Alaska News

Mat-Su Borough building's pipes burst, flood offices

PALMER - Employees of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough are doubling up on office space today and working out of temporary quarters this week after burst pipes caused water damage in the borough office building in Palmer.

An unlatched window blew open over the weekend and allowed cold air into the building at 350 E. Dahlia Ave., according to borough public works director Keith Rountree.

Two sprinkler heads in the second-floor sprinkler system froze and burst, flooding two offices, one of them Borough Manager John Duffy's and the other his executive assistant's, with hundreds of gallons of water.

The water flowed through the walls and pooled two or three inches deep in a conference room and a break room two floors below.

Rountree said public works employees responding to an alarm discovered the damage Saturday evening. A cleanup crew was called in that night. Rountree said they removed the mess and set up fans and dehumidifiers to dry things out.

There's no estimate on the amount of damage the drenching caused, Rountree said.

The borough administration office is temporarily working out of the borough land management office, in the south wing of the building. The borough clerks are working out of Central Mat-Su Public Safety Building on Swanson Avenue in Wasilla. An update on their location during the cleanup is expected later today.

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Rountree said he expects the cleanup to be complete by the end of the week.

Anchorage Daily News

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