Valley Country Store asks state board to move Big Lake liquor license into Wasilla

Valley Country Store & Fuel will ask the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board on Tuesday, Nov. 10, to move its package store liquor license from Big Lake to an existing building at 1451 W. Parks Highway in Wasilla.

The license now belongs to Valley Country Store #5 on South Big Lake Road, outside any city in the Mat-Su Borough. If the board approves the move, the license becomes a license of Wasilla, under state rules.

State law lets the board move a package store license into a city only in a borough of at least 50,000 people. Mat-Su had 97,605 people as of July 2025. The law sets two more conditions. When the application arrives, the borough's count of that license type must exceed its cap. Both the borough and city governments must also approve.

Mat-Su had 33 package store licenses against a cap of 33 when the state Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office received the application May 15. The borough was "at the max allowed, but not exceeding," Program Coordinator Jane P. Sawyer wrote in a state staff memo to the board.

The law also allows no more than three such moves into each city per decade. The current decade began April 1, 2020. A September 2025 board record counted one move into Wasilla so far this decade, with a second then pending.

The proposed store is 1,200 feet from the nearest school grounds and 1,200 feet from the nearest church, the application says. Designated licensee Matthew Gittlein owns a third of KG Enterprises, which owns the company. Brian, Rachel, Janice and Kenneth Gittlein each hold 16.66%. They also own four other Valley Country Store package stores, two in Wasilla and two in Palmer.

The board's special meeting starts at 9 am in Anchorage.