Voters asked to green-light district athletic improvements

MAT-SU — Local voters will decide Tuesday whether to approve more than $9 million to be allocated to the renovation of sports facilities at five area high schools. As the Mat-Su Borough general election nears, proponents of Proposition 4 are rallying support.

“I want to see us invest in our kids,” said Jackie Kenshalo, a mother of two and member of the Palmer High School soccer booster club.

That investment, a bond not to exceed $9.025 million dollars, would include:

• A running track at Colony, Houston, Palmer, Susitna Valley and Wasilla high schools.

• Field turf at Colony, Palmer and Wasilla high schools.

• A hockey rink, outside basketball court and warm-up facility at Susitna Valley.

In the past, larger bonds have been proposed that included funds to upgrade local sports facilities. But this year, the requested funds were moved to a separate proposal. Mat-Su School District spokeswoman Catherine Esary said Proposition 4 was designed, in part, to allow voters an opportunity to look at the proposal as an individual need.

“This proposition is only for the sports and athletics fields, and the running tracks,” Esary said Wednesday afternoon.

Esary said a key to the proposal is prior approval by the state to reimburse 70 percent of the cost of the projects. That leaves 30 percent for borough taxpayers. Esary estimates a borough property owner would be taxed an average of $6 per year, if the proposition passes.

According to information provided by the school district, the value of the average home in the borough is just more than $200,000. Esary said property owners would be taxed $3.05 for every $100,000 of assessed property value, if the proposition passes.

Residents from a number of local groups that regularly use these facilities that are often seen as sub-par are voicing their support.

“I think this is extremely important for our kids’ health,” Kenshalo said. “Participation in a healthy lifestyle at quality facilities help them achieve their goals, while (sustaining) fewer injuries.”

Nearly half of the proposed total would fund the addition of field turf, an artificial playing surface, at Colony, Palmer and Wasilla. The turf would replace the existing grass fields, which have become problems according to many users.

Clay Dahl, president of the Colony High School football booster club, said it takes hundreds of hours by volunteers and thousands of donated dollars per year to ensure Colony’s game field has at least a somewhat playable surface.

“It’s just so badly needed,” Dahl said. “It takes a couple hundred volunteer hours a year to mow, arriate, re-seed, re-sod, bring in new soil, everything.”

Dahl said a local landscaper donates his time to help improve the field, charging only for fertilizer and grass seed.

“But we still spend $10,000 to $12,000 a year,” Dahl said. “It could be $25,000 on our one field.”

Artificial surfaces do not require regular maintence, which eliminates those costs.

There are certain areas of the Colony field that are particularly troublesome, Dahl said.

“We re-seed and re-sod, but uneven as it is, through the year it gets worse and worse,” Dahl said. “It doesn’t stand a chance given the Alaska growing season.”

The fields at Palmer and Wasilla are also maintained, for the most part, by volunteers.

The proposed total includes $1.6 million for turf at both Colony and Wasilla. Palmer would receive $1 million for turf. The school already has $500,000 for the turf project, money that was included in the 2008 capital budget.

The bond also includes $788,300 for each of the five schools to install a synthetic running track. Currently, four of those five schools do not have tracks that allow teams to host competitions.

A final $883,500 would be used to construct the hockey rink, outdoor basketball court and warm-up facility at Su Valley High. Esary said those were projects left off the construction of the new Su Valley school.

Kristofer Larson, a local chiropractor who serves as the athletic trainer for the Colony High School football and soccer programs, said, while he may not regularly be in favor of bond proposals, he sees the need of Proposition 4.

“Generally, I’m not a huge fan of bonds. They have to make sense. To me, this one makes perfect sense,” Larson said.

Larson cited a number of reasons for his support, but safety and opportunity are primary factors.

“There’s no perfectly safe sport, but these (turf) fields drain better,” he said. “There are not the changes in surface when it rains. It takes the variable right out of it.”

Larson said safety leads to more opportunity for usage.

“In terms of access, it’s just huge,” Larson said. “The community can safely use it as well.”

The Mat-Su Valley does not have an outdoor turf field, and Palmer High is the only school with more than a concrete running track. There are at least seven facilities with turf in the Anchorage and Eagle River areas.

“We feel like we’re way behind the big city,” Kenshalo said. “We need to catch up to Anchorage and the other larger cities with quality facilities.”

Kenshalo has watched for the past few years as her daughters’ high school soccer seasons have been shortened.

“It’s frustrating,” Kenshalo said. “I think we had two home games. (The players) pay a substantial amount for the sports activity fee, and they do work hard.”

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.