By ANDY GARDNER
North Country Now

MASSENA -- Town Supervisor Steve O’Shaughnessy is appointing a Canton-Potsdam Hospital doctor and a cryptocurrency mining company comptroller to the Massena Memorial Hospital Board of Managers. Meanwhile, a member whose term is up will not seek another term.

Dr. G. Michael Maresca and Dawn Hewlett will each serve five-year terms on the board.

Maresca is radiologist and chair of the SLHS imaging department, according to the SLHS website.

Hewlett is comptroller for Coinmint, a cryptocurrency mining company that operates at the former Alcoa East plant.

O’Shaughnessy said his choice of Maresca isn’t tied to his preference that the MMH board affiliates with St. Lawrence Health System. The MMH board last month voted to recommend affiliating with Crouse Hospital and Claxton-Hepburn/North Star. O’Shaughnessy the following day said he doesn’t think that’s the best decision, and the Town Council will vote to decide MMH’s affiliate.

“He’s a great doctor. He knows the community. He knows Massena Memorial. He’s got an interest in what’s best for our hospital,” the supervisor said. “He’s had a long history, he used to work here. He does work for several different hospitals. He’s a radiologist, so he does other screenings for other hospitals.”

This comes at the same time that MMH trustee John Horan has opted to not be re-appointed to another five-year term.

“He had just felt that he was done. We had talked about that before, since June. He’s talked to me and really felt it was time for him to step down,” O’Shaughnessy said. He has the authority to appoint MMH board members and does not need approval from either the town or hospital board.

Horan could not be reached for comment.

He also confirmed that he will re-appoint MMH board member Loretta Perez, whose last term expired Dec. 31.

“She’s told me she would accept another term, so she would be reappointed,” O’Shaughnessy said.

The appointment of Maresca and Hewlett comes after a shakeup in MMH board leadership.

At the Dec. 17 MMH board meeting after Scott Wilson, who at the time was the MMH board chair, revealed that day that O’Shaughnessy does not plan to reappoint him when his term expires Dec. 31. "I'm not going in the direction he'd like, so I'm not going to be reappointed," Wilson said.

The replace him, the MMH board that same day voted to make Sue Bellor their chairperson for 2019.

After the meeting, the MMH board released a statement saying they want to pursue affiliation with Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center/North Star Group and Crouse Hospital. The decision had been long-awaited and three other affiliation options had been under consideration.

The following day, O’Shaughnessy said he was blindsided by the MMH board’s vote and does not believe the Claxton-Hepburn/Crouse affiliation is the way the hospital should go. He said the MMH board’s vote is only a recommendation, and if the Town Council decides to vote on a different affiliate, that would be the final say. “It still has to go through the town board,” O’Shaughnessy said.

Then, Paul Morrow, who has sat on the MMH board for nearly 20 years, and O’Shaughnessy wrangled over Morrow’s allegations that the supervisor threatened MMH board members who may not agree with him.

Meanwhile, O’Shaughnessy had no comment on Morrow’s accusation that a former MMH CEO resigned to save face, rather than be fired by the Town Council because of a rift with the board.

Legal Council Hired

The Town Council on Monday, Dec. 31 met in a mostly executive session meeting where they hired legal council to help them with the hospital transfer and affiliation.

“As you know … we want to get the affiliation and the transfer done,” O’Shaughnessy said, adding that he feels hiring the firm at this stage is “in the normal scheme of things.”

The board voted unanimously to hire the Albany-based Garfunkel and Wild law firm.

“We voted, but I haven’t signed it or talked to the law firm yet,” the supervisor said, adding that there is no dollar figure attached to the motion.