One option for the former Wrangell hospital building would be to use it as temporary quarters when the Public Safety Building undergoes major renovations.
There is no date set for the renovations, which have been estimated at more than $13 million, but the 34-year-old Public Safety Building needs significant work, particularly to repair water damage, rot and structural components, and staff and equipment would need to move out during construction.
The borough owns the hospital and land, and since 2018 had leased the building to SouthEast Regional Health Consortium until last month, when SEARHC completed the move into its new $30 million facility. The borough then took back responsibility for the empty hospital, which was built in 1967 and expanded in 1974, 1988 and 1994.
That responsibility includes paying the heat, utilities, keeping the fire alarm and sprinkler systems operational and other maintenance costs.
The borough assembly May 11 approved $21,000 to cover those costs through June 30, with the bills for the fiscal year that starts July 1 estimated at almost $100,000. The only assembly vote against the $21,000 expenditure was from David Powell, who said he was not interested in long-term expenses to keep the hospital building alive without a long-term plan for its use.
“I just wanted to know where we’re going,” Powell said at the meeting.
The assembly is expected to hold a work session on the building’s future at some point.
The borough is covering the heat and other costs out of what it calls the “Hospital Legacy Fund,” an account set up with one-time revenues received after SEARHC took over operations at the medical facility and the borough collected on accounts receivable.
“We have a finite amount of money” in that fund, Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen said in an interview last Friday. The account has about $250,000, after deducting for the $21,000 appropriation approved by the assembly.
It would be next year, at the very earliest, before the borough could go ahead with the Public Safety Building renovations.
The borough first would need to decide on funding for the project and issue a design contract, Von Bargen said. And with lumber prices spiking to record highs around the country, this is not the year to price out exceedingly costly wood, she said.
The Wall Street Journal reported that prices on the lumber futures market closed May 10 at more than four times the typical springtime price. Short supplies and heavy demand have driven lumber and wood-product prices to record highs this year across the country.
The Public Safety Building houses Wrangell’s police and fire departments, state courthouse, motor vehicle and driver’s license registration and other services. The building has needed major renovations for years, and the assembly has questioned whether fully replacing the building would be more cost-effective.
New construction has been estimated at more than $30 million.
“Considering these project alternatives, with our current and projected future financial environment, Wrangell is not able to consider the option to construct new,” Von Bargen reported to the assembly in a memo in March.
Wrangell’s finances are a challenge even with the lower-cost renovation, which would impose a steep burden on taxpayers unless the borough is able to obtain state or federal funding for the project.
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