A resolution supporting a new building for the Seward Community Health Center garnered discussion at last night’s Kenai Peninsula Borough assembly meeting.
Assembly Member Brent Hibber put a resolution meant to be passed through the meeting’s consent agenda up for discussion. He raised some concerns after comparing the size of the proposed 20,000 square foot building to the number of patients seen by the clinic in a year.
“I just have questions about what's such a big building?” he said, “Why nine exam rooms when you're only gonna have eight patients a day?”
Responses from Assembly Members Cindy Ecklund, Kelly Cooper and Mike Tupper laid out how the building fits the center’s long term goals. Tupper emphasized the center’s intention to focus on wellness over treating illness.
“We keep looking at, ‘well, how many doctor's visits do we get out of it?’ I feel like that's the wrong metric. We're looking at the wrong thing,” Tupper said, “we should be looking at, ‘how does a population fare as far as their health?’ And I think that that's a better measure of the success of a health system than how many times somebody comes to see the doctor.”
Seward Community Health Center Executive Director Craig Ambrosiani said the building’s facilities would meet industry standards for the center’s current number of care providers, and would be able to offer services beyond treating illnesses.
“We are trying to work with folks and improve their health, and not have them come in just when they're sick,” he said, “we want them to come in when they're well, so we can help them teach them how to be healthier.”
While some assembly members expressed concerns about funding and the center’s ability to maintain services in the future, Ecklund explained the resolution would serve to document local support while the center applies for state and federal funding. The borough has no funding obligation for the building.
After discussion, the assembly unanimously passed the resolution.
The assembly also passed resolutions recognizing the Seward High School Girls cross country team and nine-men football team, as well as the Kenai Central HS Football team as state champions of their respective divisions.
One resolution confirmed the appointment of Brent Johnson to the Kenai Peninsula College council and Tupper to the Kachemak Bay Research Reserve Community Council, and another adopted a different allocation method for the 2024 fiscal year shared fisheries business tax program.
The assembly passed ordinances introduced at the previous meeting that would appropriate nearly $400,000 for projects under a community assistance program, redirect half a million dollars from a bridge infrastructure project to cybersecurity and broadband projects while expanding the scope of the road service area locally funded bridge project, and appropriate nearly $40,000 to upgrade a motorized security gate for the borough’s Emergency Operations Center.
Another would give proceeds from commercial passenger vessel taxes to Seward and Homer.
Finally, the assembly approved turning the Anchors Aweigh subdivision near Anchor Point into a single-family residential local option zoning district.
Ordinances with hearings in January include confirming assessment rolls, moving bond proceeds from various funds to other projects and debt services and adopting a new borough logo.
The assembly will meet again on January 2 of next year.
