Point Mac welcomes prison

December 8, 2006

By Michael Rovito

Frontiersman

POINT MACKENZIE - Residents in Point MacKenzie have picked up where their Houston counterparts left off, vying for a medium security state prison to be built in their area.

Since the proposed Houston site was removed from a list of four possible locations, Point MacKenzie now is the only pro-prison area in the Mat-Su borough. Residents of Palmer and Sutton - the other two locations on the prison short list - have shown consistent opposition to the prison.

Craig and Vicki Trytten, dairy farmers from Point MacKenzie, said years of paying taxes and having what they call virtually nothing to show for it prompted them to start a petition to show the borough how much their area wants the development.

&#8220We're all for all of it,” Craig Trytten said Wednesday. &#8220Our biggest fear is, if we don't have an anchor industry out here, there won't be a ferry or a bridge.”

That ferry, scheduled to begin running in summer of 2008, would benefit from the amount of riders a prison could provide, borough manager John Duffy said.

&#8220It would have a very positive impact on the vessel, because we could have an additional source of revenue for people coming across,” Duffy said.

He added that ferry schedules could be made to fit the prison's needs, and the 15-minute ride between the port and Anchorage would be convenient for prisoner transfers, commuters, and the men and women who would staff the prison.

&#8220It would actually benefit and diversify the ridership,” Duffy said, citing the workers who could be transported during the prison's construction.

Rep. Mark Neuman, R-Big Lake, whose district encompasses the Point MacKenzie area, said he is all for that area as the eventual prison site.

&#8220All economic development is a good thing,” Neuman said. &#8220And getting it into communities that want it is a good thing.”

Sharing Neuman's enthusiasm, the Tryttens talked at length about the economic possibilities a prison could yield.

&#8220It would benefit the individual landowners and it would benefit the borough,” Vicki Trytten said.

The Tryttens' claim comes just before a list ranking the prison sites is to be released today. That list, according to Ron Swanson, borough director of community development, will rank sites based on technical engineering criteria and risk factors. It will not be used to determined which site ultimately will become the prison's home, Swanson said, adding that only the assembly can make that decision.

Word from Point MacKenzie residents that they support a prison in their area made it in just before the deadline ending public comment, Swanson said. That puts the petition, and the fact that Point MacKenzie is prison-friendly, in a position to be considered in the lead-up to January's scheduled assembly decision.

Naming reasons they and their neighbors want a prison at Point MacKenzie, the Tryttens seem to have the same mindset as Houston residents before that site was axed.

Infrastructure such as fire service, police and other amenities readily available in the core area enticed Point MacKenzie residents to look toward the possibilities prison development could bring.

&#8220We have a million dollars' worth of buildings here,” Trytten said. &#8220We have to watch them burn if they catch on fire.”

Fire service would be taken care of if the prison were built in Point MacKenzie, said Dennis Brodigan, borough director of emergency services. But residents would have to become part of the service area and pay taxes for fire protection.

Currently, only a small fire brigade is available to protect the port from fires until backup can arrive.

More important to the Tryttens and their neighbors is the up to 600 full-time jobs once the prison is operable - and up to 1,800 temporary jobs during the prison's construction. Vicki Trytten said she and other residents in Point MacKenzie would have the chance to achieve gainful employment, complete with benefits.

&#8220Why isn't it someone else's turn to make a living?” Trytten said.

Contact Michael Rovito at 352-2252 or michael.rovito@

frontiersman.com.