Youth court, library among Wasilla legislative priorities

WASILLA — Securing $8.2 million in matching funds for the new Wasilla Public Library, $75,000 to continue the Mat-Su Youth Court program and $5 million for runway improvements at Wasilla Airport are among the city’s top requests for state funding for fiscal year 2015.

With state lawmakers set to convene for the 2014 legislative session Jan. 20 in Juneau, the Mat-Su Borough and local municipalities are finalizing their lists of priority requests of the Legislature. For Wasilla, that means Mayor Verne Rupright, along with city staff and the city council, will push for money for nine projects with an overall price tag of about $15.3 million. That’s nearly triple the $4.5 million the city received from the state for fiscal year 2014.

Although state belt-tightening saw many municipal requests go unfulfilled last year, Rupright said he’s hopeful Wasilla will check off all the items on its funding wish list.

“I have absolute faith in the Legislature that they’ll give us every darn dime,” he said, somewhat tongue-in-check. “I have faith in (Rep.) Lynn Gattis and (Sen.) Charlie Huggins. And Huggins is the Senate president. When (money) goes to somebody else’s district, it’s called pork, right? When it comes to your own, though, it’s called bacon. Everybody likes bacon, right?”

Mat-Su Youth Court

Of Wasilla’s legislative projects for this session, it’s the least expensive item that Rupright said staff and the council has tagged as their No. 1 priority — $75,000 for Mat-Su Youth Court. That’s because although the youth court serves the entire Mat-Su, it’s mostly funded by Wasilla and the borough. Last year, the state didn’t approve an appropriation for the program and the city had to pony up the money, something Rupright said Wasilla may not be able to do again.

“We covered it, but if we don’t get that relief this year, that whole thing is toast,” he said. “Then, what we’re stuck with is no program, and it serves the whole borough. It’s an excellent program. … The city of Palmer doesn’t put anything in toward the youth court, neither does the city of Houston. The borough throws in $50,000 a year, then a state agency matches that.”

The bottom line, the mayor said, is the program works. Since Mat-Su Youth Court first came online in the late 1990s, more than 1,600 youth offenders have been through the program, with a less than 10 percent recidivism rate. Also, more than 700 kids have completed youth court training.

“With that low recidivism rate, stop and think about the amount of money the juvenile court didn’t have to spend,” Rupright said. “There wasn’t any juvenile jail time. When you think of 1,600 defendants going through that system, what would that cost be?”

Airport runway extension

Also high on the city’s list of priorities is the first phase of funding for a $15 million runway extension project at Wasilla Airport. For the next fiscal year, Wasilla is asking the state for an appropriation of $5 million to get the ball rolling, Rupright said. The plan would extend the airport’s runway from 3,700 feet to 5,000 feet, as well as extend a taxiway. It’s billed as an improvement that will open the city and region up to greater economic opportunities.

With the Mack Road-Clapp Street extension connecting the airport to the city near the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center, the FAA has indicated it will give approval of a GPS navigation system that will allow aircraft to land and take off even in zero visibility, Rupright said. Coupled with a runway extension, the improvements will open the airport to larger aircraft and provide more potential for commuter and other traffic.

“We’re commercialized then,” he said. “We have a light commuter company that wants to come in, a helicopter company. The two things holding us back was the navigation system and the length of the runway. … It’s pretty important.”

Library match

The largest request the state didn’t fund last session is one the city hopes it will fund this year, Rupright said. On the heals of a successful vote to raise Wasilla’s sales tax rate by 1 percent to collect up to $15 million of the $16.4 million needed to build a new public library, the city is asking the state for $8.2 million in matching funds.

If approved, the state buy-in will mean library construction could be fully funded after about 18 months, Rupright said.

“We figure we’d raise about $6 million in one year in sales tax on the 1 cent,” he said. “If the state doesn’t give (the money) to us, we’re still covered, but it means collecting more … of that sales tax.”

The new 23,500-square-foot library will replace the city’s current 8,000-square-foot building and be located on property at the intersection of Crusey and Swanson streets.

Other requests

Along with youth court, the library and airport appropriations, Wasilla will ask the Legislature to fund a handful of other projects. Those range from $425,000 for a covered bridge and trails along Cottonwood Creek as continued development of a new nine-acre park; $900,000 for water well development to increase the capacity of the city’s water utility for future growth; $50,000 for a marquee sign for the Menard center; $300,000 to construct new restroom facilities at the city’s historic town site; and $225,000 to complete paving of pathways and improve lighting at Iditapark.

The city also is asking lawmakers to let it keep the $180,000 that remains from an earlier $500,000 appropriation to construct a new Lake Lucile Dam. Rupright said that, if approved, the money would be used to purchase a lake weed harvester.

“Weed control continues to be a huge problem in the lake, and a weed harvester provides a cost-effective way to remove a portion of the weeds every year,” according to the city’s outline of legislative funding requests.

“We can get the machine and harvest that stuff out of there on a regular basis,” Rupright said, adding the apparatus could be used elsewhere in the city. “We have two good-sized lakes to deal with, and now we have Jacobsen Lake that’s been annexed in, and that’s a pretty shallow one and choked with weeds.”

Support for borough requests

Along with Wasilla’s priorities, the city also is urging lawmakers for support of $79 million in other state and Mat-Su Borough FY2015 requests. Those include $10 million for the state Department of Transportation to purchase right of way for the proposed Parks Highway Alternative Corridor; $60 million for continued funding of the Point MacKenzie Rail Extension; and $9 million to continue construction of the Bogard Road Extension East project, which pushes the road through to the city of Palmer.

The Bogard Road extension is “something that should’ve been built 15 years ago,” Rupright said.

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