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A brand-new public safety building on undeveloped property adjacent to the current facility is the best option for replacing the crumbling piece of infrastructure, according to Haines Borough officials. On May 5, the borough hosted a townhall meeting so Bettisworth North Architects, Inc., the company contracted to plan and design the new structure, could update the public.

“We wanted the public to have answers to their questions—Why not remodel the existing facility or buy the Floreske building?” interim borough manager Alekka Fullerton said.

A committee of assembly members and borough staff has been overseeing the design process since last year as part of the borough’s quest to bring the project to a “shovel ready” state.

In February, after conducting a site investigation and interviewing stakeholders, Bettisworth North submitted a list of potential design options including remodeling the existing building, remodeling the Floreske building at the corner of Haines Highway and Sawmill Road, building a new facility on undeveloped property to the south of the current one and building a new structure on the existing site.

Fullerton said the committee had already considered the pros and cons of each option, and settled on a new building as the most practical.

“But we didn’t feel like we’d brought the public along with those decisions, so we wanted to have the conversation in public. It didn’t change the result, but it explained why to the community,” she said.

At the May 5 zoom meeting, Bettisworth North principal Roy Rountree talked audience members through the shortcomings of the remodeling options.

“The existing public safety building is currently forty-two years old. I would say it’s very near the end of its life as a building,” Rountree said, adding that fire and police operations have outgrown the space.

Although the Floreske building is in better condition, it’s even smaller than the current public safety building.

“It’s in a little better shape, but it does have some limitations. It was built as an electrical contractor warehouse, not a fire or police station,” Rountree said. Fire and police facilities have more stringent building requirements to ensure they are the “last building standing” in a disaster.

The current public safety building is roughly 13,000 square feet and the Floreske building is roughly 7,000. Rountree said this means a remodel of either building would require an addition to bring the building to the roughly 20,000 square feet necessary to house both police and fire department functions.

As a result, the prices associated with the various remodel and new construction options are relatively similar. The new building is an estimated $15.4 million, not including demolition of the old facility. Remodeling the current facility is roughly $14.3 million, and the Floreske remodel would be roughly $14.5 million, assuming purchase of the Floreske building is $1 million.

Rountree said the company typically advises clients that once remodel costs reach 75% of the cost of a new building, it makes sense to go with the new construction.

Those in attendance at the May 5 meeting—borough officials and roughly a dozen members of the public—expressed support for a new building.

“I have always thought it was a no-brainer, and Roy (Rountree) really proved it with this comparison chart tonight, that we really need to go with a new building,” Haines Volunteer Fire Department member CJ Jones said.

Price tags presented at the meeting differed from those given in February, which were closer to $20 million. Fullerton said price reductions were due to space consolidation.

“We made the building smaller. There’s no indoor shooting range,” Fullerton said. “The committee went through and consolidated some spaces so there’s a single large conference room for both fire and police, instead of them each having a room.”

She said assembly chambers, housed in the current public safety building, will be left out of the new one.

“The proposal is that we would build on to the borough administration building, which was designed to be able to expand,” she said. The cost for the addition isn’t factored into the cost of a new public safety building.

The borough will likely hold additional public meetings in the future to keep the public involved, officials said. Bettisworth North is required, by contract, to complete design work by Dec. 31, 2021.