Wasilla residents want new library that's 'Alaskan' and not 'institutional'

WASILLA — Residents favor dual access points to a new Wasilla Public Library that incorporates the area’s natural beauty.

Those were two of the most significant observations made by about 15 local residents during an informal workshop Wednesday evening with the architects designing the $16 million project. Although a city ballot question that will decide funding for the long-anticipated project is less than two weeks out, the city is moving ahead with the process to stay on track to open the new library open by early 2016, said Brian Meissner, an architect with Anchorage-based ECI/Hyer.

“This is big-picture stuff,” he said. “We met with several people (Monday) who were involved with the space needs group. This morning we met with staff, then we met with city planning. The idea is we come back in a couple weeks with some initial thoughts.”

For now, designers specifically need to know what the community feels about how the new 23,500-square-foot library will be situated on its site at the intersection of Crusey Street and Swanson Avenue. A decision about access — should the facility be accessed off Swanson, Crusey or both — is also important to move forward with the design, he said.

How the library will relate to downtown, the nearby Wasilla Middle and Wasilla High schools and how to make it available for community use are all things that are affected by how the building sits on the lot, Meissner said.

For example, he said locating the building directly on the street at the intersection fits more in line with the city’s long-term comprehensive plan, but those gathered Wednesday mostly preferred an option that located the building a little bit off the street to preserve some of the natural area there.

“I like the idea of the library in the woods,” said Rosemary Vavrin. “That’s more Alaskan.”

“I like that for another reason,” added Robert Culbertson. “I think we have a reputation in Wasilla for being a collection of strip-malls. Something like this facility there that (has natural surroundings) is nice.”

The ECI/Hyer team also brought large maps of the land, a parcel valued at about $1.3 million donated by the Mat-Su Borough, along with cutouts of colored construction paper to represent the library building, meeting rooms, lobby and parking. By arranging the paper slips on the map, residents could visualize different orientations of the building and parking configurations.

“We’ve played with all kinds of options,” Meissner said of where access could potentially be.

That the community is finally at this stage of planning a new library after more than 20 years of working toward that goal is exciting for 82-year-old Julia Ede, a Friends of Wasilla Public Library member. She has a lifelong love for libraries and joked that she’s promised not to die until the city finally has a new library to replace the cramped 7,300-square-foot building it now occupies on Main Street.

“The library was my second home since I was little,” Ede said, adding that at age 15, she got a job at her local library in Frankfurt, Ind. “In those days, we had no school libraries except at the high school, so I had to make up collections for the four elementary schools.”

Locally, finding a new home for the 53,000 items in the library’s inventory has been a goal of hers for a long time, Ede said.

“I’ve been working at this for about 14 years,” she said. “I think we’re definitely a lot closer now. We’ve worked so hard and a lot of people who are no longer with us have spent hours and hours setting this up. This library now is doing amazing things with very little space.”

Despite its small size, Wasilla Public Library is the third busiest in the state, Ede said.

Along with the big-picture questions for which the architects asked for information, residents also opined about other concerns. One, said Pat Park-Fisher, is to make sure the area’s older and handicapped residents aren’t afterthoughts in the design.

“Start thinking about restrooms now,” she said, using the Palmer library as an example. “They have a handicapped stall now that you can’t get a walker in, you can’t get a chair in. Put someone in a wheelchair — not one of you skinny guys, either — and see what’s workable.”

That discussion led to another about the potential for the design to include a covered area for drop-off and pick-up of patrons. Residents also agreed with information gathered earlier in the week from city and library staff that the building not look “institutional,” Meissner said, and that it represent the area as “Alaskan.” Just what that last point meant, he said, is open to wide and subjective interpretation.

Although it may seem a little premature to start the design phase before the Oct. 1 election, it’s important to begin the 12- to 13-month process now to incorporate the greatest amount of public participation into the project without rushing it, Meissner said. He said he expects the city to put together a building committee and that there will be public meetings and updates about every four weeks throughout the process.

The general election includes a ballot question that, if approved by city voters, would raise Wasilla’s sales tax from 2 percent to 3 percent to raise the $15 million still needed for the new library. The tax would sunset when the project is paid for, or in three years, whichever comes first. Should the state come through with a request to fund about $8 million of the new library, the tax would only collect the difference.

For many at Wednesday’s meeting, they said the potential to finally see a new library open is cause to be optimistic for the future of the Wasilla Public Library and libraries in general.

“I’m not worried,” Ede said about questions whether libraries can survive the digital age. “There are too many books I haven’t read yet.”

Contact Greg Johnson at 352-2269 or greg.johnson@frontiersman.com.