Borough should OK library deal

We like it when people — especially those we have elected to serve — find innovative ways to work together.

The credit for one recent out-of-the-box idea now getting play around the Mat-Su Borough Assembly and School Board tables is a land swap put forward by Wasilla Mayor Verne Rupright and a city steering committee.

We liked the idea a few months ago when the mayor first told us about the plan to acquire four acres at the corner of Crusey Street and Swanson Avenue. The lot would be the site for a new two-story, 24,000-square-foot library and two-acre parking lot to replace the city’s current cramped facility.

Last week, the idea made its first appearance on the agenda for the Mat-Su Borough School Board when members voted to give the four acres to the city to use for a new library.

The idea is that the library would be housed on the first floor and the second floor would be leased to a compatible tenant, such as Charter College.

School board member Sarah Welton said the proposed location would benefit a wide swath of local students, including those at nearby Iditarod Elementary, Mat-Su Central, Burchell High and Wasilla High schools.

Upgrading the Wasilla Library has been on the city’s radar for years. Solutions have been proposed and property purchased. Although those plans were eventually shelved, something still needed to be done to add parking and more space for resources inside the library.

“These are almost box-store numbers you’re looking at,” said Wasilla deputy administrator Bert Cottle of the 97,000 annual visits to the library.

Next, the land swap moves on to the assembly next month, whose members will have final say on whether these four acres change hands or not. Cottle said he hopes the land will be in city hands by Christmas.

If that deal goes forward, the city plans to build a $14 million library, with half that money coming from the state’s library construction matching grant program.

This is in addition to a $5.8 million project to expand the Talkeetna library the assembly approved recently, and a $3.2 million library and community center — Sutton Community Resource Center — set to open there next spring. Both projects received funds from that state grant program.

Friends of the Wasilla Public Library have pushed for an expansion of the library for years. President Jeanne Troshynski said obtaining a parcel of land also is crucial in terms of getting grants from organizations like the Rasmuson Foundation.

Good job Mayor Rupright and the steering committee for coming up with this unique solution for where to house a new library. We hope the assembly will see fit to move this project forward, too.