Dahl Memorial Clinic board backs staff to refine letter asking Skagway for start‑up funding and to open downtown pharmacy

The Dahl Memorial Clinic board voted Friday to direct Director Wahl to revise a draft letter of intent to the Skagway Borough Assembly that lays out a multi‑phase plan to transition the clinic into an independent nonprofit grantee and to open a retail pharmacy in downtown Skagway.

The motion to authorize Director Wahl to edit and return the document for board approval passed on a roll‑call vote with seven yeses. The board earlier recessed to sit as the incorporated Dahl Memorial Clinic board for the discussion and later reconvened as the municipal clinic board.

The draft letter presented by Director Wahl describes a step‑by‑step roadmap over roughly two to three years to move the clinic from municipal operation to an incorporated nonprofit that would be the federal grant recipient. "It is to reduce the tax burden of people who live in Skagway for their health care, it is to broaden the accessibility of health care in the region and to provide a sustainable platform for the future for health care in the region," Director Wahl told the board.

Wahl said the clinic has already completed an initial stabilization phase after federal grant conditions were imposed and later lifted. The next phase, Wahl said, is to remove ambiguity in the municipal code that currently lists the facility and the nonprofit under the same name, to negotiate a lease for use of the Portland House, and to establish the nonprofit's own…