Salvation Army drafts plan for new Valley ‘Community Center’

WASILLA — It doesn’t look like much now, just a slice of dirt covered by a new-fallen coat of ice and snow. But someday this lot at the corner of Lakeview Avenue and Seldon Road will be home to a new Salvation Army Community Center for the Mat-Su Valley Corps.

Capt. Mark and Lt. Lisa Davey lead the Mat-Su Valley Corps out of a compact building in downtown Palmer that has been the group’s location since 1996. Cpt. Davey said that about six years ago, the nonprofit began looking at a new building that would allow it to expand its programs and could be located more centrally to the Valley’s growing population.

He said a $500,000 grant from the Mat-Su Health Foundation in 2011 covered the cost of land development and paid for architectural drawings for an upgraded Salvation Army Community Center.

“Our biggest emphasis is that this building project is going to enable us to be more effective in ‘doing the most good,’ as The Salvation Army promises,” Capt. Davey said.

He said the next step is a feasibility study to help determine what services can and should be offered and what needs could be meet. That would be followed by a capital campaign to finance construction.

“We are planning to finalize our building plan and architectural designs in January or February of 2014,” Capt. Davey said. “It is our hope to kick off our fundraising campaign in May of 2014.”

The site is part of nearly 160 acres of land the Salvation Army has purchased around King’s Lake since homesteader Clyde King gifted 10 acres to the group for an outdoor youth recreational center, which ultimately became King’s Lake Recreational Camp.

“We are shifting our location so we can change some of the services we provide,” Capt. Davey said.

He said the Palmer parcel isn’t large enough to house the building planned, so they began looking at relocating near the camp to a more centralized location.

“We already owned the property in an area that is growing,” he said. “It is also a big enough piece of property that should the need for further projects or additions to the building come up, we have plenty of room to make changes.”

Some folks may not recall that the Salvation Army’s first church in the Valley was the dome structure built in 1984 along the Palmer-Wasilla Highway, near where the AT&T Sports Center is now. When the group outgrew that space, in 1996 the Palmer Elks were selling their building in downtown Palmer to move to the former Barry’s Resort on Bogard Road.

“We’ve been using it ever since,” Capt. Davey said.

Contact Heather A. Resz at 352-2268 or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.