Borough enjoys more space at remodeled admin building

PALMER — It’s perhaps a nod to the optics of public office that officials have to be wary of any kind of symbol that might make a person feel they’re putting on airs, elevating themselves above their constituents.

Which is probably why the first thing Mat-Su Borough Assemblyman Jim Colver mentioned leading a tour of the new addition to the borough’s Dorothy Swanda Jones Building is the dais — the stage the assembly sits on during its meetings.

“That is matched with the finished floor of the building,” Colver said of the height of the dais. “We would rather not be up so high.”

And while the chambers are neat, he seemed most proud of the office space, which offers elbowroom to employees who had shared cramped quarters with stacks of boxes.

“It was really affecting productivity for the employees,” Colver said, remembering his thoughts at the time were, “We’ve got to do something.”

Colver did a lot of the financial wrangling to lash together the funds to get the addition built. It involved scooping up funds from over-budgeted departments as well as money that had been set aside for office space.

As of Monday, a lot of people had been in their new offices for a week or two and the Mat-Su Borough Assembly had its first public meeting seated around that dais.

Borough Clerk Lonnie McKechnie said the crowd for that first meeting was a large one and for the first time in that building they didn’t overflow into the hallway.

Project architect Chris Whittington-Evans from Wolf Architecture said that a bright, airy space might be more conducive to public meetings, or at least more conducive than the old basement assembly chambers.

“A nicer space without kind of having the pressure cooker you had before brings a little bit more civility,” Whittington-Evans said.

Borough Attorney Nick Spiropoulos said he’s been trying to move into his office for more than a week, but tasks keep tearing him away.

While he’s elated to have a conference room for confidential legal discussions and to hold his law library, and real desks for his legal secretaries, Spiopoulos more than most borough employees will probably appreciate the revamped heating ventilation and air conditioning system that will service the entire building. His office was sweltering most summers,

“I grew tomatoes (in my office) two summers ago,” he said. “And they were good.”

Another part of the new building you might not notice at first — the wheelchair ramps.

“It’s the first time the entire building is (Americans with Disabilities Act) complaint, ever,” said the borough’s project manager, Jeff Walden.

In another of those not-out-in-the-open changes, Whittington-Evans said the borough brought its boilers up from 70 percent efficiency to 92 percent efficiency.

McKechnie said the new space will eventually offer videoconferencing, perhaps to outlying borough buildings like libraries, for example, or maybe fire stations or schools. That way people in far-flung areas could participate without hours of drive time.

In his new office, Borough Manager John Moosey said his office is a great new change. To go from 18 months without a window to having a stunning view of the Chugach Range is quite a transformation.

“I’m ecstatic,” the manager said.

Borough spokeswoman Patty Sullivan said that the addition constitutes 18,000 square feet of space added to a building built in 1935 to serve as a territorial schoolhouse.

“No testimony before local government should be heard in a hallway on a folding chair. The new chambers invite everyone in,” Sullivan wrote.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.