Groundbreaking Tuesday for new Wasilla Public Library

WASILLA — A milestone more than 20 years in the making will take place this week as city officials and members of the public break ground for a new Wasilla Public Library.

The Wasilla Library has been in existence for almost 80 years, since the Wasilla Library Association opened a facility with 91 books in 1938. The library has been at its current location on Main Street since 1978. It’s grown to see more than 80,000 annual visitors the library, about 80 percent of visitors live outside the city.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the new library is at 2:30 p.m., March 31 at the corner of Crusey Street and Swanson Avenue in downtown Wasilla. The current Wasilla library will be closed from 1:30 to 4 p.m. for the ceremony.

Wasilla Mayor Bert Cottle said sales taxes being collected now will help fund the construction of the new library, and the dirt shoveled at the ceremony “will lead to tomorrow’s future.”

A paved trail will connect the nearby Wasilla Middle School to the new library, fostering a relationship between the facilities, he said.

Friends of the Wasilla Public Library President Jeanne Troshynski said she hopes the new library will be a community center for people to “come together to learn and celebrate the joy of learning.”

“Through the sales tax, capital campaign and generous donations, this library will truly belong to both the residents of Wasilla and the residents of the Mat-Su Borough who shop here,” Troshynski said.

In October 2013, Wasilla voters passed a 1 cent sales tax increase to run through Dec. 31, 2016, or until $15 million is available for the library through a combination of sales tax collections and other funding sources.

To date, more than $6.5 million of the total $15 million project cost has been collected. Almost $200 million is coming from the state of Alaska; the Rasmuson Foundation is contributing $500,000 outright and $250,000 through their Challenge Grant; in-kind donations amounting to $55,000 are coming from the Foraker Group; and the Friends of the Wasilla Public Library is contributing $50,000.

The new library will be a one-level building about three times the size of the current library with more than 80 parking spaces. Patrons will have access to multi-purpose rooms, study rooms, a teen area, a children’s library with a designated story-time space, a fireplace, a business center, an outdoor amphitheater, and more than 40 public use computers.

ECI/Hyer Inc. designed the facility and Cornerstone General Contractors will be responsible for construction. Completion of the building is expected next summer.