Petersburg’s Ranger District has started emptying out its iconic downtown office building for renovations. Most employees will move out within the next two months, and they won’t return until the upgrades are complete.
District Ranger Ray Born told the borough assembly at their September 3 meeting that many staff members will start trickling into another Forest Service office called the Harris Building, located in Scow Bay — about three miles out of town. Starting in December, that will be their center of operations until the project is complete.
However, Born said the Scow Bay office can’t hold everybody on staff.
“There just isn’t room to stuff in 105 people into that building,” said Born. “It just doesn’t work. In the meantime, a lot of my staff will be working basically from home, doing telework.”
Remodeling at the downtown office is estimated to start in January. Born said the project will effectively gut and modernize the interior of the decades-old building. According to a set of plans released this spring, the updates would make room for more employees. It would also bring the building’s electrical, HVAC, and fire suppression systems up to spec. The building’s concrete exterior would go relatively untouched.
Born estimates the project will be completed in 2026 — long after he’s gone from Petersburg. At the same meeting, Born announced that he is retiring from the Forest Service at the end of this September. The Forest Service will select a staff member to fill in as district ranger for the next four months, or until a new ranger is hired.
