Wasilla council commits to planning a regional dispatch center outside city limits

The Wasilla City Council agreed Monday to help the Matanuska-Susitna Borough plan a regional dispatch facility that would move MatCom, the emergency call center, off city land and onto borough property. The vote commits the city to planning and nothing more; any lease would come back for a separate vote.

The timing is driven by a building already going up. Borough Manager Mike Brown said the dispatch space would be an annex to the new Fire Station 52 at Bogard Road and Tate Drive, and that building both at once is cheaper than building them separately. "That's a window that will close," he said. The Assembly has funded design and would consider construction money in the spring.

MatCom's dispatchers handle calls across the borough and the Copper River Basin from a building they have outgrown. "Seismic really worries me. We've already got cracks," Director Lori Creekey said. Staff also compete with the Wasilla police and the Menard Center for training space. The borough's lease on the current building runs through 2030.

Council Member Tim Johnson raised the obvious problem: "We'd be creating a city office outside the city boundary." The mayor said the city attorney had found that lawful. Johnson also warned the city could get hit twice, losing the borough's rent payments in Wasilla and then leasing space back at the new site. Brown said any increase would come back to the borough through the dispatch contract.

Creekey wants assurances before anyone commits, saying the arrangement needs to be as permanent as anything can be. Whether Palmer joins is still unsettled.