Thirteen companies applied to design the new Haines Borough public safety building by the July 30 request for qualifications deadline.

The borough has been in need of a new building to house police, fire and assembly chambers for some time. The current structure has numerous problems including a peeling façade, sinking foundation, cramped quarters and an electrical system that is both dangerous and maxed out in terms of capacity, according to public facilities director Ed Coffland.

At present, funding is unavailable for a new building, which Coffland estimates could cost roughly $20 million, including the planning and design phase, which tends to total between 8% and 10% of the entire project cost.

A committee of borough staff and assembly members is working on a funding mechanism for the design and construction of the new building, including a land lottery idea proposed by Coffland in May.

Under Coffland’s initial proposal, the borough would select 10 lots from the roughly 1,400 acres of vacant land it owns. Those interested could buy a $100 raffle ticket for a chance to win one of the lots. Using social media and other marketing tactics, the borough would promote the lottery with the goal of selling 200,000 tickets, the exact number needed to generate $20 million.

Coffland said even though funding is unavailable for a new building, at present, it’s valuable to move forward with the planning and design phase because it will increase the borough’s likelihood of receiving funding from outside sources.

The goal is to get projects “shovel ready,” Coffland said, which means the design, permitting and preparation for the project is complete, and it is ready to advertise for bids for construction.

“A couple months ago, someone from the U.S. Senate called the borough manager and said grant money would become available for infrastructure projects. They needed to be shovel-ready projects, and we realized we don’t have any,” Coffland said. “We decided we’d better start moving in that direction.”

Now that the request for qualifications deadline has passed, a separate committee of borough staff and assembly members will review submissions, narrowing them to three. The finalists will be interviewed via Zoom. After that, the committee will make a final selection.

The roughly $2 million design phase isn’t currently funded.

“There is $440,000 appropriated for renovation of the existing public safety building,” borough chief fiscal officer Jila Stuart said. “I believe the idea is that funds currently appropriated to renovate the existing building would be re-appropriated toward design of a new building.” The source of additional funds needed for the design phase is an open question.

So far, the public has not been involved in the planning process for the new public safety building. Coffland said public input will be important in the future, once a design team has been selected.

“We’ll get the architectural firm to put forward very conceptual ideas, and at that point, we’ll come to the community and say, ‘Give us your thoughts,’” Coffland said.

If everything goes smoothly, Coffland said he estimates the borough could have a final design for the building in hand a year from now.