Borough officials are holding off for now selling bonds to pay for repairs to the rot-damaged Public Safety Building in hopes of receiving federal money to fund more rehab and replacement work at the 37-year-old building.

Wrangell voters by a 3-1 margin last October approved the borough borrowing $3 million to start making repairs to the 34,500-square-foot building that houses the fire and police departments, state court offices, jail, state Division of Motor Vehicles and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The plan always was to pair the local money with federal aid — the borough requested $2.5 million in a congressionally designated grant. But with all the federal budget uncertainty, political fighting and much of Congress looking to cut spending, the Wrangell money is uncertain.

Until they know if — or not — the federal money is coming, borough officials have delayed selling the $3 million in bonds.

“We want to maximize our investment” by combining borough and federal dollars to get more work done, Borough Manager Mason Villarma explained. “If it (federal aid) doesn’t happen,” the borough would scale back its work plans and see what it can do with $3 million.

There is no hard deadline to issue the voter-approved bonds, though officials plan to issue the bonds this coming fall or winter.

The assembly on June 10 approved a resolution authorizing the bond sale, noting that the construction work is planned for 2026. That gives Wrangell time to wait and see what Congress does with this year’s federal budget.

To keep the project on schedule for work next year, the borough plans to use its reserves to pay for engineering and design in advance of going to bid for construction.

Alaska’s member of the U.S. House, Rep. Nick Begich, succeeded in getting the Wrangell money included in a draft spending bill, according to the borough assembly resolution. The bill awaits further action.

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski has succeeded in getting even more money for the building — $6.5 million — added to a Senate spending bill, Villarma reported at the June 24 borough assembly meeting.

The next steps will be to wait for House and Senate votes on the different spending bills and then for each chamber to agree on the same spending plan, sending it to the president for his consideration.

If the community has to go it alone, without any federal money, borough officials expect they could pay only for new siding and roof. Federal would allow at least the addition of new overhead doors and a fire alarm system to the work plan.