Wasilla seeks ownership of Lake Lucille Park

WASILLA — The city is poised to grow its holdings by about 80 acres if an expected deal can be worked out with the Mat-Su Borough to transfer ownership of Lake Lucille Park.

The deal, which calls for the borough to turn the park over to the city, has the support of Wasilla Mayor Verne Rupright and Mat-Su Borough Manager John Moosey. All that’s hanging up the transfer is an OK from the National Park Service and action from the borough assembly.

“We think this would be great,” Moosey said. “The transfer serves the city well and we’re happy to allow them to take the park as their own. There are some hoops you have to jump through, but just to maintain it as a public use park, (Wasilla) would take something we have and make it better.”

The borough originally purchased the park with money from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is administered by the NPS. Under the terms of that grant, the land must be maintained and developed as a public outdoors recreation area, Moosey said.

Wasilla approached the borough about taking ownership of the park because it’s located within city limits and the city already polices the area for the borough, Rupright said.

If the city of Wasilla owned the property, it could develop it even more, including the park’s campground. The city has also secured $100,000 in the latest state budget to build a boardwalk and dock area at the lake.

“The plan is we’ll take it over, fix it up, put a campground host in,” Rupright said. “Then, we’ll collect the (camping) fees and take care of it. It’s right, smack dead in the middle of the city. The borough put minimal investment into it, some basic infrastructure. As the city began to grow, there was no policing of the park, and over the years it was turning into party central. There would be big bonfires and parties and drugging and smashing glass.”

Federal approval is expected, Rupright said, because the city doesn’t intend to change the use of the area, only enhance it.

“As long as we maintain it for public use, it’s good,” he said, adding the city wants to turn the area into a desirable outdoors destination. “We’ve been policing it for the last couple years, have cleaned it up. It became a trouble zone, really, a party spot. I figured it was time for the city to step in.”

As the city grows, areas like Lake Lucille Park that offer camping and recreation within Wasilla city limits are becoming valuable assets, Rupright said.

“We can maintain it because we get the campground fees, and as we get more and more dense and crowded, those kinds of set-asides are going to be harder to find in the core area.”

In anticipation of the transfer, the city has already been doing some work in the area, Rupright said.

“We scrubbed out all the graffiti, cleaned out all the outhouses,” he said. “We’re going to ask people to apply to be campground hosts.”

With both city and borough management in favor of the land transfer, the next step is waiting for that OK from the National Parks Service, Moosey said. With that, the assembly would also have to sign off on it.

But if it were up to Moosey, “It would’ve happened two months ago. This is a win-win.”

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