Skagway declares state of emergency, readies EOC; clinic deal with SEARHC gets fresh look

A state of emergency is declared in Skagway as landslides continue to impact the north end of the town’s busiest cruise ship dock. Meanwhile, a new deal with the non-profit healthcare company Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium to take over operations at Skagway’s medical clinic gets consideration by the borough assembly. KHNS’ Mike Swasey spoke with Melinda Munson from The Skagway News for details.

 

Swasey – Melinda Munson co-publisher of the Skagway News, thanks for joining us. A lot to talk about. Wednesday there was a major landslide in Skagway, it occurred on the north slide area at the Railroad Dock. The Railroad Dock is Skagway’s busiest cruise ship dock. There was not a ship parked in front of that, luckily, so we didn’t have any injuries. But changes are being made. What is in the works to mitigate potential problems in the future?

Munson – So we’re gonna go ahead and continue with just having one ship at Railroad Dock so there will be no forward ship for the rest of the season. That aft ship will be required to tender its passengers to small boat harbor. All operations have been moved further to the north, so north of the restrooms, no buses, no tour guides are allowed past the restrooms.

Swasey – At the assembly meeting on Thursday night, the mayor also declared a state of emergency. What does that mean?

Munson – So this will last for seven days. Before that seven days is up, the assembly can go ahead and vote on that to have it continue. It serves multiple purposes. One purpose is to alert the general public about the seriousness of the issue. Another purpose is to go ahead and get the funding that we’re going to need to fix this huge problem. So we’re going to need some state funding and some federal funding. And so this puts in place that mechanism to start that process. Also, the EOC was activated. So that is in place in case anything else happens, we’re supposed to have some more weather coming our way. 

Swasey –  An atmospheric river is projected throughout the weekend. And that’s the same style of weather system that created the landslide in Haines in December of 2020. Moving forward now, there’s a lot of news about the clinic that we need to discuss. First, at Thursday’s meeting, the assembly approved a budget for an executive director on an interim basis at $1,400 per workday.

Munson – It’s been a long time since we’ve had an executive director, we also don’t have a medical director. So basically, right now our clinic has no permanent leadership. 

Swasey – Manager Ryan estimated that number at between $200,000 and $250,000 if this new interim director works for half a year. We don’t know if that’s going to be the case, but also coming up is another special session for the assembly in which they’re going to look at another deal with SEARHC. What are the parameters of this potential deal?

Munson – So there’s the possibility of a management contract with SEARHC. The first part of that agreement could be that SEARHC takes over the business of Dahl Clinic for $1. And the second part of that agreement could be that SEARHC leases the clinic building for $1 per year for 25 years. And this is something that the assembly can go ahead and vote on. They do not need the approval of the voters because the value of the clinic and the value of the lease do not meet the criteria that would lead to a vote. 

So they will go ahead and vote on that, and depending on the vote, there is time for town halls, for some community discussion. If they do vote yes, this just sets the process for manager Brad Ryan to go ahead and start negotiations with SEARHC, then you’d have to come back to the assembly and have them go ahead and approve the final contract.

Swasey – Now to be clear, the Dahl Memorial clinic costs the municipality somewhere between $700,000 and a million dollars a year to operate. That expenditure would then no longer be the responsibility of the municipality. Skagway News’ Melinda Munson, thanks as always for helping shine a light on what’s happening in Skagway.

Munson – Stay safe Mike.