The state, which administers the federally funded Community Development Block Grant program, has awarded Wrangell $695,000 toward a new roof at the middle school.
The borough assembly designated the school roof — most of which is almost 30 years old — as its top priority for the grant program this year.
The project is estimated at about $1.4 million.
“We would have to provide the balance to make it a whole project,” Amber Al-Haddad, the borough’s capital facilities director, said Feb. 28.
“It’s possible we can get the (middle school) roof done this year, but we have to act fast,” she said.
The additional money to supplement the grant funding will come from the $3.5 million Wrangell borrowed after voters in October 2022 approved a bond issue to pay for repairs at the high school, middle and elementary schools.
To cover even more repair work at the decades-old buildings, the borough and school district last year applied for $6.5 million in state funds to combine with the local money so that Wrangell could address the top $10 million in maintenance and repair projects at the schools.
The community’s $6.5 million request is ranked No. 16 on the Alaska Department of Education’s Major Maintenance Grant Fund list, but the state has not had enough money to get that far down the list for years. The Legislature has appropriated significant amounts for the grant program, but Gov. Mike Dunleavy has vetoed most or all of the spending the past three years.
Unless more state funding comes in this year, the borough and school district have about $4.36 million available as of now to spend on repair work, Interim Borough Manager Mason Villarma reported at the Feb. 27 borough assembly meeting.
That includes the $3.5 million in borrowed money, about $160,000 in interest earned from investing that money until it is needed, plus the $694,000 grant announced last week.
The borough and school district are jointly deciding the top priorities for spending the money, Al-Haddad said.
The second priority for the available funds will be work at the high school. “At the high school, we would prioritize the siding,” which is suffering from rot, she said. “There is some pretty bad siding.”
The borough would “ try to squeeze in” replacement of the worst sections of the high school roof, depending on the cost estimates, Al-Haddad added.
The high school and middle schools roofs are flat, with a membrane covering.
The borough owns the school buildings — the school district is responsible for routine maintenance and the borough is responsible for major upgrades, Al-Haddad explained.
Officials used a comprehensive conditions assessment of school buildings prepared last year by Juneau-based NorthWind Architects, which sent in its team of engineers to inspect the buildings, including walking the roofs and crawling around the foundations.
The school district narrowed down the list to $10 million as its top-priority work from among a much longer list of repairs, replacement and upgrades to roofs at all the buildings, along with new siding, insulation, heating and ventilation controls, a new boiler at the middle school and other non-structural work.
The Stikine Middle School was built in 1979; the two buildings at Evergreen Elementary were built in 1969 and 1979; the high school was built in the mid-1980s.
Any work not completed this year will be done next year. Under the rules governing the $3.5 million bond issue, the borough needs to show substantial completion of the work by January 2026.
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