Bond measures to cover library, animal shelter

DARRELL L. BREESE

Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - Over-crowded, inadequate storage and poor customer service space will doom any small business. But those conditions also hurt government services as well.

Those issues were among several given at Tuesday's Mat-Su Borough Assembly meeting to describe the need for a new animal shelter and libraries in the borough.

Assembly members heard the cry for help and voted unanimously, in two separate actions, to ask voters to approve more than $20 million in bonds for construction of a new shelter ($4.66 million) and libraries ($15.653 million) throughout the borough.

The borough is the fastest-developing region in the state, growing 27 percent in the last seven years to its current population of more than 70,000. As more people move in, the borough has struggled to keep up with the growing demands on its library system and the increasing number of neglected pets and wandering livestock.

"I think we're way past the point of calling it a shelter anymore," shelter veterinarian Lisa Espey said of the need for a new facility.

The warehouse-style shelter contains 58 dog kennels and 28 cat cages, which fill up quickly and frequently force the staff to turn away unwanted pets.

The current 7,000-square-foot facility puts space at a premium; animals are often screened, vaccinated or treated on the floor next to someone's desk or in a former lunchroom that fills in as a makeshift clinic.

"We are currently operating in a facility that is one-third the size of the national standard for a community of our size," Keith Roundtree, the borough's director of public works.

In the current building, there are no separate areas for sick animals, so contagious illnesses can - and do - spread. This has twice necessitated euthanization of the entire population of dogs and cats.

"The mission statement of the public works department states that we want to design, construct, manage and maintain the Mat-Su Borough's public buildings in a professional and cost-effective manner designed to exceed customer expectations," Roundtree said. "Currently the animal shelter is falling way short of the standard."

If approved, the $4.66-million bond would be used to construct a new facility incorporating the current building in the design. The plan calls for additional medical space for treatment, an isolation area for all animals, larger kennel and cattery areas and an improved barn area for dealing with livestock and fowl.

The situation is not much better in the borough library system.

Ron Swanson, director of community development, told of cramped quarters at the Sutton, Talkeetna, Trapper Creek, Willow and Big Lake libraries.

The ballot question calls for the issuance of a bond to finance the construction, major renovation and expansion of several facilities.

Talkeetna and Willow will have a new 10,000-square-foot facility built using the design model of the Big Lake Library, for $2.3 million.

Trapper Creek will be able to move out of rented space and into a new $1.6-million joint library-community center facility.

The Big Lake library will receive a 4,000-square-foot expansion costing $800,000.

Nearly half of the $15-million bond will go toward construction of a central library distribution center in the core area. The library would house a central library intake, storage and distribution center.

In describing the need for a new animal shelter, Espey perhaps hit on the core problem for the library system as well.

"People are afraid to come in because it is sad inside," Espey said. "How are we going to successfully serve the community if the people are afraid?"

Contact Darrell Breese at 352-2267 or darrell.breese@frontiersman.com.