The fate of the 1977 public safety building remains to be seen. Does the borough move it, modernize it, or, as Government Affairs and Services Committee member Brenda Josephson said, “put lipstick on a pig” and make minor improvements while an upgraded building is in the works.
The Government Affairs and Services committee met on Tuesday to discuss the plan for the building for the second time since June. Major issues with the structure include excess moisture in the building, failing doors and windows, a lack of ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance for public meetings, decay, and rotting siding. The borough has allocated $59,600 of capital improvement sales tax funds for replacing three of the seven failing bay doors in the fire hall.
The staff prepared options for committee review to: A) move the public safety building to John Floreske’s property at One Mile Haines Highway, B) renovate the existing building for functionality and ADA compliance, or C) raze the structure and build a new one on the same lot.
Committee members Brenda Josephson and Heather Lende vetoed the idea of purchasing the Floreske property for under $2 million, which would need to be retrofitted to the specific needs of the fire department for an additional several million dollars, according to Director of Public Facilities, Brad Ryan’s, estimations.
“If we’re going to do something, I want it to be exactly what everybody wants for that kind of money,” Lende said.
Renovating the building would be a one-million-dollar investment for an extended 5-10 years of use, while the assembly seeks federal funding to cover part or all of a new building. The renovation would be contingent on securing a Community Development Block Grant, which will go to the assembly for selection on Oct. 9, for the amount of about $500,000 on the basis of making the Assembly Chambers ADA accessible. The block grant is a state fund awarded to Alaskan communities for “public facilities and planning activities which address issues detrimental to the health and safety of local residents and to reduce the costs of essential community services.” There are at least two other applicants in Haines, including the Haines Sheldon Museum for installing an elevator and the Haines Senior Village for constructing a carport.
Ryan said the upgrade would include downstairs bathrooms, upgraded bathrooms in the police department, doors, windows, siding, and ramps. He said his main concern was functional rather than aesthetic, but Josephson and Lende said they frequently hear community complaints about the building’s appearance.
“I could support 200 thousand to paint this, to put lipstick on a pig while we’re waiting,” Josephson said, “but a million-dollar upgrade for something we plan to use for 5-10 years?”
“I almost think of it as like rent that you’re paying for ten years,” Lende said. There is a cost to keep the firefighters and police officers safe in a functional facility—and it’s a service the community owes them, Lende said. “I guess I feel it’s a sign of respect for the police officers, the employees and the volunteers.”
The estimated cost of construction for an new building of the same size is $6 million, according to Ryan. As for what would go in that building, borough manager Debra Schnabel said, with the same sized building “we can eat all of that space up just with fire and police, but it would not include the assembly chambers.”
When the Floreske purchase was still on the table, the committee spoke about moving the assembly chambers to the public library, which is ADA compliant, as part of that project.
Lende voiced her support in continuing the discussion to build an addition onto the library for assembly chambers. Josephson said it would be hard to vote in support of a million dollar upgrade and also a library expansion.
“They would be right next to the municipal offices, it would be a win-win, they would have [an] energy efficient building and have more room, [and] handicap accessible bathrooms,” Lende said. “The other thing [the library board] discussed, which I thought was pretty smart, was you might get more people running for office if your kids could be at the library while you’re at a meeting.”
The discussed addition to the library would have a separate entrance and bathrooms that could be sealed off from the rest of the building, so it wouldn’t have to be staffed during late night meetings.
Krista Kielsmeier, executive assistant to the borough manager, told the committee that she thinks moving to an ADA-accessible building, like the library, or school, is a priority. “I think that if you have a building that is not ADA accessible for a public meeting and you have an ADA-accessible location, as a matter of just being a good government we should move the meetings to an ADA-accessible location,” she said.
Josephson said she thought it was a matter of demand, but Lende said that the borough would likely not know if a person was unable to attend a public meeting because of restrictions.