Houston Middle moves one step closer to resolution

PALMER — At the joint meeting of the Mat-Su Borough Assembly and the Mat-Su Borough School District School Board on Tuesday, Houston Middle School moved one step closer to opening its doors back up to students in sixth, seventh and eigth grades. Before HMS can be reopened, it must be completely demolished as reported by Mat-Su Borough Capital Projects Manager Jude Bilafer.

“We are in a point after thorough analysis has been done by our architectural firm and all their subs that it is in the best interest of the community and of the students, faculty and all who work around near, in, Houston Middle School that we proceed with condemnation,” said Bilafer. “The Mat-Su Borough administration is proceeding with condemnation or recommending condemnation to be approved by the Mat-Su Borough Assembly for Houston Middle School.”

After the Nov. 30, 2018, earthquake shook Southcentral Alaska, students evacuated HMS as the building was still shaking and headed to then Houston High School across the parking lot. In the following semester, over a dozen portable classrooms were transported to Houston High School to house students in both high school and middle school, as it has for the last three school semesters. On Tuesday, the joint meeting of the Assembly and School board considered Ordinance 20-089 to condemn HMS as a fire and health hazard. After the primary insurance company hired by the borough offered up the totality of their $15 million policy, the secondary insurer is not so ready to provide a settlement. While MSBSD runs HMS, the Mat-Su Borough owns the buildings. Nearly two years after the devastating earthquake, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has still not yet made a determination on their “50 percent rule,” which would provide for an entire demolition and reconstruction of the building if the cost to repair was more than half of the total value of the building itself.

“In our discussions with [Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management] and FEMA, that if the local governing body that has the authorities to grant and issue condemnation, that significantly helps with FEMA’s process and they believe that we should reach the 50 percent determination,” said Bilafer.

After issuing a design contract in January, the fate of Houston Middle is still undetermined. The existing plan was to completely demolish the academic wing that suffered the most damage and repair the administrative wing and gymnasium. However, engineers found structural deficiencies in the administrative wing and estimates were that if that section of the building were repaired, it would only meet 62 percent of the current building code.

“If we repair the admin wing and the gymnasium, the best possible scenario is that we can get to 62 percent of current code. If we demolish them and repair them we will get to 100 percent of current code which includes significant seismic upgrades,” said Bilafer.

The original goal for completion of construction would have allowed students to reenter HMS in the spring semester of 2022, but with continued delays and still no answer from FEMA, the earliest students would be able to attend HMS is in the fall semester of 2022.

“When is FEMA going to give us an answer,” laughed Assemblywoman Stephanie Nowers. “Do we have a deadline from them? That’s the most frustrating thing to me. What’s the status of that and when can we expect an answer and can we hold their feet to the fire in some way.”

Though the majority of the members of the joint meeting were happy to have made any progress on HMS, one Assembly member was not convinced. Assemblyman George McKee asked terse questions to Bilafer about the cost of the building. McKee said that he did not want to see the borough spend money for a ‘Cadillac’ of school buildings and hoped to be frugal in repairs.

“I’m serious about this, there’s an old saying on the streets that says show me the money and when you guys get FEMA money then I’ll be willing to go along with you,” said McKee.

Borough Mayor Vern Halter recalled that after the original damage to HMS, he assumed that the best course of action would be complete demolition and reconstruction. Ordinance 20-089 passed and will be presented at the next Borough Assembly meeting on September 15 for Public Hearing.

“As we move through this project there are going to be more discoveries that are made and what we need to do is what’s best at the time those discoveries are made, so even though we projected in the spring that we were going to have a lesser project with lesser funding, just because we’ve discovered new information that needs to be taken into account with our decision,” said School Board President Tom Bergey. “A school is a cornerstone institution for a community and we need to get that school back up and running for the community that it serves, but we need to do it in a safe manner for the students. We need to not cut any corners and we need to make sure that the building that is constructed is not a five year building, that it will last 40, 50, 60 years and be a good investment for the taxpayers dollars that go into it and be something that the community can be proud of.”