Prior to their meeting Tuesday, Aug. 25, the Wrangell Borough Assembly held a workshop to go over several Capital Improvement Projects planned for FY 2021. The city has multiple projects lined up for the near future, across several departments. Last week’s workshop was to review these projects, and their estimated costs.
“You approved a handful of items that were already in play, or had critical timelines in the operating budget, and those were attached in the agenda packet,” said Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen. “What is before you tonight, for a first review, is the other items that we believe to be of significant importance moving forward.”
One project is an assessment of the Public Safety Building. This is estimated to cost $165,000 total, according to the meeting’s agenda packet, though city administration was only requesting $10,000 from the general fund. Amber Al-Haddad, with the city, explained that this project was already moving forward, as the assembly had previously approved it. A survey team was scheduled to come to town to begin the assessment later in September.
“It will be in this year’s CIP fund as a project moving forward,” she said.
Another project on the list was improvements to the city’s skeet shooting range. Wrangell received a grant in the amount of $55,070, Al-Haddad said, from the NRA. Any project that is awarded grant funding within a calendar year, she explained, the NRA wants to see completed in the same calendar year by Nov. 1. If the city accepted the grant now, she said they would have only until Nov. 1 to get the skeet range improvements completed. Fortunately, the NRA was willing to defer the grant award until next year. Given the city’s workload this year, she said she believed the short timeframe was too aggressive to consider.
A third project that was reviewed in the workshop was repairs, or potential replacement, of Wrangell High School’s elevator. The cost of this project is estimated at $163,000 out of the Secure Rural Schools fund. This is a top priority among school-related CIPS, Al-Haddad said. The elevator’s hydraulic ram has lost its fluid, she said, so the elevator cannot operate. Josh Blatchley, with the school district, said the problems with the elevator were discovered in March. The two primary options they have looked into so far, Al-Haddad said, are repairing the hydraulic ram or replacing the elevator with a smaller car assembly. The first phase of the repair option is estimated at $66,000. The replacement option represents the full $163,000 estimate, she said.
Other projects discussed in the workshop included replacing the floors in the Nolan Center, various environmental work plans, upgrades to the community pool, and renovations to the Kyle Angerman Memorial Playground. As this was only a work session, no formal action was taken by the assembly.
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