Borough budget discussions continue

PALMER — The Mat-Su Borough Assembly voted on Tuesday to postpone transfer of over $1 million in funds to repair leaking roofs at the Wasilla Pool and Brett Memorial Ice Arena until May 18.

The 2018 Parks and Recreation bonds passed by borough voters included repairs, but went through a redesign process that changed the timeline. Borough Finance Director Cheyenne Heindel said that $694,000 in bond interest income and another $400,000 remaining from the Wasilla Pool repair would be used to redo one roof and completely replace another.

“At this time we need to replace one of the roofs and redo one of the roofs to ensure the integrity of those buildings,” said Heindel.

Assemblyman George Mckee moved to postpone OR 21-037 until May 18 to get further information on the repairs.

“Both of the roofs are leaking, yes. They have not been replaced since originally constructed. There have been some repairs done but these would be completely new roofs on the facilities,” said Borough Library and Recreation Services Manager Hugh Leslie. “We had to go back and redesign the pool. Because the budget was built on the old design we were not able to fund all of the aspects of the Wasilla pool because we still had the Palmer pool to do and so we did not award the replacement of the roof at that time.”

Assemblyman Rob Yundt, who sponsored the legislation, asked Leslie if delaying the vote by a month would significantly deter the ability to repair the roofs.

“We thrashed through a lot of money on these pools, not just the original bid but we also appropriated other money for one of those pools,” said McKee. “I think that we should take a good long look at this. Now, after we look at it yeah we probably should then repair the roofs but I think we ought to look at it right now and see what we’ve got.”

Yundt also noted that the timeline for repairing roofs in Alaska is small and that the prices of lumber had increased 400 percent over the last year.

“I object to the motion. This is being funded by voter approved rec bond money, correct?” said Deputy Mayor Tam Boeve. “This delay is totally unnecessary. The voters have already decided they wanted it. We’ve got the money. There’s no excuse not to move forward.”

The motion to postpone the vote on 21-037 passed with only Boeve and Assemblyman Tim Hale voting in opposition.

The Assembly also passed Ordinance 21-034, which transferred leftover funds into three existing projects including an automation of the controversial Butte air quality district burn bans.

“Every year between November and February we do some outreach to residents who live in the Butte related to the Butte air quality district. If the air quality is poor we let we’ll issue a burn ban and so funds will be added to that account to help us automate that system and make it less staff intensive,” said Borough Planning Services Manager Kim Solien.

Solien told the Assembly that due to staff transition, hiring freezes and pandemic restrictions, 21-034 would reappropriate leftover funds to continue updating the historic preservation plan that has not been updated since 1983, provide funding to the Board of Fish account in preparation for public outreach and document production for the 2023 board meeting and to automate the air quality notifications in Butte.

Assemblyman Sumner asked how many bad air days resulted in burn bans. Solien noted that staff were not working over the New Year’s Eve holiday which was the only bad air quality day last year, and that three bad air quality days had occurred the year prior.

“It’s all usually during this November to February timeframe because that’s when the inversion happens, so this additional request for funding is so that we don’t miss an alert when it’s a weekend or a vacation and so staff aren’t having to check the state website every day. We’re going to create an automated system that will send an alert and then an automated message will go out and then the burn ban will be issued so we don’t have that happen again,” said Solien.

Manager Mike Brown also issued a correction on the non area wide mill rate, which had changed since the original departmental budget presentations on April 8.

“There will be a reduction in the non area wide mill rate from .511 to .49 that represents about a 4.1 percent decrease,” said Brown. “When we ran those numbers we realized that the mill rate set at that rate with the increase in the taxable assessed value would generate a small fund balance, so the offset was intended to reduce accumulating a fund balance in the non are wide account.”

The Assembly will hold a special budget hearing on April 27 at Dorothy Swanda Jones Borough building and another special budget hearing at the Menard Center in Wasilla on April 29.