Assembly moves on Houston

PALMER — The Mat-Su Borough Assembly responded to pressure from the Houston community by passing Resolution 20-001 to direct the borough manager to move forward with acquiring professional engineering design on the repair and replace of Houston Middle School as a result of the November 30, 2018 earthquake.

Mat-Su Borough School District Superintendent Dr. Monica Goyette spoke, following Houston Mayor and Houston Jr./Sr. High School employee Virgie Thompson at the podium. Goyette noted that 383 students had attended HMS prior to the quake, and it had been exactly 383 days since the magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Point MacKenzie. Goyette warned that if the assembly continued to drag their feet on making a decision on the future of HMS, the prospective opening date, which can only happen at the beginning or middle of a school year, could be pushed as far as August of 2022. That would put the reopening date over three-and-a half years after November 30, 2018.

Goyette requested that the assembly move forward with awarding a design contract. Borough Manager John Moosey said that a design company had been selected in October, but a gap in funding exists that is not a small gap, nearly $15 million. Moosey and the Assembly are still awaiting determination from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers.

“We are not intentionally delaying, but when we’re talking millions of dollars, it’s much better that somebody gives us millions of dollars instead of going to taxpayers,” said Moosey.

Houston Mayor Thompson sat in the back of the Assembly chambers with a handful of Houston school community members. Thompson was audibly agitated, raising her voice several times during the Assembly meeting, often to say “Go Hawks.”

“My recommendation is to take the money in hand and start getting things in motion. If this school was one of the core areas, I believe there would already have been construction and fully repaired. What’s happening here is a total runaround with no clear answers. We can talk and talk, and talk is not action. Is what we’re doing at HJHS working? Yes, it’s working, but because it has to. It’s not sustainable,” said Thompson. “I urge the assembly to move forward as soon as possible. Go Hawks!.”

Assembly member Dan Mayfield stated his displeasure for the amount of time it had taken to wait for a response from FEMA on their 50% rule, determining if the building was more than half damaged, making a full replacement more cost effective than a repair. The three options presented by the school board were narrowed down to the middle option, totaling nearly $29 million to replace the academic wing and repair the gym and administrative wing. The Borough has already collected on the totality of the $15 million insurance policy.

“Anchorage is still struggling with this, but we have insurance,” said Moosey.

Moosey said that the Request for Proposals that had been sent out was flexible, accomodating for all three options that had been presented to the school board. As for Federal emergency aid, Moosey and the Borough have extensive experience with fires and flooding in recent history.

“We know they’re not speed demons,” said Moosey.

Assemblyman George McKee made a quip that Santa Claus would not be giving the borough $10 million in their stockings this year for Christmas, and the Assembly should not spend money they do not have a play for. Assemblyman Jesse Sumner believed that the inference that a core area school would have been fixed faster was incorrect.

“It’s not an untenable situation for some period of time,” said Sumner. “I don’t want to go forward with a project that we can’t actually do.”

Mayfield argued that schools in Palmer and Wasilla carry more political capital than Houston Middle, which was being neglected. Borough Mayor Vern Halter negated the notion that a school in Palmer or Wasilla would have received more attention, noting the fire at Su Valley that was replaced with haste. High School Mayfield cheerily read from FEMA regulations about the determination of their 50% rule, believing to have found the answer.

“FEMA’s determination process regarding the 50 percent rule calculation should not impede the borough’s recovery process,” Mayfield said.

McKee was the only member of the Assembly to vote against the resolution in support of directing Moosey to acquire professional engineer and design on the repair and replace of HMS.