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Staff at Petersburg Medical Center sprung into action earlier this month when a sudden leak erupted from part of the building's hydronic heating system, spewing dozens of gallons of mixed water in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) room behind the nurse's station on the hospital's second floor. Maintenance staff were able to patch the leak with plumbing parts, but have not been able to find a replacement for the actual piece that was leaking yet. There was not a patient in that particular room at the... Full story
WRANGELL – The borough wants a data center to plug into Wrangell. Better yet, it could even move into the unused formal hospital property. Data centers are large hosting sites for multiple servers that provide computing power and storage for cloud-based service providers. While at Southeast Conference, held in Ketchikan last month, borough representatives spoke with Sam Enoka, founder and CEO of Greensparc — a San Francisco-based technology company that specializes in setting up modular, small-scale data centers for cloud computing. Enoka gre...
Gary Weldon Grandy, age 86, of Richmond, Utah, passed away on August 16, 2024, in North Logan, Utah from complications of a stroke. He was born on March 11, 1938, in Montpelier, Idaho, to Weldon Emil Grandy and Mary Anona Bird. Gary spent his formative years working on various ranches in Paris, Idaho, graduating from Fielding High School in 1956. That summer he worked at the Palisades Dam, Idaho site for the Bureau of Reclamation as an Engineering Aid. He attended the University of Utah for two... Full story
The multi-million dollar funding request for the Petersburg hospital replacement project was not included in the most recent state FY2025 capital budget, despite being the Petersburg Borough's top priority capital project and months of advocacy to the legislature. In January, the borough assembly unanimously approved a capital projects list that ranked the Petersburg Medical Center replacement project as the very top priority for funding. In February, individuals from the borough, board and...
All mud dump fees for the new hospital project will be waived. Although the fees would have amounted to about $186,000 in revenue for the borough, the Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously approved the request to waive the fees because it will be an in-kind contribution, which can help PMC secure additional funding for the project, and improvements made by work on the project is saving the borough about $160,000 in expenses. At the assembly meeting on Monday, assembly member Thomas Fine-Walsh...
"Progress on the new facility site is steady and going well," PMC CEO Phil Hofstetter reported to the Hospital Board last week. "The new site is steadily being backfilled with rock from the city quarry with good progress." Workers encountered a substantial amount of bedrock when excavating the area for both the Wellness, Education & Resource Center (WERC) building and the Main Hospital and Long Term Care building. In order to position the two buildings and utilities as planned, blasting at the...
"...Don't say the C word..." Cris Morrison remembers telling her husband "...It's a blockage..." It was 2018, and she had been dealing with severe constipation for the second month in a row. "I didn't know that it had to do with cancer. I just became constipated..." Her symptoms escalated to incredible pain, and after an overnight stay at Petersburg Medical Center, Morrison was medivaced to Anchorage for emergency surgery to install a colostomy bag for the bowels to empty into and take a sample...
Most of the racers in the Iditarod Trail Invitational reach the finish line in McGrath, Alaska and celebrate after their impressive journey through 350 miles of Alaskan wilderness. But for Phil Hofstetter, 51, and the handful of other athletes going the full thousand miles, McGrath was just a checkpoint. Having started in Anchorage on Feb. 25, Phil still had hundreds and hundreds of more miles to go until he reached the final finish line in Nome. After doing some maintenance on his bike, oiling...
The Independent Grocers Alliance (IGA) named Hammer and Wikan Grocery - represented by CEO General Manager Jim Floyd, Board President Gainhart Samuelson and Vice President Bruce Westre - 2023 USA Retailers of the Year. Representatives from nine stores were chosen for the honor. Nominations were made by their wholesalers "for providing leadership and excellence in their community," out of a network of 30,000 independent grocers in the U.S, according to a press release sent out by IGA. "It was a...
In January The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously voted to award the construction contract for the Blind Slough Hydroelectric refurbishment project to McG/Dawson Joint Venture for an amount not to exceed $5,744,000. The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously approved an ordinance in its first reading that would rezone a lot located at 10 N. 12th Street for commercial use. The rezoning was requested by the Petersburg Indian Association ahead of their prospective purchase of the lot, which h...
The Cedar Social Club opened Dec. 11 as Petersburg’s first adult day program. This four-hour day program provides personal care, social activity and meal service in a homelike environment for adults who could benefit from spending time in a safe space with trained staff and licensed nurses. “Right now, we’re really at the ground zero. We are building this and creating it,” said Home Health Clinical Manager Kirsten Testoni. “We need to tailor it to everybody’s likes and wants…” While serving as an alternative to assisted living or long-term ca...
"This groundbreaking is a symbol of unity, commitment to the well-being of our community," PMC CEO Phil Hofstetter addressed ceremony attendees. "It's a cornerstone that represents the future of healthcare. And with the WERC building ... it represents a stronger workforce and economy across generations, and serves as a pivotal moment for the quality of care, the quality of life, from community members to our long-term care residents." Petersburg Medical Center invited the community to the new...
During October's hospital board meeting, program facilitators presented a review of the PMC Youth Programs under the Petersburg Medical Center community wellness department - primarily highlighting Kinder Skog's past year as a PMC pilot program. The outdoor-based childcare program transitioned from operating under Petersburg Lutheran Church's Good Beginnings Preschool to PMC in August 2022 after the hospital board agreed earlier that year to establish a pilot childcare program in the Community W...
