Assembly squashes talk of borough split

PALMER — The old idea of splitting the Mat-Su Borough in two made a surprise appearance at Tuesday’s assembly meeting where it was quickly shot down.

The idea came in the form of an ordinance from Mat-Su Borough Assemblyman Darcie Salmon that would have put an advisory vote on the October ballot asking residents to weight in on the idea.

The vote would not have been legally binding and it was only on the assembly’s agenda for introduction Tuesday.

Still, that was too far for the assembly.

“I think that kind of surprised a lot of the assembly and they didn’t want that taking up a lot of time at the next assembly meeting so it was unanimously voted down,” Mat-Su Borough Mayor Larry DeVilbiss said in his regular podcast.

Assemblyman Ron Arvin was the member who successfully had it killed. He called the idea “a little bit out there” and said that he’d rather see more discussion amongst the assembly before seeking an advisory vote.

“It just seems a little, I’m grappling for the right word without being offensive, it seems a little over the top to split the borough into two different boroughs,” Arvin said.

The plan voters would have been asked to weigh in on was relatively vague. It included drawing a north-south line between Palmer and Wasilla that would create an eastern borough and a western borough.

“Some believe that the Matanuska-Susitna Borough is too big and that there are social and economic differences which justify the concept of splitting the borough into two separate boroughs,” reads a memo explaining the ordinance included in Tuesday’s assembly packet. “The new boroughs would encompass smaller areas and allow those areas to progress and develop with more local control and influence over the local matters.”

The idea surfaced in 2009 when then-Houston-mayor Roger Purcell threatened to break the northern borough off from the rest of Mat-Su. In 2011 a proposal to split the borough into three pieces — a Palmer borough, a Wasilla borough and a Talkeetna borough — was briefly discussed publicly but never gained traction.

Most people who propose such things point out that outlying areas tend to get less in the way of borough services but also tend to pay higher taxes for things like fire and road service.

As for Salmon, the man who proposed the split this time, he was out of town attending a community development meeting Tuesday.

“That is one of the perils of not being present to argue your legislation,” DeVilbiss said in his Mayor’s Minute podcast.

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