WASILLA -- The campaign for a half-penny sales tax increase in Wasilla to fund the proposed $14.7 million sports arena is underway. Sports complex boosters Dave Tuttle, an insurance agent, and Curt Menard, a dentist and former state legislator, gave a presentation and answered questions at a recent meeting of the Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce, and handed out supportive souvenirs.

Menard and Tuttle offered buttons with the slogans "Something for everyone" and "Build it Now," and pitched the complex design and potential programs more than anything else. The pair fielded questions from an audience of about 50 people, although fewer than raised their hands when asked if they were eligible to vote in Wasilla.

"We're asking you to be ambassadors for us," Menard told the chamber audience. The bond package would cover the cost of construction only, and once the $14.7 million is paid off, the half-cent tax will expire. If passed, the tax would also sunset on June 30, 2012, regardless of whether the bond is paid off.

Menard and Tuttle told the audience it was still undecided whether the city or a private contractor would staff, market and maintain the

facility. Without being asked, Menard said many people had reservations about the arena's operating costs and the associated costs, such as street and utility improvements.

"I'm saying let's look at the big picture and move beyond some of the finer points," Menard said.

"We're here to say build it now," Tuttle said, "we feel that the pluses outweigh the minuses dramatically."

One audience member who stayed quiet was Steve Stoll, a land surveyor who ran for the Wasilla City Council last October and was turned down by voters. Stoll frequently attends council meetings and, in the past, has urged city officials to move cautiously on everything from the sports complex to funding for a new police officer who will investigate child abuse and work cases not just in Wasilla cases, but throughout Mat-Su.

Outside the chamber meeting, Stoll distributed a three-page handout that asked questions about how such a facility could be run with eight employees and how much the city would spend extending utilities to the arena. The handout also accused Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin of staying quiet about the arena because of her campaign for Lieutenant Governor, and pointed out that Menard is not a resident of Wasilla. Stoll was not allowed to pass out the material inside the meeting room at Mat-Su Resort.

Chamber Executive Director Ed Brittingham said he screened the material and he wouldn't allow it to be distributed inside the meeting room because of chamber policies.

"We didn't see eye-to-eye, and that's not the point," Brittingham said, "... political material can only be handed out in a political forum, and that's not what [Tuesday's meeting] was about."

Brittingham said he served on the arena steering committee and said Stoll's literature could have passed the muster if it had stuck to the arena project. Personal criticisms of the mayor's campaign and Menard's residency were out of line, he said, as were allegations that site selection was controlled by private interests. The location of the arena isn't defined in the ballot proposition, although the steering committee and administration officials have identified a site east of the Wasilla airport, on South Church Road.

After the meeting, Stoll said he'd approve of a smaller project if "it was just a sheet of ice," but he worries that the arena's flat-floor convention space will go unused and be a burden on the city.

"We've experienced phenomenal growth here, but you know the state economy is teetering," Stoll said. "I don't know if we can count on the affluence that we've enjoyed in recent years."

Many of Stoll's criticisms are based on the fact that the ballot proposition remains vague. Tuttle countered that by saying that the proposition is vague by design.

"Until the voters say that we can do this, it's going to have to be vague," Tuttle said. "We can't say that this is going to have 4,032 seats or 3,112 seats."

Last year the city got the ball rolling on the project by spending $87,500 for a contractor to create a design concept. With only a conceptual design in hand, Tuttle said project boosters were taking a logical step by asking voters to approve funding. Until someone is hired for architectural design, specifics about the arena have to remain unanswered.

"Until we have somebody with their foot nailed to the floor, we're not going to have any specific numbers -- I don't mean to be flippant, but part of this is a leap of faith," he said.

Tuttle said the arena will be used by people all over the region and could make a difference for someone trying to choose where in Alaska they might live. Tuttle said voters have the advantage of knowing the $14.7 million in construction costs will be paid off with the sales tax, and that the tax has a sunset clause.

"I can understand Steve's frustration," Tuttle said. "I wish I could say that this is going to cost X amount of dollars to run, but I don't have that, and Steve doesn't have that either."