Ferry, recycling, town sites part of marathon meeting

PALMER — Somewhere among the 1,000-plus pages of work completed last week, the Mat-Su Borough Assembly addressed the creation of new town sites, new equipment for the recycling center and rent payments to house its idle ferry.

Town sites

The idea to create a pair of new town sites was introduced by Borough Mayor Larry DeVilbiss.

The idea is to set aside land in the borough’s portfolio of holdings to be used for downtown commercial centers in places where the borough expects to see growth. One of those areas is along the new rail corridor in Fish Creek, the other is out near the Goose Creek Correctional Center in Point MacKenzie.

“If we’re going to anticipate some denser residential development in that area and we already have a commercial water supply, we have a commercial sewer service and MEA has also upgraded the substation out there, so things are poised to go and when (the Knik Arm) bridge comes in it needs to be ready to go,” DeVilbiss said in his regular podcast of the prison-adjacent town site.

As for Fish Creek, he said that one is further in the future, but no less important.

“It’s time to get it on the map because it lies directly where the Alaska Intertie is looking to come down,” he said. “It’s directly where the bullet line, if that comes through, is looking to come down.”

Their creation passed unanimously.

Recycling center

The money in question is matching funds for a federal grant that would pay for a baler at the recycling center.

Valley Community for Recycling Solutions Executive Director Mollie Boyer said it’s kind of a lynchpin for expanding recycling in the Valley, allowing for six times the amount of material the center can currently handle.

“Together we are turning it around,” she said.

Boyer said that with that capacity the borough could take on new tasks like curbside recycling in Palmer or recycling at borough landfill transfer stations.

The money would amount to $450,000 and the borough would put it in its 2014 budget. In return, the federal Economic Development Administration would pay $550,000.

Ferry

Although the M/V Susitna has never made the run it was intended for between Point MacKenzie and Anchorage, still it has a long and storied history at the assembly table.

The vessel itself was free to the borough, paid for with federal grants.

The current assembly is seeking a way to get rid of it entirely. But before it can be sold, the borough is on the hook to pay to insure it and dock it in Ketchikan.

The resolution Tuesday paid for three months of housing and $17,028 worth of fuel and lube oil for a total of $228,275.48.

The vote to pay that money was a squeaker, with only four of seven assemblymen voting for it. Assemblymen Steve Colligan, Ron Arvin and Jim Colver voted against it.

“I said some time ago that I’m finished spending money on the M/V Susitna,” Arvin said via telephone from China. He said that borough staff needs to do something with it soon. “If it includes cutting it down and melting it down for iron ingots I don’t care, but I’m done spending money on it.”

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