Valley Mover will expand service to Big Lake

WASILLA — Big Lake residents will have one additional connection to the big city starting just after the New Year.

On Jan. 4, 2016, the local Valley Mover bus service will begin transporting commuters to Anchorage’s Downtown Transit center from the East Lake Mall, which is the site of the Big Lake Family Restaurant and the Big Lake Three Bears location. The transit route connection ties one of the fastest-growing areas in the Mat-Su Borough — which recently voted against incorporation as a second-class city — to the Alaska’s largest city.

Prior to this, the nearest Valley Mover stop was at Mile 53 on the Parks Highway in Houston.

The listed departure times for Anchorage-bound bus are 5 a.m. and 5:55 a.m., with scheduled arrival times in Anchorage at 6:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. The return trips start at the Downtown Transit Center at 4:10 p.m. and 5:35 p.m. and drop off at the mall at 5:50 p.m. and 7:10 p.m.

A full Valley Mover schedule is available at the service’s web site at valleymover.org.

The locations and times came about as a result of community outreach, said Jennifer Tew, executive director of the Valley Mover.

“We posted fliers, had an online poll, and went to local businesses in Big Lake to hear what schedule would best suit the community of Big Lake,” she wrote in an a email.

Expanded service also increases connections between Big Lake and Wasilla, where the bus service maintains several stops.

The extension of service to Big Lake was years in the making, said Big Lake Community Council president Carol Kane.

“This has been an ongoing request, was to increase the viability for transportation to and from Big Lake into Anchorage,” she said. “We have so many people out here that commute.”

For now, the extension of service is being partially funded by a $9,028 grant from the community council for one year, and the grant would be pooled with Federal Transit Authority money and United Way Grant Money. The community council money covers the cost between Valley Mover’s bus barn facility and the East Lake Mall. The FTA and United Way grants already help fund service between the Mile 53 bus stop and the Downtown Transit Center.

Increasing population in the area should lead to increasing demand for the bus commuter routes in the future, Kane said.

“As Big Lake continues to grow, it’s going to have an even higher demand,” she said.

Contact reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.