Clear Answers to our Petersburg Medical Center, Part 1 To the Editor: Like many in Petersburg, I didn’t understand specifically why we needed a new facility and how it would be paid for. I addressed the facility problems in the previous two letters. Apparently the decision to build a new facility was made over twelve years ago. Our CEO, Phil Hofstetter, was hired almost six years ago to rebuild by the hospital board. The 2015 architectural report (8 years old) cites $43 million to repair the systems. This is not possible with patients there a...
The National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health (NOSORH) named Petersburg Medical Center CEO Phil Hofstetter as Alaska's 2023 "Community Star." Hofstetter is being recognized by the national organization for his dedication to enhancing rural healthcare and addressing the health needs of the Petersburg community through wellness and prevention activities, education, collaborative partnerships, and accessible at-home care. "Phil and PMC have advanced local healthcare through numerous...
At the Alaska Hospital and Health Care Association (AHHA) conference in Girdwood last month, Petersburg Medical Center Long Term Care received the top award of Excellence in Quality for the 2023 Nursing Home Quality Awards. The Alaska Nursing Home Quality Achievement Award was bestowed to PMC by Mountain Pacific, a nonprofit corporation that oversees the quality of care for Medicare and Medicaid members through federal and state contracts, as a Gold Pan award for the quality of care delivered... Full story
During the recent Hospital Board meeting Sept. 28, Petersburg Medical Center CEO Phil Hofstetter shared news of receiving the "verbal greenlight" for a $20 million treasury grant earlier that day. The verbal greenlight came from PMC's liaison with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) at the state governor's office, which is the agency that is working with the Department of the Treasury, Hoffstetter explained to the Pilot in an interview. This $20 million grant will be used to develop the... Full story
After 23 years, Brandy Boggs moved away from Petersburg. Although she may no longer be here in person, her substantial contributions to the community will continue as she remains Petersburg Medical Center's patient navigator - now working in a hybrid role. Over the years, Brandy has held various roles serving rural Alaskan communities. She worked for the state doing child protection with the Office of Children's Services for a number of years before transitioning to her role in the court, where...
The Petersburg Medical Center is introducing a new program for psychiatric care under the behavioral health department, with the support of a $300 thousand federal grant from the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA). The Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP) is a one-year grant that HRSA awarded PMC to “address immediate needs in rural areas through improving access, capacity and sustainability of prevention, treatment, and recovery services for substance use disorder,” according to the language of the grant. PMC is...
Rick Perkins What is your age? 69 Why have you chosen to run for Assembly at this time? I have been asked to bring people and ideas together without a divisive tone in this capacity. What experience do you have that prepares you for this role? In working for the Boeing Company, I was able to bridge the gap from engineering to assembly, by building the tooling to do so regardless of paperwork or personalities. I have built 7 of my own homes, I have worked on 3 different water plant projects, and... Full story
The Petersburg Medical Center Board will begin holding their regular meetings in the Petersburg Borough Assembly chambers starting later this month. PMC CEO Phil Hofstetter made the announcement during his report to the Petersburg Borough Assembly on Monday, saying “I think it’s an exciting opportunity to provide a little more availability for the community to hear our meetings.” The hospital board, which previously met in the Dorothy Ingle Conference Room, discussed making the move in an effort to make their meetings more visible and accessibl...
The Petersburg Medical Center Board unanimously approved the hospital’s operating budget for the next fiscal year at its June board meeting. PMC CFO Jason McCormick presented the draft FY24 operating budget at the meeting, which features a budgeted total operating revenue over the next year of $25.34 million. The budgeted revenue is an optimistic increase from the estimated FY23 total operating revenue of $22.46 million—mostly driven by a budgeted 18% increase in net patient revenue from the previous fiscal year. According to McCormick, PMC nee...
The Petersburg Medical Center Board discussed holding future board meetings in the Petersburg Borough Assembly chambers last week in an effort to make their meetings more accessible to the public as the new facility project progresses. The board typically holds its meetings on the last Thursday of each month at 5 p.m. in the Dorothy Ingle Conference Room, located on the first floor of the hospital. Though hospital board meetings are open to the public, both in person and over Zoom, they are not broadcast by KFSK like the assembly and school...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly, acting as the board of adjustment, approved an application for a preliminary plat and vacation of certain rights-of-way at the future site of the new hospital on Monday, which had previously been denied by the Planning Commission. The Petersburg Medical Center appealed the decision after the Planning Commission voted against the application, claiming that the commission's decision was made in error, will have an adverse effect, and should be modified. The...
A potential Southeast Alaska Power Agency (SEAPA) wholesale rate increase has been deferred by at least a year due to record high power sales in Ketchikan, Petersburg, and Wrangell this spring, according to Vice Mayor Bob Lynn. “It’s a record, I mean it’s about 5% above any previous sales that we did this past winter, which is pretty significant,” Lynn said during his July 3 report to the Petersburg Borough Assembly about the latest SEAPA Board meeting The SEAPA Board last approved a wholesale rate increase in December 2022, raising the pri...
