Borough solidifies its state wish list

PALMER — The Mat-Su Borough Assembly has approved its wish list for state funding for the upcoming legislative season.

The list includes a lot of holdovers from last year, including:

• $31 million to finally extend Bogard Road.

• $22 million for the project to build a visitor’s center on the south side of Denali National Park.

• $1 million for a natural science center at the Palmer Hayflats.

New to the list for local lawmakers is:

• $32.2 million to match funds for the package of road bonds borough voters approved this year.

• $2 million to build a fire station in the borough’s newest fire service area of Caswell, which is between Willow and Talkeetna.

• $60 million to continue the project to extend railroad tracks to Port MacKenzie. The project has made numerous borough wish lists, but not this particular phase of it.

Other items on the list aren’t really funding requests so much as requests that the state embark on certain projects. In that category is a slate of roads the borough would like to see the state either continue or start, such as the Trunk Road reconstruction, rehabilitation of the Glenn Highway from Mile 66.5 to Mile 80 and improving Seward Meridian Parkway.

An interesting item in that category — the borough supports efforts to have the state set up a reserve fund. The request is for a $150 million account to pay for shortfalls on the Knik Arm Bridge project between developers’ costs and toll revenue.

“The assembly supports the Knik Arm Bridge Project and encourages the state to fund the bridge project reserve account so the project becomes economically viable,” according to the borough’s list.

Other items include:

• $2.5 million to build a new visitor’s center.

• $4 million to build the second phase of the ferry dock at Port MacKenzie. The ferry is built, but there’s no place to land it either here or in Anchorage, the other side of what was planned to be its main run. The borough says it has facilities sufficient to offload passengers, but not to offload vehicles.

• $6 million to upgrade substandard roads and bridges in the borough.

The assembly passed the list without changing it much last week although some members tried to change the list. Assemblyman Warren Keogh asked his colleagues to consider putting the road bonds at the very top of the list, above even the much-anticipated rail spur. Assemblyman Jim Colver backed Keogh up.

“The Legislature, the governor’s office is on board with the rail,” he said, so knocking it down one notch wouldn’t jeopardize the request, and some projects in the bond package have already been designed.

“We get legislative funding we’re going to be able to turn these into jobs and they’re going to have the quickest economic impact of anything on this list,” he said.

But Keogh’s idea of messing with the order of the list, or even putting numbers on it, didn’t find a lot of takers around the table.

“Cosmetic changes are just cosmetic changes — they don’t really matter,” said Assemblyman Steve Colligan.

Later, he added that the problem with lists in the past was that they were too long.

Borough Manager John Moosey said that he’d floated the idea with the state of just getting the rail spur project out of the way this year. The $60 million is one of multiple installments after which the project will need $120 million more before it’s complete. His idea was to convince the state to borrow that money through bonds.

“As far as the bonding, it’s getting very little traction. In fact, no traction at this point,” he said. “There’s no excitement about the state going into debt on capital projects at this point in time.”

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