The almost-four-decade-old Wrangell Public Safety Building still needs millions of dollars of repairs due to water damage, rot and aging equipment.
The fact that voters defeated a municipal bond issue last month to pay for those repairs doesn’t in any way change the reality: The work is needed, and money is needed to pay for the work.
“This community has to have this, whether they believe it or not,” Assemblymember David Powell said during assembly discussion of possible next steps last week. “We can’t be looking five years down the road at this project again.”
“I don’t think a lot of people realized what was in that building and what we were going to lose,” he added.
In addition to the fire department, which is the most visible tenant from the street, the building houses the police, state court system, jail, state Division of Motor Vehicles and U.S. Customs and Border Protection offices.
“We just cannot afford to lose any of these services,” Mayor Patty Gilbert said during a call with Sentinel staff.
Nor can the borough afford to lose the state payments on space in the building, which reduce the overall operating cost to Wrangell taxpayers. The borough is budgeted to receive about $527,000 this fiscal year in state payments for the jail and court space. Doing nothing and hoping the rot goes away on its own, that the roof and siding will regenerate itself, that the heating and ventilation system will hum back to a healthy life is not an option for the borough as the landlord and as a tenant.
The borough will look far and wide, up and down for any possible state or federal money to help with the estimated $8.5 million repair bill. But the state is not as rich as it was earlier this year when oil prices were above $120 a barrel, and there are no specific grants available for such mixed-use public safety buildings.
Depending on what money borough officials can find, all or part of the repair bill could very well come back to voters next year. Maybe less than $8.5 million, if state or federal dollars come through to help out, but there’s probably no way for the community to avoid paying part — if not all — of the cost.
The bond issue failed in the October municipal election by just 65 votes out of 583 ballots cast. The assembly did not campaign all that much in support of the ballot measure, though the members voted unanimously to put the question before voters. The law allows members to speak up and speak out on such issues, and the assembly’s shyness about getting out in support of the bond issue may have cost some votes.
It’s good to see the assembly speaking strongly now in support of efforts to find funding and not kick the rotten wood framing down the road any longer. We encourage the assembly to continue its aggressive support, even if it leads to asking voters a second time.
— Wrangell Sentinel
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