Growth in the Mat-Su: borough builds out with $214 million bond package.

• Author: White, Rindi
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Building Alaska

In the span of one decade, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District added four thousand additional students to its rolls. Schools in the Valley's central area between Palmer and Wasilla are packed, and often students take classes in portable buildings outside school walls because there simply isn't enough space to accommodate everyone.

"We are excited about the growth in our schools and our aim is to offer every student living in the Mat-Su Borough an excellent education. We recognize one of the challenges of growth is that we cannot fulfill the portable [building] requests from schools," says Superintendent Dr. Deena Paramo.

"Right now there are thirteen outside Wasilla High School. And the portables are one thing, but you don't expand your restrooms or lockers or anything like that," Paramo adds.

That's why the borough and the school district are pushing to get new schools built and open as rapidly as possible. Two new schools will be open this fall: Valley Pathways and Mat-Su Day School. Construction began this summer on another school, Joe Redington Sr. Jr./Sr. High School, and work will begin on two more new schools next year.

Those projects are part of a $214 million bond package Mat-Su voters approved in 2011. Even before they are complete, Paramo says, the district will be gearing up for another major construction bond package. The district needs a new school in the Palmer area, she says, and in just a few years' time, the Joe Redington Sr. Jr./ Sr. High School will be ready to shift to a separate middle and high school.

Growth in the Mat-Su is putting pressure on many public facilities, and local government is working hard to keep up. Mat-Su Borough Department of Emergency Services is adding two new fire stations this year and has plans for another in the next couple years, plus a specialized fire service area to serve industrial users at the borough's Port MacKenzie.

Growth is also the catalyst for a project to build a new library for Talkeetna in northern Mat-Su. Talkeetna bustles with tourists and visitors in the summer. Its outdated and tiny 2,800-square-foot library overflows with visitors seeking a Wi-Fi connection in summer. Even in the winter, when the village population shrinks considerably, the library is too small to offer important tools such as distance learning classes and teen library programs.

Growing Community, Growing Art Scene

The pressures of growth aren't just felt in local government. Mat-Su College, a branch of the University of Alaska Anchorage, is also expanding to meet growing demand. The college is building a theater with seating for more than five hundred, which is expected to be ready for use by the end of the year.

Mat-Su College Theater Director Matt Sale says the theater project has been a long-time dream for the college, and also for the community, which lacks a moderately-sized stage and auditorium.

"I think it's going to be a really big addition to the community," Sale says.

State voters in 2010 approved several college-related construction projects, including $31 million that affected Mat-Su College. The soon-to-be-named theater, a $20 million project, is the largest in that group. Work on the project started in 2013.

The new theater, a thirty-three thousand-square-foot facility designed by Kumin Associates, Inc., and built by Roger Hickel Contracting, Inc., includes the stage, a costume shop and scene shop, a green room, a private dressing room, and two larger dressing rooms with connecting bathrooms, plus three offices for staff and a tickets and concession stand.

Sale says the college will add new theater-related courses to complement those already offered by UAA. The college already offers an acting course and an introduction to theater course; he says an introduction to technical theater course is planned for the spring and perhaps stagecraft and set design courses in the future.

There has been interest in using the space from groups across the board, he says. It's a natural spot for the college's LUNAFEST, a yearly traveling film festival dedicated to films about and by women. Sale says he has been in talks with Alaska State Fair, UAA, and the Anchorage Performing Arts Center about second-night opportunities, so if an artist or show plays in Anchorage, perhaps they can play another night in the Valley. He says Whistling Swan Productions, which brings a variety of artists to Anchorage and Mat-Su (generally at Palmer coffee shop Vagabond Blues), is planning performances at the theater in the early months of 2015.

"It's surprising how fast it is getting booked up," Sale says.

Growth Remains Steady, Schools Are Filling

The Mat-Su Borough continues to be the state's fastest growing community, with a population now estimated at more than 96,000, according to the Alaska Division of Community and Regional Affairs. In the last decade, the population has grown by 50 percent. The population is projected to reach...