Bursting at the seams, borough looks for larger digs

PALMER — The borough headquarters is running out of space.

In a special meeting Tuesday afternoon, the Borough Assembly met to go over alternatives for how to house the growing staff in the various borough departments.

“How much are we pouring into this building that’s too small and really old?” Assemblywoman Michelle Church asked at the start of the meeting.

“It’s on the order of $400,000 a year,” Borough Manager John Duffy said, quantifying the ongoing costs of maintenance for the buidling.

The building in question, the Dorothy Swanda Jones Building in downtown Palmer, was constructed more than 70 years ago and has been many things in its lifetime. Currently it houses just about every major borough department.

But the borough has grown to the point, Duffy said, where they need at least 15,000 more square feet. The current building is about 54,000 square feet.

Added on to the space concerns are the needs of the only major department not under that roof — Emergency Services. Administrative staffers for that department currently reside in Central Mat-Su Fire Station 65 on Seward Meridian Parkway.

“The Wasilla Lakes Fire Service Area staff would like this to be a fully-functioning fire rescue/ambulance/station and kick us out of here,” said Dennis Brodigan, director of emergency services.

He said the department currently occupies about 1,600 square feet in the station but are shoe-horned into the building, packed together into a building not meant to hold them.

Two years ago they assessed their needs and were about to go out to bid on a 12,000-square-foot building with 5,000-5,4000 square feet of office space and 6,000 to 6,500 square feet of warehouse space. That proposal was halted by the assembly, Brodigan said.

As to the needs of borough staff as a whole, three proposals had already been explored for expansion — moving into the gymnasium attached to the borough building; moving into the old school district administrative building in Palmer, or buying a piece of property recently vacated on the Palmer side of the Palmer-Wasilla Highway.

None of those met with resounding approval Tuesday.

Assembly members Tom Kluberton, Cindy Bettine and Mark Ewing, all of whom represent constituencies north of Palmer, thought this might be an opportunity to look at opening a branch office somewhere other than Palmer, perhaps on the other side of Wasilla.

At the end of the meeting, the assembly told Duffy to find an owner’s representative who could come back with proposals for 10,000 to 20,000 square feet of office space either leased, lease-purchased or built to specifications.

“If we don’t do something in our lifetime to solve these space issues we’re going to have a tough time hiring people to shove in here,” Kluberton said.

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