KABATA board meets in Wasilla

WASILLA — The Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority is more than halfway through the $100 million federal appropriation to the project.

According to numbers discussed at a board meeting at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center in Wasilla Thursday, $60 million has been spent or is obligated to various contracts, $40 million remains.

KABATA Executive Director Andrew Niemiec said he expects the $15 million set aside to buy land will be enough to get everything the bridge needs.

When the state Legislature convenes, board chair Mike Foster said KABATA will ask for its personnel budget to come out of state general funds. He said the project has matured to the point where that makes more sense, especially considering the hoops everyone has to jump through to get anything approved currently with the money coming from that appropriation.

“Right now, if we want to go do something we have to go to federal highways,” Foster said.

KABATA’s request is for a $1.834 million budget item to cover those personnel costs. Niemiec emphasized that that’s an initial request and will fund 10 positions. The number will almost certainly change as the state moves through its budgeting process, he said.

Foster also took a moment at the meeting to try and clarify for the board how KABATA’s population projections for the Valley match up with the state’s.

KABATA’s numbers show 190,000 people living here by 2035. The state’s most recent projections show either 150,000 from the Department of Labor or 170,000 the Institute of Social and Economic Research.

But those state numbers, Foster said, are based on projections of the 2010 population of the Valley, not the actual numbers generated in the 2010 census. He said KABATA used the actual U.S. Census numbers, used the state’s growth factors, and came up with a number very close to its own.

“The difference between our numbers and ISER’s numbers is 100 people,” Foster said.

Foster also took some time to again state why the bridge makes sense. He noted that it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade the Glenn Highway to handle that kind of growth. The bridge will also cost hundreds of millions, but will be financed privately and paid off with tolls.

And while that growth refers to Valley-wide growth, possibly in areas that the bridge will not benefit, Foster said a bridge will consolidate that growth in the Point MacKenzie area.

The board, at least, seemed to be in agreement. Mark Neuman, a board member and state House representative for the area where the bridge will land, said he’s confident in KABATA’s numbers and that it makes sense to build the bridge.

Mike Rovito, an aide to Sen. Linda Menard, who is another board member, said his boss’ top priority when the Legislature convenes is to pass a bill to set aside $150 million in state money to cover possible shortfalls between toll revenue and bridge costs.

“That’s goal No. 1 for Sen. Menard. That’s her top-priority bill,” he said.

Neuman and Menard are holding a project update open house at the Legislative Information Office in Wasilla on Tuesday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.