When the Sitka Assembly meets tonight (4-12-22), it will consider approving the sale agreement for the former Sitka Community Hospital building and surrounding land.
The Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) bought the Sitka Community Hospital business in 2019, but agreed to a five year lease of the property from the city to house its long term care unit. The consortium signaled interest in purchasing the building in late 2020.
In last year’s municipal election, roughly two-thirds of Sitka voters cast ballots in support of the $8.25 million dollar sale to SEARHC, and the assembly ultimately authorized a sale on a 6 to 1 vote. Now six months later, the group will review the sale agreement, and could go behind closed doors in an executive session to discuss it.
In other business, the assembly will consider amending Sitka’s new all-terrain-vehicle rules to prohibit rentals. And it will consider appointing a number of residents to the new “Sitka Bear Task Force” which was recently re-established to address Sitka’s approach to bears and garbage, after 2021 saw an unusually high number of bears euthanized.
The Sitka Assembly meets tonight at 6 p.m. Raven News will broadcast the meeting live, following Alaska News Nightly.