2016: A look back at the stories that shaped the year in the Mat-Su Valley

Six months ago tomorrow I arrived in Wasilla, fresh off the Al-Can and a sucker for the first motel with vacancies I might run into.

That cash-only outfit wedged between the Mugshot and Tailgaters won the lottery that night, and I can honestly say, things have only gotten better since then.

Also a sucker for superlatives and countdowns I dig looking back on the year that was in that fashion. Having only been here since July 2, this countdown will be comprised entirely of events in the Mat-Su Valley that happened in the second half of 2016.

I’m sure some things happened in the first half of the year. The Iditarod happened. Some other things happened, I’m told, but it doesn’t sound like anything that could challenge this definitive list of THE 5 BIGGEST STORIES OF 2016! judged not just by their importance in the moment, but by the ramifications they’ll continue to have as we move into 2017.

Without further ado, here we go…

#5 – Mat-Su Borough shoots down

anti-pot prop, passes pot tax

Since Alaska legalized marijuana in 2014, the hard work of how to commercialize and monetize it has been strained and arduous.

Nowhere have the speed bumps to full commercialization been more self-imposed than the Mat-Su Borough, where main cities Wasilla and Palmer shot out of the gates to pass their own commercial marijuana prohibitions.

These modern day ‘teatotalers’ decided to take prohibition throughout the borough, only to see it shot down by a wide margin in the Oct. 4 election.

Ironically, Wasilla and Palmer precincts managed to shoot down prohibition by the same two-thirds majority the borough as a whole did, which is kind of a head-scratcher.

The first commercial pot shop has yet to open in the valley, however, and the future of this endeavor — and how much tax money weed brings into the borough, whose voters also approved a 5 percent tax on it — remains ambiguous.

#4 — The mighty Matanuska

For decades, the Matanuska River has carved and curlicued its way through the Valley, often threatening the eroding land around Butte along the Old Glenn Highway.

But with depleted resources for dam-building and melting glaciers contributing to the onrush, August of 2016 put the scores of residents in immediate harm’s way out of their homes, wondering if they’d see them again.

The governor granted the borough assembly’s call for a state of emergency, and state workers quickly erected riprap. The river ultimately relented, giving relief from the immediate crisis, but there remains no long-term solution.

The borough’s long-term solution, spearheaded by District 1 representative Jim Sykes, was to have the EPA buy out the handful of people who live most directly in the river’s path when it decides to change direction again.

Once again, the EPA denied that request, making it all the more likely that this story will again be on this list at the end of 2017.

#3 — The PFD and the unfillable

budget hole

Steadily falling oil prices left Alaska’s once envied state economy in a disaster in 2016, and at the end of June, Gov. Bill Walker decided to get everyone’s attention by slashing the sacred PFD in half.

That was just the most controversial and unpopular part of the maverick governor’s $2.7 billion vetoes, that left the Mat-Su Borough staring down a $5.7 million budget deficit.

It turned out the Borough had been responsible enough with its money during high tide that the much of that hole was filled by its savings account, but the sting — as personal and symbolically emotional as it was economic and constitutionally questionable — of the PFD cut really hit home.

State legislators went into special session in Juneau but came out without an alternative to Walker’s plan, which later withstood a court challenge from Anchorage Democratic Senator Bill Wielechowski, and this month will see if it can handle a legislative one from Wasilla Republican Mike Dunleavy when the new legislature convenes.

Walker gave the incoming legislature plenty to chew on last month, releasing a budget that continues to call for cutting the PFD and may force legislators’ hands to enact a sales and/or income tax.

#2 — Shrinking cabbage,

giant pumpkins

The 90th Alaska State Fair made Palmer the place to be through late August and early September with crowds nearing past records for attendance.

Being the ‘Giant Cabbage Capitol of the World’ Palmer’s signature mark on the fair is the cabbage contest near the fair’s end.

As has been the trend in recent years, winning Alaska cabbages have been shrinking, leaving the 2016 winners circle more leafy than bulbous to the clear disappointment of the veteran competitors.

Wasilla’s Steven Hubacek won for the second straight year with his 83.4-pound cabbage, well off his world record mark of 127 pounds set in 2009.

“It’s disappointing; I thought it’d be well over 100,” Hubacek said after his title defense. “It’s too much rain. The heat’s good; the rain’s bad, and when I got underneath them this morning, they weren’t developed like they should have been.”

But on the pumpkin end of things, the story was entirely different as Dale Marshall of Anchorage rolled up a state-record 1,469-pound gourd onto the scales.

Severe drought in California and parts of the Heartland, not to mention Alaska’s unsustainable dependence on getting food from cargo boats from Seattle make agriculture especially important to watch as we head into 2017.

#1 — David Grunwald

murder and fallout

The story, on its own, is shocking and discomforting enough, but the effect the murder of Palmer teen David Grunwald will have on the borough and the state in 2017 still can’t be calculated.

Five young men stand accused in this most reprehensible and seemingly motiveless murder that’s exposed a ton of truths about public safety that, for a long time, were easier to avoid and overlook.

The cold-blooded callousness of the killing and the youth of the accused forced us all to finally roll over a rock that had been sitting in place for a long time.

What did you think would be living under it?

Now, a borough with no police force that relies almost entirely on a stretched-thin Alaska State Trooper force, limited prison space, State Bill 91, which is designed to imprison even fewer criminals, Anchorage coming off its bloodiest year ever, and no easily gotten funds at the state’s disposal to do anything about any of it, public safety has to be issue and crisis No. 1 heading into 2017.

Well, there you have it.

What did I leave out, and what stories do you think will top the list this time next year?