High school industrial arts teacher and resident of six years Drew Larrabee was appointed to serve on the Wrangell City and Borough Assembly on Tuesday, to serve until October's elections. He fills the seat vacated by Becky Rooney, who had served since October 2014.
Clay Hammer
The Wrangell Borough Assembly and City Hall staff held a roundtable discussion Tuesday evening about reorganizing several departments in light of upcoming retirements and departures.
City manager Lisa Von Bargen offered suggestions for shaking up the structures currently giving form to the Nolan Center, Public Works and Wrangell Municipal Light and Power. The ultimate focus would be to improve the maintenance attention given to existing public facilities while keeping within other budgetary and service provision goals.
One restructuring that was suggested was with the electrical utility. Currently the municipal electrical department is run as a separate enterprise fund. Clay Hammer will be stepping down as superintendent of WMLP this spring to take a job with Southeast Alaska Power Agency.
Von Bargen suggested merging it under the purview of a larger Public Works and Utilities department, with a single director in charge of power, water, solid waste, garage and general projects. The line foreman would take on some of the operational responsibilities of the superintendent, while savings could be found in merging the utility's diesel maintenance position with Public Works' garage, and cross-training the other mechanics.
Meanwhile, because of the scope of upcoming and prospective capital projects – ranging from Evergreen Road resurfacing and float replacement at Shoemaker Bay, to new water treatment plant and site development at the former Institute property – Von Bargen also recommended creating a separate position tasked with managing their portfolios. Currently the director of Public Works is responsible for those, along with her other departmental sections.
Von Bargen suggested that a capital projects management position fall under the purview of a separate capital facilities department, which would also be in charge of facility maintenance. Under that model, two maintenance specialists and a facility custodian would maintain the borough's various facilities under a department director and
separate administrator. A comprehensive overview of maintenance needs around the borough would allow upkeep to be more closely followed.
There were some other ideas floated by Assembly members, as well as concerns. David Powell did not like the idea of directly merging direction of WMLP with Public Works due to the different nature of those various utilities involved. Skills needed to manage one well would not necessarily translate well with another, he suggested.
Prysunka echoed that and pointed out the risks of failure were not just limited to Wrangell, due to its infrastructural ties to Petersburg and Ketchikan through SEAPA. Problems with Wrangell's grid could pull the plug on the others' networks, he cautioned.
Another suggested restructuring was at the Nolan Center. Terri Henson currently directs operations there but will be retiring this spring. During her tenure the Wrangell Museum director position was already consolidated with her desk, and she has maintained the center and museum with only a handful of permanent part-time staff.
With Henson's departure, Von Bargen suggested that a single Nolan Center manager position would be retained, as well as a full-time assistant manager position in charge of events, collections and sales. A half-time custodian would be added as well, while other support roles would fall to temporary staff.
Sitting in on the meeting, Henson cautioned against relying too heavily on temporary staff. "Because of what the Nolan Center holds, which is quite an extensive inventory for the gift store, the extensive collection at the museum," she prefaced, having a floating staff could pose a security risk.
"You can't just have anybody. You have to have that responsible person there," she said.
Henson also suggested the city consider maintaining staffing levels, pointing to the quality of work her part-time staff have been doing with the collection and operations. A lot of extra work goes into making the Nolan Center operate, she said, estimating she herself puts in 250 hours of unpaid overtime each year to keep the center open, sometimes seven days a week and often at irregular hours.
"I've been extremely lucky with the group of people that I have right now," Henson commented.
Within the Nolan Center, consolidating its theatrical division within general operations was also recommended. Kristen Reed has managed the Nolan's theater – named Castle Mountain Entertainment – since its start in 2005. She closes the curtains on that run next week, in preparation for a move to the Juneau area.
Castle Mountain Entertainment is a city department run separately from the Nolan Center. A steering committee in the early stages of building the center had picked the name, with the intention of expanding out into other forms of entertainment. The committee disappeared but the name stuck, and it now has a manager and assistant manager, and employs school students as theater attendants.
Recommending merging those positions with other Nolan Center responsibilities, Von Bargen explained the opportunity for youth employment would still be there in the form of Nolan Center attendants. It would be a more versatile part-time position, helping to set up for functions and so forth.
Reed was pleased with this direction. "As a first job in the community, I feel that's another thing the theater provides," she said. "It's a good place to get their feet wet."
In the case of the Nolan Center, part of the impetus for streamlining operations is consideration of cost. In the theater's case, revenue in FY16 and FY17 fall just short of expenditures, progressively drawing each year on its allotted reserves. Staffing makes up about a quarter of total expenditure for it, with more than half going toward acquiring films and concessions.
The Nolan Center itself is largely funded by a combination of general fund and endowment contributions. Of its FY16 budget of $319,000, revenues from civic center and museum activities came to $145,580, a little less than half. The lion's share of cost to the facility is its utilities and facility expenses rather than staffing wages.
Economic development director Carol Rushmore explained that the center had initially been envisioned as being financially self-sustaining, with a business plan adopted to guide it. But a recession and changing cruise ship scheduling had shifted things significantly, not just lowering revenue but also impacting the endowment.
"At the time we were receiving one very big cruise ship a week," she said. When that left, a lot of the business plan had set sail with it.
Henson told the Assembly that the Nolan Center's contribution to the economy is greater than what its revenues might suggest. "It's what the center brings in to the community," including bed rentals, meals and other purchases brought in by visitors.
Be that as it may, with Henson's departure soon at hand Assembly member Stephen Prysunka suggested revisiting the center's business plan might be a good idea before the transition.
"We're kind of hiring to an invisible plan," he said. "Where we dropped the ball is we didn't revisit it when it changed."
In all, the talk lasted an hour but will not be the last. At Powell's recommendation, Von Bargen will return with additional insights and new information at a future meeting date.
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