Fate of veterans memorial remains undecided

WASILLA — The Mat-Su Borough Assembly on Tuesday approved the sale of land presently housing the Mat-Su Valley Convention and Visitor’s Bureau to Eagle-Idaho-based Spring Creek Enterprises, LLC. Doug Clegg, the company’s owner, told the assembly he would construct a transitional care facility designed to accommodate elderly patients too sick to go home, but well enough not to take up a hospital bed. The facility he plans to build will provide the equivalent of about 25 jobs, be 14,000 square feet, and have about 60 beds for patients. Statistics show the Mat-Su Valley is the second-fastest-aging area in the United States, Clegg said.

The visitors’ bureau property also houses an adjacent Memorial Wall of Honor, inscribed with the names of veterans, and the suggestion that construction could force the site’s reconfiguration or relocation sparked debate at a Wasilla City Council meeting when the council voted to approve a lease as one option for the site’s relocation. Local veterans appeared divided over whether the site could or should move, and city officials said they were honored even to be considered. Several veterans at that meeting testified they supported the decision.

Clegg testified he wanted to honor the monument.

“The memorial is sacred,” he said. “It is in alignment with our vision for this site. We have no intention of desecrating, demolishing or diminishing its current condition.”

Assembly members also supported an amendment by newly appointed Deputy Mayor Matthew Beck to require the wall to stay at that site, though that move was not without critics, like Wasilla Mayor Bert Cottle.

“I’ve got family and friends on that wall, and I hope you reconsider what you did earlier,” he said. “I think what’s happened is: trying to do the right thing maybe went too far.”

That amendment essentially tied the hands of both property owners and the Schwulst family.

“They have no alternative to go somewhere else,” he said.

Hazel Schwulst — who along with husband John will make the sole determination about the wall’s fate — told the assembly they would wait to see proposals from Spring Creek before making a decision.

“Very graciously, the soon-to-be new owners of the wall have told us they will put a design to try to keep the wall there,” she said. “We were told that we will be shown the design before.”

“Our wall is very very much to all of us,” she said. “I do appreciate, but we will see if Mr. Clegg will give us a decent place for it, and then we will decide.”

Others said the decision was simply commerce over honor. Betty Brickel submitted six family names for the wall, and said she found out about the possible relocation only moments before the assembly meeting.

“I’m totally disgusted,” she said. “It’s money, money, money.”