WASILLA -- A move to centralize Alaska State Troopers from northern and southern ends of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough is drawing fire from local officials concerned about already high levels of property crime in outlying areas.
Troopers in Mat-Su, home to the fastest growing population in the state and the second largest population area, currently operate from two main buildings: a 10-year-old facility in Meadow Lakes called Mat-Su West just off the Parks Highway on Pittman Road and a roughly 30-year-old post in Palmer. Alaska Wildlife Troopers lease a different building in Palmer.
The proposal currently being evaluated by the Alaska Department of Public Safety would consolidate all of them -- roughly 100 patrol and wildlife troopers as well as investigators and administrative staff -- into the former Iditarod Elementary School building near downtown Wasilla.
The existing posts serve a borough as big as West Virginia. The state shuttered a Talkeetna post last year, though officials say they now have a trooper assigned to that patrol area at all times.
U.S. Census numbers released this year show the Mat-Su has topped 100,000 residents, making it the second largest municipal area in population behind Anchorage. The area is also in the midst of an ongoing property crime wave, thought to be driven at least in part by what public health officials describe as a heroin and prescription painkiller epidemic.
The troopers post consolidation is being considered as all state departments face budget cuts amid Alaska's fiscal shortfall brought on by free falling oil prices.
Troopers Capt. Hans Brinke, who supervises the Mat-Su posts, said this week the consolidation would cut costs enough to avoid trooper layoffs already underway, albeit at a lower level. At this point, public safety officials expect to lose about 11 troopers statewide.
Consolidation would prevent additional positions from being cut for Mat-Su, Brinke said. Rent at Mat-Su West and Palmer costs more than $300,000, though it's unclear how much a lease at the school building would cost or how many upgrades it would need if consolidation there moves forward.
Any decision would be made by Gary Folger, the public safety commissioner. If it moves ahead, consolidation could "maybe" begin in a year, Brinke said.
"I need the troopers here to do the job versus having the buildings," he said Thursday. "If people are worried about our response time, less troopers mean slower response time. That's the biggest thing for us doing these kinds of evaluations, just to make sure we have enough guys to fulfill that ever-increasing need we have in the Valley."
That need -- and the alarming amount of property crime here -- has triggered a high level of public concern about the potential consolidation in the Susitna Valley, said Randall Kowalke, a Mat-Su Borough Assembly member from Willow who said he's heard from at least a dozen people.
"We've got a heroin epidemic going on, we've got a lot of property crime, especially in Meadow Lakes, Big Lake," Kowalke said. "And now the troopers are talking about leaving."
Kowalke and Big Lake Assembly member Dan Mayfield, along with Borough Mayor Vern Halter, met with Folger and another high-ranking public safety official earlier this month.
Mayfield asked Brinke about the possibility of adding small substations to serve outlying communities during an Assembly meeting in mid-March.
Brinke said that would end up costing more, since each building would need administrative support and require lease payments and other overhead. Troopers mostly work out on the roads, rather than at their desks, so it doesn't matter much where their desks are, he said.
But Brinke also acknowledged if a major call or numerous emergencies arise in Butte or Sutton, for example, troopers from other parts of the borough could be siphoned off.
"If we get a severe amount of calls on the Butte or Palmer side, then troopers float over to that side of the borough," he said. "That's going to slow down what we do on the north end."
Calls in the Su Valley could lead to the opposite result.
Kowalke described the likelihood of consolidation as 100 percent.
Brinke said no decision has been made yet as work on the financial analysis continues, as does evaluation of the borough-owned school site. It's unclear just how much work the aging structure would need. The city of Wasilla has expressed interest in using the building to house city police, but the borough owns the school.