Burned school rises from the ashes

PALMER — The borough is nearing the end of a protracted negotiation over an insurance payout from the Susitna Valley Junior/Senior High School fire.

The school burned down in June 2007. Since then, students have been at temporary facilities at the local senior center.

Borough Public Works Director Keith Rountree said he couldn’t discuss the dollar amount of the settlement or, for that matter, any details of the negotiation until at least Tuesday.

That’s the day the Borough Assembly is set to meet with Borough Manager John Duffy to decide whether to accept the offer the company has made.

“The only thing I can say at this point is the offer, after negotiating this, we did better than I thought we would,” Rountree said.

Which is to say the company has offered more money than he expected.

Updates on the insurance negotiations have cropped up at various assembly meetings since the fire. The basic question seemed to be whether the borough was owed an amount equal to the school’s value at the time of the fire or whether the company should pay for a replacement school.

The difference was substantial — the building that burned was more than 30 years old.

Negotiations didn’t stall work at the borough, which has a contractor, Collins Construction, working right now to build a new school.

Rountree said the school is set to open in December of this year but could open sooner. The contract in place contains a provision for a bonus for swift work.

“If the contractor gets the school constructed sooner than December… he gets paid for having surpassed the terms of the contract,” Rountree said.

Rountree said borough officials are crossing their fingers, hoping to perhaps have the school open for the start of the 2009-2010 school year.

That would, of course, mean opening the school in September rather than December, shaving multiple months off the projected completion time.

“If anyone can do it he can,” Rountree said of the contractor.

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