Wasilla seniors receive grant

WASILLA -- It looks as if the Wasilla Area Seniors just got $40,000 from the city of Wasilla to help pay for a new kitchen. But looks can be deceiving.

The Wasilla City Council unanimously approved a $40,000 grant to the Wasilla Area Seniors Monday night. The money is earmarked to help pay for a new 3,800-square-foot kitchen addition, expected to be completed in September.

There is a unique twist in this grant story, however, and in the end the city is coming out $5,000 ahead.

Last month, the nonprofit senior group paid the city $45,000 for 2.5 acres. For more than 20 years, Wasilla Area Seniors had leased the land but needed to own it free and clear in order to receive loans to fund their expansion efforts.

Wasilla came to own the land in 1980 when Frank and Dorothy Smith donated it with the provision that it be used for senior purposes. Because this was always the intended purpose of the property, council members and representatives of Wasilla Area Seniors said the parcel probably should have been given to the nonprofit group, but Wasilla ordinances don't allow for this kind of donation. Instead, the seniors had to pay fair market value for the property.

With the land deal completed, Councilwoman Colleen Sullivan-Leonard said she saw the grant as a way to make things right. She introduced the motion, and her colleagues embraced it.

"This is a unique situation," Leonard said.

When an audience member criticized the grant proposal, saying it was subsidizing a nonprofit that is competing with local restaurants, several council members were quick to point out that they probably wouldn't have authorized the grant if it weren't for the land deal.

"This land was given to us …. we never bought it in the beginning," Councilman Noel Lowe said. "I don't see any need for us to be profiting from it."

Even with the $40,000 grant, an additional $5,000 remains unaccounted for. When the council learned that the Wasilla Area Seniors also paid for all associated costs with the land sale, several council members asked if the grant shouldn't be in the full amount of $45,000.

But Wasilla Mayor Dianne Keller said there were some attorney costs for the city. At the same time, she said, the original land donation didn't specifically stipulate that it or its profits had to be given directly to a nonprofit such as Wasilla Area Seniors. There are other ways, she said, that the city can use those funds to assist seniors in Wasilla, including setting up a city grant fund.

Even less the $5,000, the grant came as a pleasant surprise to Wasilla Area Seniors. Executive Director Tim Anderson said they did not bring the grant request to the council and didn't expect it to pass.

Expected or not, it appears they won't have any trouble putting the money to use. The kitchen expansion will cost around $640,000, and, according to the group, is much overdue.

"We are using antique equipment in a tiny kitchen," said Wayne Kalfsbeek, the chef at the senior center. "The money is really needed here."

The center serves around 48,000 meals each year from a kitchen originally designed to handle about 12,000 meals. Some of those meals are served at the center, while others are delivered to Valley senior citizens who are disabled or otherwise homebound.