Public Safety Building repairs covered in special assembly meeting

The Wrangell Borough Assembly held a special meeting last Thursday night, Nov. 19, to discuss the Public Safety Building and its needed repairs. The Public Safety Building houses Wrangell's court, police department, fire department, and DMV. It was first built in 1987, and is in need of renovation in many areas.

One such area was the main topic of discussion in the meeting: The need for a wall shoring project.

A few months ago, structural instability was discovered in the Public Safety Building's courthouse. Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen, in a past email to the Sentinel, said that the issues were noted around mid-September by engineers who were conducting an assessment of the building. The engineers reported that there was rot in the beams and possibly in the floor joints around the court office area.

"The engineer recommended that a 36' section of the exterior wall be shored, as soon as possible (and before significant snow fall), to support the second level floor and second level roof," the meeting's agenda packet reads. "The section of wall of concern is a 36' wide length of the parapet-style wall on the backside of the building with structural glulam rot and deterioration on the ends of the floor and roof joists."

During their meeting, the assembly voted to amend the FY 2021 budget by transferring $58,500 from their general fund reserves to the Public Safety Building maintenance and repair account for a shoring wall project. They also approved a contract award to Johnson Construction & Supply, in the amount of $35,750, for said project. According to the agenda packet, costs break down as $35,750 for shoring wall framing and construction, $5,260 for concrete footing construction, $11,023 for heavy timber acquisition, and $6,000 for engineering design.

The assembly was also going to hold a discussion over an executive summary of an assessment report of the Public Safety Building, but Borough Clerk Kim Lane said that they decided to cover this in a separate workshop at a later date.