Kodiak hospital chiller running at a third of capacity; borough moves to accept $3.85 million to replace it

Kodiak's borough Assembly meets in a special session Thursday to accept nearly $3.9 million in federal money to replace a failing chiller at the island's hospital — a unit now running at only about a third of its capacity, which the borough says is limiting the care the hospital can provide.

The chiller supports sterilization and climate control for the emergency, surgical and obstetrics departments at Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center. The grant, from the state's Rural Health Transformation Program, covers most of the roughly $4 million project; the meeting packet doesn't say where the remaining $150,000 or so would come from.

Borough Manager Aimee Williams told the Assembly last week that borough and hospital staff had already met on timelines, and took an encouraging sign from the state's questions. "We were asked some very specific details about taking out... about $150,000 out of a $3.9 million project, so we thought that was a really good sign," she said.

The borough owns the hospital, which Providence operates under a lease. The money is part of about $272 million Alaska received in the first year of a large federal rural-health program, which limits how much can go toward buildings and infrastructure and bars new construction.

The special meeting follows a work session starting at 6:30 pm in the Assembly Chambers.