The Wrangell Borough Assembly met Tuesday evening, Aug. 27, for their regularly scheduled meeting. A work session was held prior to the meeting to discuss the potential demolition and replacement of part of Wrangell's power plant. The city recently contacted PND Engineers out of Juneau for a structural analysis of the concrete section of the power plant, according to the meeting's agenda packet. PND Engineers had performed an analysis on the building back in 2007, it was determined.
According to this 2007 report, the building has numerous problems that pose potential safety risks. Among these problems are poor resistance to lateral loads at the roof and wall connections, asbestos and lead paint, spalling on concrete walls, cracks in the walls, and rusting steel reinforcements among other issues.
"Structural calculations show that portions of the building are overstressed with the steel roof trusses being inadequate to support roof dead weight and snow loads, walls and pilasters that are under-reinforced, and walls that may fail to withstand local wind forces," the agenda packet reads. "Seismic evaluations show that the building would likely not withstand a large earthquake and would likely also result in damage to the connected steel-framed section of the building, which houses the community's diesel power generators."
The engineers' recommendation in 2007 was that the concrete building be demolished and replaced. Now, in 2019, city officials stated that this has been put off for far too long and is a necessity. Why this is such a problem is because it not only puts city employees at risk, should the concrete building collapse, but it could bring down the steel building next door that houses the city's diesel generators, as the two facilities share a wall.
"I cannot stress enough what a critical issue this is, how this is going to reprioritize the work not only for Amber [Al-Haddad] as the capital facilities director but how we're using our money in the electric department," Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen said. "What I will tell you is the status quo or a do-nothing alternative is absolutely not an option."
Rod Rhoades, electrical supervisor, went into a little more detail on the complexity of the issue. To tear down the concrete building, he said, the steel building will have to be laterally reinforced. Once the concrete building is taken down, there will only be three walls holding the structure up. The way it is designed right now, he said, is that there is the possibility that the building could just lean over and collapse if not properly reinforced. There is also the question of where and how to relocate the municipal light and power department and its operations while all these renovations occur, he said. Rhoades also added that, until this situation is handled, he feels it is necessary to put some projects on hold, such as installing the recently purchased diesel generators from Nome.
As this was only a work session and not part of the official assembly meeting, no formal action was taken. Von Bargen said that PND Engineers should be getting back to them with rough cost estimates for several proposed solutions to this problem in the near future.
Rhoades approached the board with a proposal to create a new job position within his department, an apprenticeship under the lead operator. The current lead operator handles a very important job and has a lot of knowledge, Rhoades said, and he wants to ensure that some of that knowledge of the job is passed on. This was only a discussion item, so the assembly did not cast any votes regarding this proposal.
During the meeting, the assembly also voted in favor of a resolution supporting the Small Community PILT Parity Act. This past July, Senator Lisa Murkowski introduced this act to change the formula of the PILT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) calculation, which would enable more funds to flow to small population counties. The PILT payment is made to small communities with large areas of federal land, such as the Tongass National Rainforest, within their jurisdictions that cannot be developed. According to the agenda packet, 97 percent of the land within the Wrangell borough is federally owned, and the PILT payment "provides only a fraction of the tax revenue the Borough would see if those lands were developed." This resolution was passed unanimously by the board.
Other items covered in the meeting include various amendments to the FY2020 budget, the adoption of an ordinance changing the time of assembly meetings from 7 p.m. to 6 p.m., and authorizing the borough manager to dispose of any city surplus items that were not bid on during a recent surplus sale.
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