Assembly welcomes new members

PALMER — The Mat-Su Borough Assembly welcomed newly elected members Tim Hale and Stephanie Nowers for their first assembly meeting on Tuesday and elected Dan Mayfield to serve as Deputy Mayor.

Running a somewhat different agenda on Tuesday, the assembly heard staff reports on all pertinent ordinances before the assembly before entertaining motions to enter discussion and vote on the action items. A change that was not listed on the agenda but could have a major effect on the finances of both the borough and the Mat-Su Borough School District was the date of the joint meeting between the school board and the assembly. The joint meeting between MSBSD and the assembly was changed to Dec. 17 at 3 p.m., allowing for Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s Fiscal Year 2020 budget to be released before entering into discussions with the school board on how to proceed. What has not changed between the assembly and the school board is the fate of Houston Middle School. The building that was built in 1985 suffered critical damage during the Nov. 30, 2018, earthquake and the assembly heard the update from staff that they are still waiting on the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Finance Director Cheyenne Heindel told the assembly that they have received the remaining $5.8 million on the insurance policy from XL Insurance. The policy will be paid out to the $15 million limit, but still undetermined is whether the remaining $10 million in funds will need to be appropriated. FEMA was supposed to have made a determination on their 50 percent rule by Oct. 1, but the borough is still waiting. FEMA’s 50 percent rule determines whether the building will require greater than half of it’s value to repair, making it more cost effective to replace the building. The recommendation from the School Board was to repair the gym and administrative wings while completely replacing the academic wing of the school. Heindel told the assembly that she remains unclear on whether the borough will ask for the additional $10 million on the policy, waiting for the answer from FEMA.

Mat-Su Borough Emergency Manager Casey Cook also discussed Houston Middle with the assembly after detailing the process of getting reimbursed for repairs on 102 separate damage locations. Cook whittled the 102 locations into 28 different project worksheets, 15 of which are school district sites. The awaited FEMA determination on if it is more cost effective to repair or replace HMS will then go to the Army Corps of Engineers prior to coming back to the assembly for final decision on whether the building will be completely rebuilt or only the academic wing. Cook also said that the Federal Highway Administration has also jumped in to help reimburse the cost of funding road repairs due to the earthquake.

Public Works Director Terry Dolan presented the 2020 Road Service Area improvement projects list. In 2019, the borough completed 24 RSA projects. A total of 14 of those projects were improvements on paved roads and 10 projects paved previously unpaved roads. Dolan showed two of the projects that repaired fish passage, showing the disparity between where salmon had to travel through culverts prior to repairs and noting that spawning salmon had been spotted in repaired areas earlier this fall. The 2020 RSA projects list included filed resolutions in 11 of the 16 RSA’s to support road improvements. The improvements are funded by the capital budgets from each RSA.

“We execute around seven million dollars or so,” Dolan said.

While Dolan noted that the RSA improvements were subject to assembly approval, the order in which the projects are completed are not determined by the assembly, but based on need and available resources.