After Wrangell voters chose not to take on debt to finance repairs to the Public Safety Building last month, the facility’s future is uncertain. Borough officials are racing against time to identify alternative sources of funding before the building, which houses essential government services, becomes unsafe for workers.
At the Oct. 4 municipal election, the community approved $3.5 million in bonds for school repairs but voted down the ballot issue that would have approved $8.5 million to repair the Public Safety Building, which would have been repaid through property taxes.
Possibly because of rising costs at the grocery store and gas station or uncertainty about how the ongoing property reassessment might affect their tax bills, Wrangell voters balked at the prospect of paying an additional $112 on $100,000 of assessed property value each year.
The bonds failed by 65 votes out of 583 ballots cast.
“I don’t think a lot of people realized what was in that building and what we were going to lose,” Assemblymember David Powell said at the Nov. 9 assembly meeting.
The building houses “the dispatchers, the police, the jail, the court system, DMV (state Division of Motor Vehicles), fire department, U.S. Customs and Border (Protection),” said Mayor Patty Gilbert. “I would say that there is a good 20 to 25 people in that building regularly employed.”
“We just cannot afford to lose any of these services,” she added. “Frankly, the time to kick this down the road for another year — we’re well beyond that.”
Capital Facilities Director Amber Al-Haddad said funding repairs will be an uphill battle now that the bond issue has been defeated. Grant funding that is available for building repairs is limited. Paradoxically, the building’s broad usefulness makes it ineligible for most grants, which tend to focus on specific projects and departments. Many grants are “specifically for the fire department or specifically for the police,” explained Borough Manager Jeff Good. “It’s a mixed-use facility, which makes it harder.”
Assembly members and borough officials have tried to get creative with their grant applications, but to no avail — so far. Good has explored the possibility of retrofitting the building with energy-saving technology to apply for energy-savings grants, but most grants in this sector are geared toward industrial technologies or are only available to communities of 35,000 or more.
“We are continuing to look for funding opportunities with energy efficiency objectives for alternative and/or supplemental funding for the (Public Safety Building) rehab project,” Al-Haddad added in a written statement.
Mayor Gilbert suggested using a portion of the building for emergency preparedness and pursuing an emergency preparedness-related grant, but the building’s functions are already too specialized to pursue that avenue, said Al-Haddad.
The borough has one shot at getting funding for the project — a grant and loan combination through the U.S. Department of Agriculture rural development program. The program provides funding to develop essential community facilities in rural areas, according to its website. Program recipients can receive a maximum of 75% grant and 25% loan funding, or a minimum of 15% grant and 85% loan funding, depending on the community size and median household income.
Borough officials are not yet certain what ratio of grants to loans Wrangell might be eligible to receive.
Based on Wrangell’s size and income level, the loan portion of any funding it may receive would have 4% interest, with some possibility of forgiveness, Al-Haddad said.
The competitiveness of the program depends on how many communities apply in a given year and how much federal money is available. If the borough receives funding, there is no guarantee that it will cover the entirety of the project cost.
Despite these challenges, the program represents the borough’s best chance at getting the building repaired. “This is the most viable option,” said Finance Director Mason Villarma.
To prepare a competitive application for the grant, the borough will need to invest approximately $50,000 to $60,000 into an architectural feasibility report to submit to the USDA. The building has already undergone a condition assessment, but the information in the assessment will not be detailed enough to meet the stringent rural development program requirements.
Applying for the program will take “a lot of work,” Al-Haddad said. “We really need to decide if this is the route we want to take before we spend the $50,000 to $60,000 to apply.”
Emily Wright, the Juneau-based area administrator of the Alaska court system’s Southeast district, assured Wrangell residents that the court system will not leave the community, though it may move to a new location. “We’re working with the city and we’re trying to make sure that the building is safe for her (Sheri Ridgeway, deputy magistrate).”
Though Wright plans to give the borough time to seek funding and repair the building, the court system is considering alternative locations. “We want our jurors to be safe. We want our employees to be safe.”
However, she acknowledged there is not much space available. Finding an appropriate space for the court “may be more challenging in Wrangell.”
The court section of the building includes a clerk’s office, storage room, judge’s chambers and courtroom. “If we’re going to have court here and we’re going to do the things that are necessary for a courthouse, then we probably need the same amount of space we have now,” said Ridgeway, who works in the Public Safety Building.
The court performs a wide range of functions that people “might not be aware of,” she said, from issuing protective orders for domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking to settling civil disputes and establishing guardianships for children or elders.
The rot inside the building’s walls doesn’t affect Ridgeway’s day-to-day operations, but the facility’s temperature regulation issues do. “There are thermostats in here, but I’m not sure they actually do anything,” she said.
The building’s exterior windows “do not meet thermal performance criteria,” according to a 2021 building assessment report, and the boiler and heating system are about 15 to 20 years past their median life expectancy in the 37-year-old building. The pneumatic controls for the building’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems are “inoperable.”
However, intense temperature fluctuations are not the facility’s most pressing issues. The structure suffers from “significant water infiltration … extensive rot and insect infestation of building structure, and severe deterioration of parapets and siding,” according to the condition assessment. To repair the building, “we are taking the walls down,” Al-Haddad said at the assembly meeting. “From the inside drywall to the outside siding. … It’s basically rebuilding the structural integrity.”
A project of repairs will be expensive, but still cheaper than a total rebuild. The borough is seeking around $8.5 million to complete only the most pressing repairs — a new structure would cost over $30 million.
At the Nov. 1 capital projects forum, Borough Manager Jeff Good estimated that without intervention, the building has only “a couple of years” left before it becomes unsafe for employees. “The condition is pretty bad. We just can’t find parts for the mechanical systems anymore.”
Assemblymember Powell expressed concern that once the project is underway, new issues would be identified, increasing the project cost and putting an additional, unexpected burden on taxpayers.
Al-Haddad assured him that this would not occur, since the planned repairs will address the building’s entire exterior structure and the project cost includes a built-in contingency. “What is found will be addressed,” she said.
Community members have expressed dismay that the building was allowed to reach this state of disrepair. However, many of the building’s issues are due not to borough negligence but to poor design. The flat portions of the roof do not hold up well in rainforest conditions and the roof’s internal drains have failed, causing water to leak into the walls.
“We can’t be looking five years down the road at this project again,” said Powell. “This community has to have this, whether they believe it or not.”
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