Part II: Frontiersman 2014 year in review

MAT-SU — At the start of each new year, the Frontiersman looks back at the big events that shaped our community during the past 12 months.

Here’s the second half of that list:

Veterans’ Health Care

The story of the Veterans Health Administration, of long lines and secret waiting lists at clinics in the Lower 48 prompted a system-wide review of the way we pay for health care for our veterans. While most of the problems identified were in clinics elsewhere, the Wasilla clinic on Seward Meridian got a surprising side note role when, in June, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski called for an investigation specifically into chronic staffing problems there. The VA has struggled to find a permanent doctor for the facility. Vets have meanwhile been referred to the Benteh Nuutah clinic.

Septage

If collective problems are comparable to diseases, what the Valley does with its septic waste has, for years, been essentially a low-grade fever — worrisome but not bad enough to address. But, in 2014, that fever ratcheted up a few degrees after the Municipality of Anchorage told the Mat-Su Borough it will stop accepting shipments of leachate from the borough’s landfill.

The move worries many who think it might be prelude to cutting off Valley septic pumpers, too. Anchorage operates under a permit allowing it to dump minimally treated effluent into Cook Inlet, a permit whose requirements seem likely to tighten. As a remedy, the borough has an ongoing study to decide the best location for a regional septic treatment plant. The committee examining the problem has narrowed the list down to two.

Fred Meyer and Carrs

Years ago, when Carrs in Palmer vacated its corner of the intersection of the Palmer-Wasilla and Glenn highways in order to move across the street and occupy another corner of that intersection, there was a lot of speculation about what would happen to the Pioneer Square Mall that Carrs once anchored.

This year, the Valley got its answer: Fred Meyer would build a new Wasilla-sized store there to replace its diminutive Palmer store. And thus continued what appears to be a game of big box store musical chairs around that intersection. The mall came down in November. Fred Meyer plans to put its store up next year. What will become of its current store on a third corner of that intersection remains unclear.

A meeting to discuss plans with the community is from 5 to 7 p.m., Jan. 14, 2015, at Palmer Senior Citizens Center, 1132 South Chugach St.

Responders

Right at the end of 2013 the Mat-Su Borough announced it would cap the hours worked by paid, on-call emergency responders to 30 per week. The story of 2014 was the fallout of that decision, precipitated by a state audit that held responders who work more than 30 hours had to be offered state retirement benefits — an expense the borough said it could not afford. At public meetings, medics testified of long hours worked picking up the slack.

Meanwhile, as it debated its budget in April, the Mat-Su Borough Assembly added more than a dozen positions for medics and firefighters. The story seems to be that of the steady professionalization of the borough’s emergency services. But the fallout from the audit will continue next year as a group of responders have filed a class action lawsuit seeking back retirement pay.

Wasilla library

Wasilla’s cramped library building and miniscule parking lot moved ever closer this year to becoming a thing of the past. Wasilla has a plan to pay for the library — saving up money through sales taxes — and a place to put it — the corner of Crusey Street and Swanson Avenue — and has even completed the design work.

Wasilla ATVS

The city was roiled for most of the summer debating a proposed ban on the use of all-terrain vehicles in city limits. Industry groups — from companies that rent ATVs to companies that sell them — and concerned citizens — folks worried about the city losing part of its character — battled against city administrators like the recently departed mayor Verne Rupright and people living next to highly traveled and abused ATV corridors who were fed up with noise, property damage and unsafe riders. The situation has reached something of a stalemate as the new year begins. The city has agreed to set up a task force to study the issue and plans to start the discussion anew Jan. 5.

Palmer manager

The position of city manager changes hands in Palmer infrequently, so the arrival of Joseph Hannan to the city this spring was an occasion worth noting. Hannan took the reigns of the city after having worked in administrative positions in California, Oregon and Washington.

Fire department improvements

Two Valley fire departments passed huge milestones with the Insurance Services Organization’s rankings this year. ISO rankings are used to calculate homeowners’ insurance rates and are a handy way of measuring a fire department’s effectiveness. In January, the Houston Fire Department announced its improvement from 8b — pretty typical for rural departments — to a 5. The change means hundreds of dollars in savings for homeowners. Then, in early December, the neighboring West Lakes Fire Department improved its rating from a 5 to a 4, putting it in the company of the Valley’s largest and best-funded department, the Central Mat-Su Fire Department, which also rates a 4.

Seavey wins

Dallas Seavey wasn’t born and raised in Mat-Su but he decided to further his career as a professional musher by starting a kennel in Willow and the Valley has embraced him as one of its own. Not that it was hard to embrace the musher, especially after he won the Iditarod in 2012 shortly after arriving in Willow, then followed that up with a second win this year. At the end of the race in March, Seavey famously had no idea when he pulled into Nome that he was in the lead. Two mushers ahead of him were caught in a snowstorm. One of them — Jeff King — actually scratched. The other, Aily Zirkle, took second place. Seavey’s win was his second in three years. The musher that won in the year between was his father, Mitch Seavey, who also finished the Iditarod on third this year.

Don Young controversy

Alaska’s lone U.S. Congressman, who has represented the state since the Nixon Administration and who has never been a stranger to controversy, had his most controversial moment of the year in Wasilla in October. Students and the principal of Wasilla High School called Don Young out for what they described as insensitive comments he made about suicide at a school assembly. Young later apologized via press release and made conciliatory remarks at this year’s Alaska Federation of Natives convention.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.