The Wrangell Borough Assembly considered adopting a new emergency ordinance last week, mandating that out of state visitors to Wrangell take a COVID-19 test or quarantine themselves. However, this ordinance proved to be controversial with the public and, with recent updates to state health mandates, unnecessary. The item was dropped by the assembly, after two meetings and lots of public input.
Ordinance No. 978 was put together in the first place because the state government was preparing to revise travel guidelines for out of state travelers. At the time, according to Mayor Steve Prysunka and Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen, the issue was essentially the state was not properly communicating with them on how to stay safe while more travelers were going to be coming.
The first meeting took place on Tuesday, June 2. Ordinance No. 978, in summary, would mandate that out of state travelers to Wrangell either show proof of taking a recent COVID-19 test at their point of origin, take a test at the Wrangell airport, or otherwise quarantine themselves for two weeks. While the assembly was generally in favor of this idea, at the time, there were concerns that there was no way to enforce this mandate. They also felt that more time was needed for public input. The assembly did receive a letter from Penny Allen during the June 2 meeting, which voiced her opposition to this ordinance, but the assembly wanted more time for more members of the public to share their thoughts.
The assembly got their wish in a followup meeting on Thursday, June 4. According to Borough Clerk Kim Lane, the city received a total of 14 letters from the public to be read into the record, on top of two other members of the public who voiced their opinions personally during the meeting. The majority of the public who gave input were against the proposed ordinance.
"What I was hearing on Tuesday, what the state was going to do and what the state has now come out with, Ordinance 10.1, the city adopting this would be redundant," said Brennon Eagle.
"I am opposed to the City of Wrangell imposing or creating restrictions on travel or business that would exceed the State of Alaska's health mandates or travel restrictions," read a letter from Mike Lockabey.
"I fail to see the emergency for this emergency mandate," read a letter from Chris Guggenbickler. "Furthermore, I fail to see at all where the state mandates have failed to protect the community of Wrangell."
While the majority of public comments were against Ordinance No. 978, some members of the public favored the idea.
"A lot of people may need to quarantine for at least a week, a few days anyway, for the test results to come back," Bruce Jessop said. "I read today that the planes are becoming more crowded and they're not enforcing the mask guidelines."
"I support Emergency Ordinance No. 978 because it aligns with the purpose of protecting all members of our community, no matter what their age or health," read a letter from Maria Byford. "With the best practices possible, it is an attempt to cover every angle for the best results."
Other members of the public felt that the ordinance was being rushed through the assembly without enough work or thought, such as a letter from Dale Parkinson indicated, or they were wanting clearer guidelines from the assembly, such as a letter from John and Brenda Yeager indicated.
After taking in all of the public comments for the evening, Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen took time to share with listeners and the assembly information about the recent updates to the state mandate. Revisions to Health Mandate 10, now Mandate 10.1, came out on Wednesday, June 3. Basically, the revised mandate puts in similar guidelines as Wrangell was considering. According to the mandate, found on http://www.covid19.alaska.gov, all people coming into Alaska from out of state must self-quarantine for two weeks unless they fall under one of several categories: They can produce a negative COVID-19 test result taken within 72-hours of their departure to Alaska, they can take a COVID-19 test upon arrival in Alaska and quarantine until results come back, or they are a critical infrastructure worker that is following their employer's safety plan. The mandate also reads that Alaskan residents who travel out of state for five days or less are not required to get tested prior to returning to Alaska, but they must either test upon arrival or self-quarantine for two weeks.
"This ordinance that we have is not requesting anything more than what the new state mandate has required," Von Bargen said. "Essentially, what the new mandate does is it provides an alternative to the 14-day quarantine by allowing people to test prior to coming or test when they arrive, and to isolate until their results are received."
Mayor Steve Prysunka also wanted to take an opportunity to address a few things. He wanted to clarify for the public the timing of this ordinance they were considering. Wrangell received notice of the new state opening last Friday, May 29. At that time, he said, they had no idea how it was going to be implemented. Requests for further information were going unanswered at the time. With a lack of information to work with, they decided to put together an emergency ordinance of their own. At the very least, he said, it would buy Wrangell more time to figure out everything with the state letting in more travelers and how it was all going to work. The information was "dumped" on Wrangell last Friday evening, Prysunka said, and they hurried to get a local ordinance put together for possible adoption by the following Tuesday. Prysunka also added that the city of Juneau brought forward a similar ordinance as Wrangell's on Monday evening, June 1.
"Someone mentioned that I appear frustrated," Prysunka said. "I am, I'm not going to lie."
The mayor also wanted people to consider the economic threat an outbreak of COVID-19 poses to Wrangell, to say nothing of health concerns. If a lot of people get sick, he said, Wrangell will get shut down again no matter where the virus originally came from. It will not be a local decision, either. The state department of epidemiology will tell the city to go on lockdown. Prysunka asked people to keep in mind that if Wrangell messes up in this reopening process, they are all going to be set back.
"I don't mind if people want to come at me that I'm being overly cautious and that I guess I'm fear mongering, but I'm also thinking about businesses," Prysunka said. "I'm also thinking about this community, and our capacity to deal with something like this."
Prysunka added that it was a fair criticism from the public to say they wanted more public input, and he would "wear that 100 percent," but when this ordinance was being written they were concerned about how they were going to prepare for an increase in visitors and get them tested, while also keeping the community safe. This is not a political issue, he said, it is only about keeping Wrangell safe and supporting local businesses by avoiding an outbreak. Now that the state's newest revision to their travel mandate is out, he said, the local ordinance was a moot point.
"All our intention was, was to have if you don't test, you have to do a quarantine," Prysunka said. "The state's come along and said exactly that. So this assembly, in essence, no longer has a decision to make."
The discussion continued for a little bit after Prysunka's comments. However, the assembly decided to indefinitely postpone the motion on Ordinance No. 978. This means that the item has been killed, Von Bargen clarified. Postponing indefinitely is the equivalent of the ordinance failing, she said.
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