High school elevator will finally be replaced

After five years, Wrangell High School will have a new elevator, at last.

The new elevator will be installed next summer after the borough assembly approved a construction contract last week. Demolition will begin toward the end of the current school year, and Capital Projects Director Amber Al-Haddad hopes construction will be completed by the time students walk in on the first day of school in August 2025.

After an oil leak was discovered at the bottom of the existing elevator’s hydraulic ram in March 2020, the school shut down the elevator. It has not been used since. The elevator was installed in 1987.

The new project “removes the existing elevator and controls and replaces the system with a new elevator and controls, utilizing the existing hoist way,” according to Al-Haddad’s report to the assembly ahead of its vote on Aug. 27.

However, the elevator is much more expensive than initially anticipated.

When the borough first sought to replace the elevator in the fall of 2021, it expected costs to come in at around $210,000, Al-Haddad said at the time. Assuming a similar price point, the borough budgeted $270,000 for the project. However, after three years of equipment and construction inflation, the lowest bid came in last month at $483,000, over double the original estimate.

After adding up all the costs, the borough assembly unanimously voted to reallocate $271,300 from the borough’s general fund to go along with the 2021 allocation of $270,000 to make the project possible.

The assembly awarded the contract to Sitka-based McG Constructors.

The wait time for delivery from the elevator manufacturer is 24 weeks, Borough Manager Mason Villarma said. This, when coupled with consideration for student safety, results in the proposed summer 2025 timeline for demolition and installation.

While Villarma said the high school is currently ADA accessible without the elevator functioning, it is “extremely inconvenient” for students unable to climb stairs.

Assembly members expressed some concern about spending nearly half-a-million dollars on an elevator, but once Villarma explained that the money is not coming out of the funding for other school projects, the vote to award the contract passed unanimously.