The Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) will present an update on home health services at the Sitka Assembly meeting tonight (12-12-23).
This fall, SEARHC announced it would be closing its home health department. In media interviews, letters and ads in the Sitka Sentinel, hospital officials have repeatedly said that while the department is closing, the services provided to patients will not change, they’ll just be provided by other departments. But some Sitkans remain concerned about the future of home health services, and in November, the Sitka Woman’s Club organized a town hall to discuss the issue. Organizers say they invited SEARHC’s top-ranking staff to attend the facilitated discussion and to answer questions, but the consortium did not send a representative. It’s unclear from the assembly agenda what information will be included in SEARHC’s update or who will be presenting it. No additional materials are attached to the assembly packet.
The assembly will also consider the draft airport lease agreement between the city and the state. The state owns Sitka’s airport, while the city owns the terminal building. The lease between the two comes right as the city is poised to receive a big federal grant to expand and revamp the airport building. While the state initially wanted to include controversial parking fees in the new lease agreement (parking in Sitka’s airport lot is currently free), fees aren’t written into this contract, though they may come before the assembly in the future for consideration as a sublease agreement. Additional concessions fees for airport vendors, however, are included in the contract.
In other business, the assembly will consider whether to approve $157,000 in matching funds for the second phase of the Sitka Seawalk, which will extend the seawalk from the library under the O’Connell Bridge.
The Sitka Assembly meets at 6 p.m. tonight. Raven News will broadcast the meeting live, following Alaska News Nightly.
