Nugen's Ranch $870,355 grant from Mat-Su Health Foundation

PALMER — For the Nugen's Ranch substance abuse treatment farm, the money awarded this week from the Mat-Su Health Foundation was a godsend.

“We were in the middle of building and thinking we were going to have to stop,” said the ranch's executive director, Karen Nugen-Logan.

Now, with $870,355 from the foundation, the ranch has what it needs to relocate. The ranch needs to move, both to make room for the expansion of Seward-Meridian Parkway and to allow itself room to grow. The current facility at the corner of Seward-Meridian and the Palmer-Wasilla Highway offers little in the way of expansion opportunities. The new Nugen's Ranch will be in Point MacKenzie.

The grant announced Thursday wasn't the first time the foundation has stepped up to help. According to a MSHF press release issued Thursday, the foundation awarded the ranch $1 million last year. Nugen-Logan said she was also able to secure $500,000 from The Rasmussen Foundation.

The money will build the main facility, which will house one more client than the current facility, Nugen-Logan said. And as far as that building goes she has what she needs. But she's still looking for funding to build a pole barn to store hay and a greenhouse to grow vegetables. She's applied for a block grant for at least the greenhouse from the Mat-Su Borough.