Extension moves to temporary site

PALMER -- A building that burned in Palmer last month won't be rebuilt until spring, but the Alaska Cooperative Extension has found a temporary home just down the street.

Scenic View Offices at 809 S. Chugach Ave., which housed Excel Physical Therapy and the Alaska Cooperative Extension Service, burned in an electrical fire last month. The physical therapy business is currently offering services only at its Wasilla office. The Cooperative Extension, however, is up and running at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Agriculture and Forestry Research Center in Palmer at 533 E. Fireweed Ave.

"We don't know how long we'll be here, but we're set up here … with the same phone numbers, the same fax number," said Mickie Woodward, office coordinator for the Extension. The service, which provides information to the public on topics ranging from nutrition, home economics and gardening to water quality and arctic construction, is now open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Extension's 4-H program has also resumed operation.

Woodward said the service lost all of its data bases, brochures and other office materials in the fire, but have been able to resume fairly normal operations during the past few weeks.

"We don't have a way to contact people, though," Woodward said, explaining that the database containing names and phone numbers was lost in the fire. Woodward said they are trying to regather that information.

The Extension has also had to modify some of its services. With all the booklets and brochures burned in the fire, the service is now ordering materials from the Fairbanks office. They are placing orders on a case-by-case basis, and Fairbanks is mailing them directly to people.

"We're a little cramped and don't have the space," she said of keeping all the brochures on hand. However, she said the temporary situation should be fine for the next six months or so.

Kerry Hondl with Excel Physical Therapy owns the Palmer office building and said he expects to tear down the burned shell soon, with hopes of having a reconstructed building open by May.

"It was a total loss," Hondl said of last month's fire. "Anything that wasn't burned was smoked or charred."

And, unlike the Extension, Excel has had difficulty finding a temporary home in Palmer.

"Excel is trying to find a location there, and we hope to get back into the community," Hondl said.

In the meantime, the physical therapists are still operating their Wasilla clinic at 1700 E. Bogard Road, Suite 200.