Assembly chambers too small

PALMER -- The Mat-Su Borough Assembly met on Dec. 17 back in assembly chambers in the Dorothy Swanda Jones borough building, the first assembly meeting held in the chambers since the Nov. 3 earthquake.

The west wall of the assembly chambers on the basement floor of the borough building was damaged as a result of the quake. A long, narrow room, the chambers had little in the way of cross-supports and tilted inward when the earth outside shifted with the quake. The renovation strengthened the outer wall and provided a secondary support wall, but the chambers are now a foot narrower, shrinking what some say are already cramped quarters.

Borough Manager John Duffy cited difficulty in giving presentations, security and safety issues and now, with less room between the assembly's U-shaped table and chamber walls, potential problems with ADA compliance.

But one of the most problematic issues with the now-narrower chambers, Duffy said, is that the Valley is growing out of the meeting room.

"It's not suitable for some of the larger audiences we have," Duffy said. "I'd say out of a year, at least 25 to 30 percent of the meetings, we have insufficient space."

The assembly met several times this year at Colony High School and in the assembly gym, in an effort to accommodate larger audiences who wanted to speak on hot-button issues such as zoning. The alternative meeting sites accommodated the speakers, but meant a contractor was brought in to provide audio and recording service for the audience -- at a cost of $1,500 to $2,000 per meeting.

At other times, when an issue brought unexpected community interest, the meeting room was full, and audience members gathered in the hall outside the chambers, listening to the meeting through the speaker system.

As part of the emergency renovation funding approved by the assembly after the Nov. 3 quake, money was set aside to have an architect look at other scenarios that would give the assembly and meeting attendees more room. One scenario that is being considered is renovating the borough gym to make it suitable for a meeting room. But that alternative would likely mean the gymnasium would no longer be available for public use as a recreational facility.

"What we're doing is, we've got some serious problems with the existing assembly chambers," Duffy said. "We're trying to identify if there is a low-cost solution … and one of the things that we would look at is converting the borough gym."

Borough officials are quick to say converting the gym into a larger assembly chambers is only an idea in the beginning phases of discussions -- and that, whatever happens, they won't leave the community without a recreational facility.

"We certainly would not propose to retrofit the gym without finding a suitable alternative for its users," Duffy said.

Jim Swing, the borough's public works director, agreed.

"We're not going to go without a community gym," Swing said. "This is really just in the beginning stages -- we really haven't sat down with the school district yet."

The school district comes into the matter by way of a $3.5 million remodeling project on the list of school bond projects that will go before voters sometime in the coming year. The project would renovate the old Sherrod Elementary School into offices for the district's administrative headquarters. Acting Superintendent Bob Doyle said if the bond passes, renovating the Sherrod gymnasium would be cost-prohibitive.

"It's such a high cost, we're not going to be remodeling it and using it for office space," Doyle said. He said Duffy had mentioned using the gym as an alternative to the borough's gym, but nothing had been set down on paper yet.

"There's a lot of 'ifs' in this thing," Doyle said. "If the bonds are approved …"

Doyle added that using the gym for a community recreation center fits in with the district's policies -- that public schools can be used by the public when it doesn't conflict with the district's use of the facility. Other schools, he pointed out, are shared similarly.

"I think we could make arrangements for that," Doyle said. If the school bonds pass, no matter what is done with the assembly chambers, it's likely the Sherrod gym will be available for public use.

Duffy and Swing mentioned other positive benefits of having a larger meeting facility -- that it could be used by other groups in need of more space. Duffy cited the city of Palmer as one example -- the city's existing meeting room at city hall accommodates only about 25 residents, in addition to the elected officials.

"We'd try to get as much use out of this facility as possible," Duffy said.

Duffy said the matter would likely be before the assembly after area architect Gary Wolf, who also serves on the borough's planning commission, turns in his report. More information is expected by the assembly's Jan. 21 meeting.