Museum could move to library building

WASILLA — The old library building will likely become the site of the Dorothy Page Museum, city officials said.

The present museum building is a public hall first constructed in 1931, and turned into a museum in 1967, and officials intend to restore it, said public works director Archie Giddings.

“It’s part of the whole historic townsite concept,” he said. “Our plan is to get that back to the original shape.”

Officials would study the costs of moving the library before making a final determination, but had always planned to move the museum into the library, according to Mayor Bert Cottle.

Plans for a $15-million new public library building are about 90 percent complete, according Giddings. The project could go out to bid by the end of next month. That would put the facility planned for the corner of Crusey and Swanson streets on track to break ground for next year’s construction season, potentially as early as the end of May, Giddings said.

“Essentially, our final design has been locked in for some time,” he said. “The next push is getting it bid-ready.”

In addition to planning, the city has advanced on the funding front as well, Giddings said. Wasilla city officials elected to save up before building the new library, a relatively uncommon move in municipal construction, which typically borrows money for construction projects by issuing bonds beforehand. The bonds, plus interest, are then repaid over the course of several years.

Using a temporary sales tax, city officials have so far accumulated about $5 million, plus a $1.7-million grant from the Legislature from the last session.

In addition, the city received $500,000 in grant money from the Rasmuson Foundation Nov. 24. The Rasumuson award also contains a separate matching portion worth $250,000, meaning that award could potentially be as much as $750,000 altogether.

That means a dollar donated by an individual would effectively be worth two, up to a certain point.

“We’re about to get started on a capital campaign for people that want to contribute,” Giddings said. “That part would match anything that is raised from private donations.”

An additional undetermined amount would be raised from proceeds from a future sale above the cost of the presently city-owned Meta Rose Building on Yenlo Street. The city council recently allocated funds for an appraisal to that end, and officials were still waiting to see what the appraisal turned up, Giddings said.

“We don’t know how much that will provide at this point,” he said. “We’re still looking. We’re close to having a proposal on that side.”

Plans for a new building to replace the present cramped two-story building have been underway for years, with the availability of parking and cramped storage quarters among the top concerns.

Library officials are primarily concerned with the final preparations before the project goes out to bid, said director KJ Martin-Albright. Previous announcements about librarians’ plans for the new building included laptops available to be checked out for public use, 35,000 additional books and a teen reading area. Additional changes could be made in the future, Martin Albright added.

“We’re really focusing on the construction documents,” she said. “We’ll further enhance the service plan after we reach that milestone.”

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269 or brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com