last year acquired Alaska Island Community Service, which enjoyed close ties to WMC, SEARHC was recommended to assume management of Wrangell’s center by a locally appointed steering committee that explored the prospect.
City manager Lisa Von Bargen met in Seattle last week with SEARHC representatives and their respective attorneys to go over a transactional document covering the prospective deal.
“It actually outlines all of the terms and conditions of the transfer of ownership, essentially,” she explained to the assembly this week. “It also includes conditions of construction of a new hospital.”
Under the prospective agreement, SEARHC would agree to invest in a new medical facility, located on a combined campus with AICS’ main clinic. The arrangement had been previously envisioned earlier in the decade, when both AICS and WMC had been planning to construct new facilities. While the former completed its facility, the finances fell through for Wrangell’s new hospital and the transition put on hold.
The 68-page asset purchase agreement was pored over and cleared by both attorneys at last week’s meeting.
“There will be hundreds of pages of attachments to it,” Von Bargen added. “Both parties need to go back now and provide additional review and additional items of discussion.”
Given these details, members of the assembly unanimously approved negotiations with SEARHC to proceed. SEARHC’s governing board was likewise scheduled to reach a similar decision at a meeting yesterday. If given the go-ahead, architects will begin the next phase of planning and design for a new hospital campus within the next week.
Both parties would meanwhile continue negotiating an agreement, doing their due diligence in the process. During this time the document would be considered confidential, with a final version to be publicly presented by August. If agreed to, SEARHC would assume management for WMC and its liabilities, and expects to be able to transition into a new facility within around two years’ time.
In other business, Public Works director Amber Al-Haddad reported a low bid had initially been selected for the Shoemaker Bay Harbor reconstruction project. A contract in the amount of $8.35 million was to be considered for a joint venture between Tamico and Rock-n-Road, both of Petersburg, one of seven contractors submitting bids for the project.
However, after the announcement a complaint was lodged by the next-lowest bidder, Western Dock and Bridge, putting the item on hold. One of the technical grounds on which it took issue was that the joint venture required a business license; while both companies each hold such a license, a separate one would need to be obtained for their joint venture. After reaching out to the companies, Von Bargen ascertained they could have one in place by Wednesday, though they did not have one at the time of the bid.
The matter has been forwarded to the city’s attorney for an opinion, and the project subsequently on hold until then.
PND Engineers had provided design and bidding assistance for the project, and had recommended the award to Tamico-RnR as lowest bidder. The basis of its offer is based on main construction and two additive alternates, for additional float finders at the head dock and demolition of two existing approach docks. Engineers’ initial estimates for the work had been $9.92M.
$12.13M had been finally budgeted for the project, with $2.15M in bonding and $4.98M in harbor reserves and other funds to be supplemented by $5M in state transportation funding. Finance director Lee Burgess explained that the favorable bids meant the city could likely proceed with the project without the bonding, saving the borough money in the long term. A revised funding package reflecting that would be included with the contract offer when the bid dispute was resolved.
The Department of Environmental Conservation also updated assembly members on progress with the Byford cleanup project. After heading up a site cleanup of the four-acre former junkyard in 2016, DEC had until last month planned to house an excess of treated, lead-contaminated soil in a perpetual monofill. Public concern about the project’s proximity to Pats Creek and possible environmental effects from it had led to project delays, and at the behest of the governor additional funds were allotted allowing the material to instead be shipped off-island for disposal.
Work moving the 18,500 cubic yards of lead-contaminated soil from the yard to a staging area at the Silver Bay Mill site has begun. Operations will run six days per week, staged for offloading six weeks at a time. In all, project manager Sally Schlichting anticipated work will be completed sometime in September, and on budget.
“We estimate approximately three barge loads,” she reported. “It should be pretty straightforward.”
The project contractors will be using some of the materials set aside for the planned monofill for preparing the barge ramp. The rock pit first slated for the monofill will be cleared of holes and other potential hazards, and any leftover material would be offered to the Department of Natural Resources for its use, if needed.
Schlichting explained that once the offloading is completed, the DEC would issue Wrangell with a cleanup complete determination, or a closure letter signing off on its future residential use.
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