Funding awaiting Dunleavy OK
The aging boys’ and girls’ locker rooms at Haines High School will undergo major refurbishment under district plans if approved by Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
The Haines Borough is waiting to spend nearly $1 million to renovate the Haines High School locker rooms.
The Alaska Legislature recently appropriated $626,000 for the project and the school is prepared to pitch in the remaining $337,000. But officials are waiting to see if the project passes muster with Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who could scratch it with his line-item veto.
“I’m hopeful it survives. I’m definitely holding my breath,” said Haines Borough School District Superintendent Roy Getchell.
The hefty price tag owes to the scope of the project, which includes adding a modern ventilation system that brings fresh air from outdoors. The rooms, which date to construction of the school in the early 1970s, are equipped with only an exhaust fan.
Each locker room is actually comprised of four rooms including a locker/dressing room, rest room, shower room and drying room.
The project will include replacing lighting fixtures, doors and plumbing and connecting the rooms to the school’s automated utility grid, which monitors and adjusts temperatures and other conditions and can be operated remotely.
The work also will add more space to the adjoining weight room, which is now below standards for usability, Getchell said.
A previous problem was moisture leaking into the rooms from the swimming pool locker rooms that sit directly above, but that issue appears to have been resolved, Getchell said.
The project is ranked #51 on a statewide list of school major maintenance grants for which the Legislature has appropriated $100 million.
The school district is also awaiting news on school debt retirement. The Legislature has approved nearly $900,000 for this year and up to $2 million in retroactive payments since Dunleavy started cutting the reimbursement program in 2017.
Both also must survive Dunleavy’s veto pen.