Big Lake incorporation meeting was civil

BIG LAKE — Fears of community organizers here proved unfounded as residents met the idea of creating a new city with trepidation rather than hostility.

“The meeting actually went really well,” said organizer Seth Kelley, who is also president of the Big Lake Community Council. “It was an hour and a half long and we didn’t get any tomatoes or guns pulled on us.”

The meeting in question was June 23 and was not affiliated with the community council. It constituted a first, tentative attempt to gauge Big Lake resident’s feelings on possibly creating a new city in the borough.

The idea of incorporating Big Lake into its own city with a city hall and a mayor like Palmer, Wasilla and Houston isn’t exactly a new idea. Frontiersman accounts from the time show it came to a vote back in 1974 and even passed, though the vote ultimately didn’t stand.

But if Big Lake were to take this project on now, it would be the first time a city has incorporated in the Valley since Wasilla did so in 1974.

Kelley has said previously that the current talk of incorporation is, at heart, an attempt by the community to find its strongest possible voice.

Big Lake is staring down two major construction projects — the access road to Port MacKenzie and to a potential Knik Arm Bridge could bisect the community and the Port MacKenzie Rail Extension is routed through the area. The question for Big Lake area residents is if they would have a greater say in how those projects move forward if they had a mayor and city council to advocate for them.

But talks are in the most preliminary of stages. Last week’s meeting, Kelley said, brought up a number of good ideas for avenues of information to explore.

“One of the things that was suggested was looking at trend data to see overall where the mill rate has gone, what is projected, home sales in our community, how home values have fluctuated, to get a long-term picture,” Kelley said.

Which is a great idea his committee will look at. The committee is also planning to talk to the city of Houston and take a look at how finances there work. As far as Valley cities go, it might be the closest to what a city of Big Lake would look like.

“Maybe. Their budget just seems really slim on the admin side of things and if that’s the same numbers that we can have then we’re looking really good,” he said.

Forming a new city would involve a lot of start-up costs that Houston has already met.

The next big meeting on the topic is scheduled for next month. The state’s Local Boundary Commission will send some people up to talk about what it takes to become a city.

But, before that, this week a number of community groups in Big Lake — the community council and chamber of commerce but also gardening clubs and service groups — will get together for a big meeting.

“We’re going to do a memorandum of agreement for the community,” Kelley said, and adding a goal is also to “really designate who’s in charge of what projects and that kind of stuff.”

Which isn’t the sort of thing Big Lake usually does.

“We’re trying to act like a city, almost,” Kelley said.

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