“We have a very bright future” Wasilla Departments give updates, future plans during State of City address

After Wasilla Mayor Glenda Ledford gave her State of the City address on April 2, 2024, she opened up the floor for several key members of the city staff to give updates and plans for Wasilla.

“I have repeatedly expressed the accomplishments and overall successes of the city that could not happen without the effort and dedication of my outstanding team,” Mayor Ledford said, turning things over to Scott Bell, the Director of the Menard Center.

“Very proud to say that the biggest accomplishment is the highest revenue in the Menard Center’s history, with over $964,000, which is a 13% increase from the year before,” Bell said, adding that right now, the Menard Center is tracking to make over $1 million this year, a huge goal for him. He said the Menard has also generated $127,000 over the projected budget and a 13% increase in large-scale events, and that facility was rented out over 10,000 hours last year, a 21% increase from the previous year.

He also said that among the projects completed so far at the Menard, the biggest has been expansions to the parking lots.

“If you’ve been out there, that was a huge, huge success for us.” The existing parking lot also received an upgrade with fixtures.

Bell said they have also purchase a new Zamboni to clear the ice for the hockey games, created a girls’ only hockey locker room, installed a family bathroom, and installed emergency responder radio antennas to improve connections to 911.

He also said that future projects include finishing the parking lots, with the goal of asphalting, sealing, and restriping with the end result being the addition of 400 parking spots, upgrading the sound systems from the current cassette/CD system to Bluetooth, and replacing the rubber flooring throughout the facility.

Wasilla Police Department Chief William Rapson told attendees that one of the biggest challenges has been maintaining a full cadre of officers.

“My focus continues to be hiring. I think that’s the general consensus of all agencies around the area…we’re all competing for the people that we’re getting,” he said.

Chief Rapson said that along with the population growth, so too have the numbers of police calls.

“Just in 2023 along, WPD responded to 814 more calls for service. We saw a 24% increase in crimes against persons, 22% increase in property crimes, and a 45% increase in crimes against society, which includes drugs and drug trafficking.” He said that the WPD is currently seeing and seizing fentanyl on a weekly basis and experiencing high incidents of imitation or counterfeit narcotics, which seem to be increasing steadily.

“Addressing these increases is challenging given the staffing we are currently at.”

With the alarming increase in crimes, Chief Rapson said that some of the initiatives his department is moving forward, including the addition of a second dual-purpose K-9 this coming September. He said that the WPD has also submitted and awarded a fully-funded Drug Investigator with the statewide Drug Investigation Unit.

He also gave a heads up that WPD will be proactively enforcing traffic codes this summer, as well as proactively targeting problem areas around the city.

“We will continue to partner with the school district in keeping our SROs in the schools, increasing community engagement with ‘Coffee with a Cop,’ ‘National Night Out,’ and ‘Shopping with a Hero,’ which have been proven to be successful.” The WPD chief also said his department will also continue its partnerships with the Mat-Su Health Foundation, True North Recovery, MyHouse, and Drug and Endangered Children.

Lori Criqui, Communications Manager for MATCOM, who is new to the job said that some of her goals include increasing recruitment, increasing training needs and opportunities, continuing the tradition of professionalism that MATCOM has maintained throughout the Mat-Su Borough, and changing people’s perception of 9-1-1.

“Part of what we’re trying to do at the local and state level is that 9-1-1 is not seen as public safety, and we’re looking to see what we can do to get a federal jobs classification for 9-1-1 to have them seen as Public Safety Professionals.” Criqui says this could go a long way to help with one of the main challenges she highlighted, which is staffing.

“One of the challenges in 9-1-1 is staffing, and we need to improve our retention and recruitment,” she said, telling the audience that while MATCOM offers a competitive salary, there is room to do better. “I think we can help with that. With our training and offering opportunities within the department to help with career progression.”

Cassee Olin, Wasilla’s Finance Director, who has only been on the job for three months, said that her department is looking to enhance technology, starting with replacing an outdated pay system with Enterprise Resource Planning system. The outdated system currently only allows the city to send out payments as checks, instead of a more efficient ACH-type system. The last time the system was replaced was 20 years ago.

“We are trying to make life easier and make our department more efficient. What this means is we will have the capability of sending our payments to vendors as ACHs rather than checks, and payroll capabilities will be through direct deposit.”

She said some other things that the Finance Department is trying to improve efficiency, expand options for purchasing, and keeping track of the budget for Wasilla.

“We are running roughly a $29 million operation budget for the city. That is through all of our many departments, and along with that, the grants and utilities brings that to over $50 million in the current fiscal year.

Eric Shaw, Public Works Director, whose department oversaw a record-breaking snowfall this past winter, first complimented the Public Works Department for working hard to remove all the snow the city received.

“We had over 88 ½ inches of snow in the Valley, and while Anchorage got quite a bit more, I want to thank all of our Public Works staff that are amazing at what they do. It takes talented people that really care, that have the tools and resources that they need to make the priority that we do to make the roads open and safe.”

Shaw, who is in charge of the Water Department, Sewer Department Roads, Parks and Maintenance, and the Wasilla Airport, said that with teamwork, talent, resources and equipment everyone has come together to tackle the projects demanding the department’s attention.

“Wasilla continues to grow…we’re competing with some of the growth rates down south and it’s important for us to not forget that strains the system,” Shaw says of the wear and tear that has been occurring on the roads, sewers, and water services. He said that over the past decade, the city has added an estimated 1,000 water services and 500 sewer services, it can push the limits of what the systems are capable of handling.

“When our systems are 40 years old and you add that many new services, everyone feels the strain. Our mandate is to provide safe, reliable, clean drinking water and manage waste materials that are created. We really have a great team of professionals that do their best to stay on top of the challenges we face.” He points to the three dozen sewer systems that froze this past winter’s sub-zero temperatures.

He also expanded on the expansion of Wasilla Airport, which had a groundbreaking last year. Shaw said that they are currently in Phase II of the master plan, and that includes hosting public meetings in the future.

“That means we are going to start share drawings and concepts, and we want all of your feedback.”

Crystal Nygard, the Deputy Administrator for the Mayor, said that her real focus is economic development and growth, working on strategic partnerships and financing the capital initiatives.

“Wasilla relies heavily on sales tax, it’s our only source of income, with 82% of our revenue coming from sales tax. That makes it crucial for us to prioritize commercial development and support our local businesses.” She reported that since January of 2024, the city has issued 216 new business licenses and 511,000 square feet of new construction happening between now and 2025.

Nygard said that the Mayor has focused on building a business plan, and that Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) goes a long way in building that plan, thanking the Mat-Su Borough and the City of Palmer for their partnership in it.

“The reason that CEDS is really important is that it looks at the region and prequalifies us for a lot of the grant funding that is out there. If we don’t have a CEDS, we don’t get a loan or a grant.” Nygard said that having a CEDS helped Wasilla gain 20 extra restaurant-eating licenses ready to go.

“Through this process we identified our strength, our location, our business development, and our financial strength of being debt-free,” she remarked, adding “However, we do face challenges such as traffic congestion, community infrastructure, and the lack of city planning for growth.”

“The City of Wasilla is dedicated to fostering growth, supporting our local businesses and improving the overall quality of life. With strategic partnerships and long-term vision, we have a very bright future.”