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Tongass Ranger District Offices Moving to Mendenhall Loop Road

Contact: Pete Griffin, 907-790-7443

Juneau, Alaska, May 31 - Juneau District Ranger Pete Griffin and Admiralty National Monument Ranger Kathy Rodriguez announced today that their offices will be moving to a new facility at 8150 Mendenhall Loop Road near the current location of the National Weather Service Office. The move is expected to begin May 31 and be completed by June 8. Reliable Transfer of Juneau will be handling the move.

During the transition, telephones, voice mail, and e-mail service will be disrupted making it difficult to contact employees of the District and the Monument. There will be no interruption of on-going field projects and operations of the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center will not be affected. Telephone service should be re-established by Monday June 4.

After years of planning, a $7.7 million design-build contract for a warehouse/shop, storage building, and administrative office was awarded to McGraw Custom Construction of Sitka in 2004. The admininstrative office features the use of nearly 70,000 board feet of dimensional lumber cut and kiln-dried by Icy Straits Lumber of Hoonah. This is believed to be the first government building in the State of Alaska constructed with Alaskan wood.

The currently occupied facilities will be offered for sale as authorized by the Forest Service Facilities Realignment and Enhancement Act of 2005 (FSFREA), enacted in August 2005. This legislation provides for the conveyance by sale or exchange of administrative sites and a limited number of undeveloped parcels acquired for administrative purposes. Proceeds from sales or exchange are retained and may be used for acquisition, improvement, maintenance, reconstruction, or construction of a facility or improvement for the National Forest system, and for costs associated with the conveyances.