Closing Business
Dear Editor: I am sad to write this but I am retiring and closing my business, Sewing Solutions. My hands and wrists are telling me that it’s time. I have loved this work and the relationships I have made with so many in our community. I am grateful for your patronage this last 20 years. It has been a rich and fulfilling experience. Thank you, Sitka, from the bottom of my heart.
Cheryl Vastola,
Sewing Solutions
Recycling Items
Dear Editor: Hopefully the idiots who dump Styrofoam, plastic sheeting, bubble wrap, food waste and other assorted garbage into the recycle bins saw the small article in the Thursday, Aug. 10, newspaper on Page 3 listing accepted materials that can be recycled.
Alaska Waste or city crews do not have the time to pick all this material out of the bins. People need to realize these contaminated containers have to go to the Transfer Facility and get dumped with the other municipal garbage.
On another topic: If you want to do your part to keep moorage rates down, do not leave batteries sitting next to the harbor dumpsters. It is not the harbor department crew’s job to load your batteries into a pickup to haul off. It is your responsibility.
Mike Trainor, Sitka
SAIL Thanks
Dear Editor: Thank you to all our partners who helped support the Southeast Alaska Independent Living Summer Work Program: University of Alaska Southeast, Alaska State Parks, Youth Advocates of Sitka, the U.S. Forest Service, the Sitka Biking Club, Sitka Trail Works, Big Brew Energy, the Sitka Sound Science Center, Alaska SafeTech Industries, Sitka Bulk Goods Store, and others. Their donation of time and resources made it possible for students to learn employment skills, gain work experience, and help improve the trails we all love and use.
Each year, SAIL’s Summer Work Program creates an opportunity for high school students to participate in supported employment, and we are grateful to all our partners for their commitment to helping us provide accessible, inclusive employment and work education.
If you want to hear more about the program, or the work that any of our partners added to the program, please reach out to SAIL at (888) 500-7245 or sitka@sailinc.org
Gunalchéesh. Háw’aa. Thank you.
Cara Crain, Employment Specialist,
Southeast Alaska
Independent Living, Inc.
SEARHC Home Health
Dear Editor: Having been a physician of internal medicine for 45 years, I was saddened to read ‘‘SEARHC to Close Home Health Office’’ in your August 2 edition. I appreciated Cindy Litman’s thoughtful letter on August 3. I appreciated SEARHC Administration’s well-planned and executed COVID immunization program. I have found the staff at SEARHC to be professional and compassionate. However, SEARHC Administration’s unexplained decisions this year have left me totally confused and disappointed.
To me, Home Health represents coordinated, comprehensive and personalized medicine for those individuals who are ill and/or dying. In my many years of practice, Home Health nurses have critically helped the healing of the whole person and made possible dying in comfort and peace. In close communication, they coordinate a team (physician, physical therapist, occupational therapist, and at times mental health counselor, masseuse therapist, dietician and spiritual guide) to help the individual achieve their personal goals.
SEARHC Administration decided to close the Home Health Office without any community input. First the decision was made and now the Administration is trying to find solutions for the loss of palliative and end-of-life care. Is this the process you would want for yourself or family members? I know families receiving Home Health care who were confused and stunned by the news.
What values were driving this decision? What vision of health care was driving this decision? We are told it was precipitated by too much paperwork. What other paths were considered? The concept of a ‘‘Medical Home’’ for patients has lately been popular in medicine. It would seem that Home Health is a critical ‘‘room’’ in the Medical Home.
I hope for better communication by SEARHC Administration with the community and reconsideration of the decision to close the Home Health Office. Finally, is the panel/council that was formed for community feedback when SEARHC bought Sitka Community Hospital still in existence?
Dr. Marilyn Coruzzi, Sitka
