MSBSD offers land for library

WASILLA — Plans to build a new public library here got a boost last week when the Mat-Su Borough School Board unanimously approved a plan to give four acres near Wasilla Middle School to the city.

The land request heads next to the borough assembly, which has final decision-making authority on the land grant.

Wasilla deputy administrator Bert Cottle said the measure is expected to be on the calendar next month, first for introduction and then for a public hearing.

“We’re hoping it will all be done by Christmas,” Cottle said.

School board supports plan

At its meeting last Wednesday, Mat-Su School Board member Ole Larson said he supports the library, but was concerned granting school land to the city for a non-school use might open the door to other land requests.

“I’m not willing to just give a piece of property to any entity that asks for it … because that land is there for expansion,” Larson said. “My fear is there’s a lot of entities out there that would love to put buildings on school property and for good reasons. I don’t want to open that door.”

Larson ultimately voted to support the measure, however. Several other school board members said they were familiar with the limitations of the crowded city library and wanted the measure to go ahead.

“This would benefit all students, including Mat-Su Central School and Burchell,” Sarah Welton said. “I absolutely believe it’s a good place for it.”

Close to schools, downtown

The acreage, at the corner of Crusey Street and Swanson Avenue, is now a wooded lot near the city’s downtown. A city steering committee selected that site as the best in the city for a new library in part because it’s near the middle and high schools and within walking distance of many other downtown attractions.

City leaders want to build a two-story, 24,000-square-foot library and two-acre parking lot there to replace the overburdened library and tiny parking lot on Main Street.

Cottle said that last year, more than 320 people per day visited the 8,000-square-foot Wasilla Public Library. That’s more than 97,000 visits a year, he said.

“These are almost box-store numbers you’re looking at,” Cottle said. “And we would have more than that if we had more parking and a bigger building.”

New better than retrofit

The existing library has no meeting space and little room for popular library programs like story time or readings and talks by visiting authors. The parking lot, shared with the city museum, is frequently full and difficult to navigate for larger vehicles.

The city and Friends of the Wasilla Public Library group have been pushing for a larger building for several years. In 2009, Wasilla Mayor Verne Rupright secured a deal to purchase the Meta Rose Square shopping mall two blocks from the existing library, with plans to move the library to the shopping mall until the city could afford to build a new building.

The city purchased the shopping mall, but decided not to move the library there after learning that significant retrofitting needed to be done before the building could be used as a library. The measure also lacked public support. Library supporters opposed it, saying the shopping mall was not a good fit and they feared if the library were moved there, they would be unable to muster public support for a new building.

Wasilla City Council decided to keep the shopping mall until the real estate market improves and then consider selling it, using the profits for library construction.

Focus on funding

Cottle said the city plans to build a $14 million library, with half that money coming from the state through its library construction matching grant program.

If the assembly approves the land grant and the state Legislature grants funding, Wasilla would be the third library in the borough to use the relatively new state library construction grant. The Mat-Su Borough Assembly last week gave the green light to a plan to expand the Talkeetna library, a $5.8 million project. The community is seeking half the funding from the state through the matching grant program.

The Sutton Community Resource Center, a $3.2 million library and community center, is set to open next spring. Half the money needed for that project came from the state.

Wasilla city leaders are also considering leasing part of the new building to a well-matched third party — Charter College (www.chartercollege.edu) has expressed interest, Cottle said — to help offset increased operating costs.

Cottle said the lease idea is just being discussed right now. The city is also seeking other funding sources, he said.

Jeanne Troshynski, Friends of the Wasilla Public Library president, said having the land should open the door to more funding. The friends group approached various potential grantors, including the Rasmuson Foundation, but was told they should first obtain the land for the project.

“It’s a huge key to getting the project moving,” Troshynski said. “I feel confident that the assembly is going to work with us on this.”