Point Mac still top prison pick

Dec. 19, 2006

By Michael Rovito

Frontiersman

PALMER - Amid a mix of support and opposition from some Mat-Su Borough residents Monday evening, the borough planning commission unanimously voted to send the Point MacKenzie prison site to the assembly as its preferred site.

As in most meetings where public comment has been taken, residents of the areas where a prison could be built - Point MacKenzie and Sutton - showed either complete support or total opposition for the development.

Just before voting to agree with the site selection committee, members of the planning commission expressed concern about environmental impacts on a designated wildlife area and watershed adjacent to the proposed prison site in Point

MacKenzie.

The same concern was shared by many residents from the Lost Lake area, who said the tranquil area with year-round residences and vacation homes would be destroyed by a prison development.

Officials with various organizations in charge of planning the prison said the environmental issues would be looked at more closely in the near future.

And, even as the Point MacKenzie Community Council adamantly opposed the prison during a Nov. 25 meeting, Michael Janecek, vice chairman of the Point MacKenzie Port Commission, said Monday that his group supports the site.

Perhaps the most candid look inside the thought processes of the Department of Corrections came when Rep. Carl Gatto, R-Palmer, took the stand and said he was speaking as an individual, not representing the legislature.

Gatto described a meeting he had with newly appointed DOC commissioner Joe Schmidt, who Gatto said envisions a modular prison as oppose to one large building.

According to Gatto, that would mean a central building would be used to house maximum security prisoners, or what Gatto called “hardcore, heavy-duty” prisoners, and modular buildings surrounding the center building would be built as needed.

Gatto also touted the benefits of nearby farms as possible work locations for inmates who are permitted outside the prison walls.

“Farms aided by the prison, the prison aided by farms,” Gatto said.

Nearly all the residents who live near the proposed Point MacKenzie site own large acreage farms.

Plans for a modular prison have not been publicly released by the DOC, and it is unclear whether that design would end up taking shape when construction begins next summer.

The farmers Gatto mentioned also turned out Monday evening, largely supporting a prison in their area and praising the amenities it could bring their way. Along with the supportive farmers, however, were other property owners in the Point MacKenzie area who said they only recently were informed by the borough that a prison could be built near them.

Borough Planning and Land Use Director Murph O'Brien said he is looking into why some residents within the radius where notification was sent had not received it

promptly.

As public testimony neared its completion, former assembly member, and current school board member, Jim Colver, told the planning commission he is unhappy with some assessments by prison officials.

“I'm disappointed we don't have more of a professional site selection process,” Colver said.

He also said that, while serving on the assembly, he made it clear that he thinks the Point MacKenzie site is a bail out for the ferry.

The borough assembly now is charged with deciding where the prison will be located.

The assembly's Jan. 16 meeting will be open to the public, and, as at all regular assembly meetings, public testimony will be heard.

Contact Michael Rovito at 352-2252 or michael.rovito@

frontiersman.com.