Troopers eye consolidation, relocation to Wasilla

WASILLA — Department of Public Safety officials say a major change to the Valley’s law enforcement landscape is potentially in the works.

Since at least 2009, City of Wasilla officials have considered relocating the police department headquarters to the building currently housing Iditarod Elementary School. Now, the mayor of Wasilla says the Alaska State Troopers’ B Detachment headquarters in Palmer is being eyed for consolidation and relocation to Wasilla as a potential cost saving measure by the State of Alaska. The troopers have been headquartered in Palmer for the past two decades.

Plans outlined by Mayor Bert Cottle at the Dec. 28 Wasilla planning meeting would include moving all Mat-Su state troopers to a single unified location housed in the same building as the Wasilla Police Department.

“We’ve had three walkthroughs with Department of Public Safety in reference to the old Iditarod school,” he said.

Trooper spokeswoman Beth Ipsen said Thursday that state officials, including the Department of Administration and the Department of Public Safety, are looking into consolidation as a cost-saving measure, but declined to provide specific details. The department has already closed one Valley post in Talkeetna. A post in Girdwood closed Jan. 1 as part of cost-saving measures amid a looming state budget crisis.

“It is possible that several Alaska State Troopers and Alaska Wildlife Trooper current lease locations — all with different lease terms could be involved in such a consolidation effort,” Ipsen wrote in an email. “Because the discussions have only been conceptual at this point, DPS has not calculated any specific personnel or office relocation expense or potential lease and utility savings which may be involved.”

Construction of a new Iditarod Elementary School broke ground last spring, and students will relocate to the new building for the 2016-17 school year.

The City of Wasilla has placed a request to get its hands on the 50,000-square-foot school building, which was built in 1971 and is valued at about $13 million. Wasilla is the only organization still expressing ownership in the building, Cottle told several council members.

“It’s been on the table, ‘Who wants the building?’” he said. “I’ve put our name in as one of the people who want the building — that is up to the council — but in order to get our name on the block, and it turns out right now everybody else who was on the block is off the block. Nobody else has put their name in. We’re the only ones.”

Former borough schools in Wasilla have a history of resurfacing as city buildings. The city purchased its current 20,000-square-foot city hall from the borough in 1981 for $10. Officials have since spent about $1 million renovating the former public school, whose alumni include Cottle.

Even if borough officials agreed to a similar deal, those $10 could come with a hefty price tag attached, officials said. For example, public works director Archie Giddings told council members that the building’s heating system controls are currently based on compressed air. The building also contains asbestos, a hazardous, cancer-causing material commonly used for insulation before 1980, which would need to be dealt with if significant renovations were undertaken. Officials aren’t certain whether a fire in January 1981 at the old school building might have led to its removal then, and can’t know until an evaluation is performed.

“We know there’s asbestos in the building,” Cottle said. “We know that.”

City officials have already obtained a proposal from the architecture firm ECI, which designed the city’s under-construction library building. Council members will likely take the first vote on the matter Jan. 11, when they will consider whether to allocate $46,600 to survey the old Iditarod building to find out what the costs of potentially modernizing might be. That money will be combined with $27,300 of Department of Public Safety funds to evaluate the building’s structure, energy use, the possible presence of lead or asbestos, and other costs.

Numerous potential legislative hurdles still remain. Upon completion of the evaluation, the Mat-Su Borough Assembly would have to vote to sell the building, the Wasilla City Council would have to vote to accept it, and the two parties would have to agree on a price. The council would have to vote to allocate any money for repairs (council members could conceivably put the matter to voters as a ballot question, resulting in further delays), and council members would also have to vote to accept a potential Public Safety lease.

Until the building is evaluated, officials can’t know what the potential renovation costs could be, Giddings said.

“The architect would say, ‘This is what’s wrong, this is what we have to invest to bring it up to code,’” he said.

The city does know the Department of Public Safety won’t pay for the building to be refurbished, Cottle said. However, whatever amount is expended on the building would be recouped in the form of rent to the Department of Public Safety if it decides to move the trooper post, he said.

That drew questioning about renovation funding sources from councilwoman Colleen Sullivan-Leonard.

“I’m just not comfortable with the city taking on the whole piece of $2 million,” she said. “Why isn’t the state chiming in to help with that? It’s one thing to have a lease, it’s another thing to contribute.”

“It’s rent,” Cottle responded.

“Well, Mr. Mayor, how do we even know that’s even the building we want for one thing?” Sullivan-Leonard said. “I know you negotiated that.”

“We haven’t negotiated anything yet,” Cottle said

“But are there any other options to consider?” Sullivan-Leonard said.

“No,” Cottle said.

Moving a consolidated trooper post to Wasilla would bring as many as 100 salaried jobs to the city, according to Cottle.

And Wasilla Police have outgrown their current headquarters to the point where they are using rented cargo containers for storage, police chief Gene Belden said.

“We don’t have any place to expand,” he said. “The state wants more than they have and can get their fingers on.”

That would leave the current 10,000-square-foot police station, purchased for $1.2 million in 2001, largely unoccupied. That space could possibly go to the Mat-Su Borough government, which is currently pressed for space, according to Cottle. He said borough officials would be willing to lease 7,000 square feet of the current floor space, leaving the Mat-Com Dispatch Center — which handles Wasilla Police and the Alaska State Troopers — in the building.

“They need to grow,” he said.

The cost of repairing or renovating old buildings is cheaper than new construction, Cottle said. For example, the new Iditarod building came with an $18-million price tag, and the new library is estimated to cost $15 million.

Contact reporter Brian O’Connor at brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.