Developing our communities: Mat-Su: keeping up with growth and improving life.

• Author: White, Rindi
• Position: CONSTRUCTION

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In a growing community, change can be a breath of fresh air. The Matanuska-Susitna Borough hovers on the edge of a population of one hundred thousand, a brisk population rise that has overloaded roads, schools, and even common community services like libraries.

With help from the state and, in some cases, from granting organizations, Mat-Su is fighting to keep up with that growth and improve life for its residents. A new family fun center--the first of its kind in Alaska--is on track to open in the first quarter of the year. A larger library with public meeting space will open in Wasilla in the fall, and classrooms will be filled in two new schools when the new school year begins.

Meanwhile, traffic is flowing on three important new road projects that were built to ease congestion on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway connecting the borough's two largest cities and to allow Knik-Goose Bay Road drivers an alternative route north instead of driving through downtown Wasilla.

Growing Community Needs Indoor Fun Spot

The range of options for fun activities to do out of the weather in the Mat-Su Valley isn't large. There's bowling, a few gyms that offer open gym time or children's play areas, three ice rinks, and an indoor turf court. Three swimming pools, a bounce house where children can bounce on inflatable structures, and a few churches offer play time. That's pretty much it, outside of organized sports like gymnastics or karate.

This month or next, the Extreme Fun Center will join that mix, offering indoor racing carts, laser tag, mini-bowling, an arcade, and a shooting gallery. John Schweiger, owner of Ashland, Oregon-based Coming Attractions Theatres, the chain that runs The Valley Cinema, is building the fun center with financing help from the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA).

Al Lane, president and chief operating officer of Coming Attractions Theatres, says Wasilla's is the largest fun center his company has undertaken. A fun center in Aberdeen, Washington, was set to open in January in a mall Coming Attractions purchased. The fun center in Wasilla is all new construction, being built adjacent to the Valley Cinema.

"People have been coming out of that theater looking for something to do," Lane says. "The entire facility, including the racing carts, will be great for all ages from grandkids to grandparents and everyone in-between."

The facility will be about seventy thousand square feet, with about ten thousand square feet of that space designated for a sky box for corporate events. In addition, there will be five birthday party rooms available for other parties or gatherings.

"This industry lives and dies off birthday parties," Lane says. He adds that the company will be...