The process will stretch over the next couple of months, with a public hearing and a lot of public information, but it looks like the borough assembly will ask voters in the Oct. 4 municipal election to approve borrowing as much as $15 million for long-needed repairs to all of the school buildings and the Public Safety Building.
Selling bonds to finance the work will mean promising to repay those bonds, which will mean higher property taxes until the debt is repaid.
Anyone who has driven by and looked at any of the buildings can see they need a lot of work. And what isn’t visible from the outside is just as bad, or worse. The list includes extensive rot in the walls of the Public Safety Building, requiring structural repairs, plus a new roof, insulation, vapor barriers and siding.
It’s a similar list at the schools: New roofs, siding, flooring, windows, a new boiler at the middle school, and more.
The Public Safety Building is 35 years old. The school buildings range from 35 to 53 years old.
“We have underfunded our maintenance budget,” Mayor Steve Prysunka said at the July 26 borough assembly meeting, where the members set a special meeting for Aug. 8 to start consideration of an ordinance to put the question before voters in the fall.
The ordinance will get its public hearing at the Aug. 23 assembly meeting.
If voters approve the bonds, if the engineering and design work is on time and the bids come in at an acceptable price, the work could start in 2024. Most of the $15 million would go toward work at the Public Safety Building, with the borough betting on state funding to cover almost two-thirds of the cost of school repairs. The bonds would cover the borough’s share of the school work.
Several assembly members talked at last week’s meeting about the challenges in winning voter approval to borrow the money, acknowledging that many residents will balk at the prospect of paying more in property taxes.
No doubt that’s true; few raise their hands voluntarily and say, “Tax me.” But there is no other way to make the repairs to the buildings. Waiting for the damages of water and age to get worse is not a healthy or financially wise choice.
It’s the responsibility of the community — and no one else — to maintain its schools and other buildings.
That means it’s the responsibility of Wrangell residents to learn about the needed repairs, the proposed bond issue, the costs and repayment options.
And then, assuming the assembly puts the question on the Oct. 4 ballot, vote responsibly, based on facts and the needs of the community, not some false rumor or social media thread about doubling taxes or a City Hall conspiracy to boost property assessments, raise taxes and ruin the town’s economy.
Listen the facts, then decide.
— Wrangell Sentinel
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