Certified Home Health
Dear Editor: Recently, we wrote a letter asking SEARHC to follow their own critically important value and mission statements to provide care for patients, including and especially for those who qualify for Medicare, to guide their work, instead of profit-making being the driving force.
We would like to reinforce, again, the critical need for Medicare Certified Home Health Care and for SEARHC to reinstate the Medicare Home Health Care Department. This Gold Standard is critically needed as evidenced by 600 Sitkans who signed this request in the Sentinel on November 29.
Respectfully and urgently,
Toby and Norm Campbell, Sitka
Volunteerism
Dear Editor: Sitkans are often unaware of some of the continuing good works that are happening quietly in our community that make it a better place for all of us.
For over 40 years Denton Pearson has single-handedly managed and operated the Sitka International Hostel, where low-budget visitors from around the country and the world can stay affordably when visiting Sitka.
Denton has maintained this non-profit, including the board, the paperwork, the staffing, and more than once, relocation of the entire operation.
This kind of volunteerism is part of what makes Sitka such a wonderful community to live in or to visit. On behalf of all hostel boards and the thousands hosted, sincerest thanks, “Denny.”
Ted Laufenberg, Sitka
Tourism Open House
Dear Editor: In the lead up to the next ‘‘open house’’ on cruise ship tourism, I would like to express my ongoing concerns about the absence of robust data to support the discussion. Benefit and impact can be measured in a lot of ways; however, in the open house session held in November, economic benefit arguments were offered using sales tax data that failed to distinguish between seasonal and year-round businesses, or receipts from online purchasing! New business registration data also failed to distinguish between seasonal and year-round businesses.
These distinctions matter if we hope to make good decisions and create a sustainable local economy.
Without a much more rigorous approach to assessing the value proposition of unregulated cruise ship tourism we can’t even begin to answer reasonable questions about economic benefit.
I have been trying to get a preview by redistributing the Sitka Assembly’s recent gift of $1 million from 2023 sales tax receipts. It is interesting to see how it looks if we treated it like the PFD and gave something to every resident. One million dollars divided by 8,500 people comes out to $117. 65 each. Now let’s divide $117.65 by the number of days when cruise ship passenger numbers exceed 50 percent of Sitka’s year-round population – that was 71 days in 2023. Which takes us to the handsome sum of $1.65 per person, per day, for excessive wear and tear on our collective psyche and lost summertime amenity. This feels like we are running as quickly as possible to sell our community very, very, short. We must be able to do better?
Leah Mason, Sitka
