Assembly banters over bonds

PALMER — Road construction bonds will be on the Oct. 4 ballot, but the fate of a five-year borrowing plan for schools won’t be decided until at least Tuesday.

The Mat-Su Borough Assembly was set last week to decide on both, but put off a vote on the school bonds for a week. The proposed $215 million bond package would build five schools in five years while also conducting major renovations at other facilities.

But the assembly did take up the issue of road bonds.

At the start of the meeting, the road projects on the table totaled $32 million. The roads to be upgraded or lengthened were spread across the borough, with projects in every assembly member’s district. But the assembly wasn’t too keen on that number. The projects have to get state approval since moving ahead with them is contingent on receiving matching funds. Assembly members seemed to take to heart the fact that Anchorage has been successful in the past with $25 million packages of road bonds.

“I don’t think we’re going to get this thing to fly at $32 million. I think it will fly at 25,” Assemblyman Mark Ewing said.

The first cuts came from Warren Keogh, who slashed projects in his own district, Chickaloon/Sutton/Butte. The projects he cut would have upgraded state roads. He said he’d heard from people in his district that it didn’t make sense for the borough to fix state-owned roads.

His cuts brought the total cost of projects in his district down from $3.1 million to $1.75 million.

Some around the table worried that perhaps with so few projects in Keogh’s district people there might not vote for it and the whole thing might fail at the ballot box. But Keogh said in his view, the cuts actually made the bond package stronger. People, he reasoned, would be less likely to vote to spend local taxes on state roads.

“I would say that’s a vote-loser,” he said.

He said he hoped the cuts would inspire his colleagues.

“I’m hoping that other assembly members will strike a project or two,” he said.

But Assemblywoman Cindy Bettine argued that big projects like this affect roads that everyone drives on. A better thoroughfare in one district will benefit people in other districts who drive on them even if they don’t live nearby.

“What Mr. Keogh is doing is admirable, but I don’t think we should be looking at it district by district,” Bettine said.

Another cut came in Assemlbyman Ewing’s district of Wasilla and would have spent $2.9 million to extend Hermon Road. Bettine actually proposed the cut, noting that the change had first been proposed when a major shopping center was planned for the area. Now that it looks like that project won’t be happening, she said the road project might not be necessary.

Ewing said he thought the cut was fair, noting that another project slated for his district that would extend Clapp/Mack Road to connect the city’s sports complex to Knik-Goose Bay Road, was the important one.

“I’m willing to give up a little bit,” Ewing said.

When the dust settled, the bonds weighed in at just under $26 million.

But not everyone at the table was happy. Noting how many cuts had been made to Keogh’s district, Mayor Larry DeVilbiss worried the whole bond might die at the ballot box.

“I think we’ve put our whole bond package in jeopardy,” he said.

Assemblyman Ron Arvin sided with DeVilbiss. Arvin had said earlier in the meeting that he didn’t feel the assembly should be hacking away at the bond package when it had been vetted during multiple meetings “up one side and down the other.”

“Mr. Mayor, I couldn’t agree with you more,” he said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.