School site sought

August 6, 2006

By DARRELL L. BREESE

Frontiersman

PALMER - Mat-Su Borough officials hope someone will donate land for a new school. And they mean it this time.

Voters approved a $39-million bond package in May to build two new elementary schools, one in the Knik-Goose Bay area and one in south Palmer. After much debate, and the rejection of 13 acres of land donated by developer Chuck Spinelli, construction of the new Knik school has begun on the campus of Goose Bay Elementary.

Now the borough is making plans for the second school, and is seeking either the donation or exchange of a suitable parcel from Valley property owners.

Two areas have been targeted for the future school, one within two miles of the Trunk Road overpass at the Parks Highway, and the other within two miles of the Inner Springer Loop and South Inner Springer Loop intersection. One site from these two locations will be selected.

&#8220The school district did a population growth study and determined that these would be the best locations,” borough manager John Duffy said.

&#8220I think two sites were selected when there was a hope of building both schools. Now with the bond money to build one, we will select the best suited for the needs of the district.”

Duffy told the borough assembly Tuesday that 2,446 notices were mailed out to property owners near both locations, about 1,000 in the Trunk Road area, about 1,400 in south Palmer.

The notices informed residents that the borough is seeking the purchase, donation or exchange of either 15 acres of unimproved land without public water or sewer, or 10 acres with public water or sewer.

&#8220While the request for proposal says that purchase of the land is authorized, we'd prefer to complete the site acquisition as a donation or land exchange,” Duffy said.

&#8220If we have to purchase the land, it will take away from the bond money approved for the school and cut into what is available for construction.”

Assembly member Mary Kvalheim, who is on the school site selection committee, said this request for land differs from the one Spinelli responded to, which resulted in confusion when final approval was denied.

&#8220Spinelli responded to a request for donated land,” Kvalheim said. &#8220Then when problems arose and he wanted to sell, the borough's hands were tied and we couldn't buy. This time, the request is for purchase, donation or exchange. That should eliminate a lot of the road blocks which prevented us from moving forward with Spinelli's offer.”

The land Spinelli offered also had a soil-water content described as &#8220saturated granule soils” by the public works director, which Kvalheim called quicksand.

To avoid a repeat of the problems with the last request for school property, there are conditions and limitations on land that would be considered.

The property must not be in a flood plain, should be generally flat, and should have access to electricity, telephone and natural gas.

Property offered for the school site should not be on an active earthquake fault line, avalanche zone or erosion area. For the lot to be considered, it should not be narrow, L-shaped or have other restrictive irregular shapes.

Property owners interested in participating in the request should contact the borough purchasing department or review the request at www.matsugov.us/Purchasing/bidlist.cfm. The deadline for submissions is Sept. 4.

Contact Darrell L. Breese at 352-2267 or at darrell.breese@

frontiersman.com.