Valley a good place for crime lab

With the economy waning and oil prices lower than in the recent past, legislators recently balked at spending about $100 million to build a new state crime lab. That’s understandable, but the reality is this: Crime isn’t going away.

The fact that the state is building a massive prison at Point MacKenzie is proof enough. And the fact that the state has so many prisoners now, it doesn’t have room for them is further proof. Red Rock, Ariz., is the mailing address for many Alaskans.

Building the lab seems to make sense, but as lawmakers decided, it might not be prudent.

What if part of the cost of the lab could be eliminated? The land, for example.

Not long ago Palmer City Manager Bill Allen was touting Palmer as a good site for the new lab. Eventually he seemed to be convinced the politicians wouldn’t build it any other place.

Allen should take note that the lab didn’t get funded for financial reasons. Allen, Mayor Rupright in Wasilla and the Mat-Su Borough Assembly and manager should get their heads together and make the state an offer it can’t refuse.

Give the state the land to build the lab on. What’s a few acres compared to the jobs the lab would create? And those jobs aren’t burger joint jobs. They are high paying jobs held by professionals who would be attributes to this community. The kind of jobs that cause Valley residents to drive to Anchorage every working day.

The borough can’t give the state a tax break because the state generally doesn’t pay property taxes on its buildings. But there are inducements the borough and the cities could offer. Breaks on utilities come to mind.

Another idea comes to mind. While we’re giving away land, add a few more acres to build a new state trooper post. Anybody who’s had occasion to visit trooper  headquarters in Palmer can plainly see that building has had its heyday. A crime-fighting campus with the lab and the troopers in one spot would serve the public well.

While people say Anchorage has more crime keep in mind two things.

First, B Detachment is one of the busiest, if not the busiest, trooper outpost in the state.

Secondly, this is a state crime lab, not an Anchorage crime lab. Investigators in Fairbanks or Juneau or Nome don’t care where the DNA evidence or spent shell casings go. Once the evidence is on a plane it can land in Palmer just as easily as Anchorage.

And lastly, there’s this: The future of Southcentral Alaska isn’t in Anchorage. It’s here. There’s no denying that.