Tuesday night the Anchorage Assembly finally decided the issue of a state-funded recreation center with tennis courts.
Assembly members approved $4.4 million for the project. The Alaska Tennis Association had originally requested $7.2 million to build the recreation center which would include a public tennis facility in West Anchorage near the existing ice arena.
The Tennis Association did its own lobbying for the money and says $4.4 million won’t be enough.
Allen Clendaniel, President of the Tennis Association says supporters have mixed feelings.
“The Tennis Association is disappointed but also relieved that it’s over,” Clendaniel said. “We were hoping that the Assembly would approve the $7.2 million or at least he $6.2 million. However, we’re happy the Assembly supported funding for this project, it shows they support it. And the question now is, we need to do further work to get it fully funded.”
The Assembly has been debating whether it could or should use a state capital line item to fund the controversial project since early October. Assembly members did not request money for it and some legislators said they did not know they had approved it.
The money for the rec center was buried in a package meant for infrastructure maintenance.
During the meeting, Assembly member Amy Demboski tried to put the issue before voters as bond measure but that was voted down.
Mayor Dan Sullivan came to the meeting with some legal opinions that he said contradicted a Legislative Affairs opinion that a new facility was not within the legislative intent of the capital budget item for maintaining existing facilities.
Clendaniel says supporters hope a 2014 legislative request will provide the additional funds needed to complete the project.
Mayor Sullivan has seven days to veto the item.
Daysha Eaton is a contributor with the Alaska Public Radio Network.
Daysha Eaton holds a B.A. from Evergreen State College, and a M.A. from the University of Southern California. Daysha got her start in radio at Seattle public radio stations, KPLU and KUOW. Before coming to KBBI, she was the News Director at KYUK in Bethel. She has also worked as the Southcentral Reporter for KSKA in Anchorage.
Daysha's work has appeared on NPR's "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered", PRI's "The World" and "National Native News". She's happy to take assignments, and to get news tips, which are best sent via email.
Daysha became a journalist because she believes in the power of storytelling. Stories connect us and they help us make sense of our world. They shed light on injustice and they comfort us in troubled times. She got into public broadcasting because it seems to fulfill the intention of the 4th Estate and to most effectively apply the freedom of the press granted to us through the Constitution. She feels that public radio has a special way of moving people emotionally through sound, taking them to remote places, introducing them to people they would not otherwise meet and compelling them to think about issues they might ordinarily overlook.
