Mat-Su inches forward plan for Bogard Road state trooper, 911 hub

What you need to know:

• Mat-Su borough officials are advancing a proposal for a new public safety hub on Bogard Road that would house Alaska State Troopers, MATCOM 911 dispatch and borough firefighters.
• The borough estimates the trooper and MATCOM facilities could cost $13 million to $26 million, paid from the general fund without new debt and covered by long-term leases intended to recoup construction costs.
• Officials say the project would address inadequate and expiring facilities while improving coordination and efficiency. The borough hopes to complete the hub by late 2028, when the troopers must leave their current Palmer location.
• Short on time but need the local news scoop? Get free weekly news in your inbox for Mat-Su, from Mat-Su.

PALMER — The Matanuska-Susitna Borough is inching forward with a proposal to build a large new public safety hub on Bogard Road to house the Alaska State Troopers, the region’s MATCOM 911 dispatch service and borough firefighters.

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday giving Borough Manager Mike Brown permission to craft a plan for the project, including cost projections, financing information and lease concepts for the troopers and MATCOM.

The public safety hub is central to a borough-led effort to streamline policing in the region without asking voters to give the borough new public safety powers or pay for its own police force, a step that could cost more than $20 million annually, according to a 2019 report. A concept for the center was first presented to the assembly during a 2025 work session.

“This is an example of how we could stand in and do something that fits within what a second-class borough has the authority to do, and supports public safety for our region,” Brown said during the meeting.

The proposed location is on borough-owned land on Bogard Road across from Mat-Su Day School and near the Band of Brothers coffee shop and Tait Road.

The plan is expected to be part of an overall borough budget proposal slated for the spring, Brown said. Borough officials want the project to be complete by late 2028, when a lease between the troopers and the Palmer Police Department expires and the troopers must move to a new location.

Under the proposal, the borough would pay upfront for facilities that it would lease to MATCOM and the troopers under decadeslong contracts. The leases would include a rent-to-own option and would be priced to recoup the cost of construction over time, borough officials said.

Construction of the two facilities would likely cost between $13 million and $26 million, officials said Tuesday. It would be paid for out of the borough’s general fund without taking on new debt or asking voters to approve new bonds. The MATCOM space would be created as an addition to a Mat-Su firefighter building already planned for the land; the 16,000-square-foot trooper facility would be constructed as a stand-alone building.

MATCOM is operated by the city of Wasilla, fields 911 calls for all of Mat-Su and provides emergency dispatch for all responders except the Palmer Police Department, which is supported by its own dispatch service. MATCOM operates out of the second floor of a facility off the Palmer-Wasilla Highway that was originally built for a bank and does not have enough space to meet its needs, officials there said.

For example, the building’s conference and meeting room doubles as a training area for new dispatchers, and it does not have sleeping quarters, a health area or a nursing mother’s room — all of which are considered standard for such facilities, MATCOM Manager Lori Criqui said in an interview Tuesday.

The Wasilla City Council will consider a measure supporting the borough’s building project during a regular meeting scheduled for Sept. 14, city officials said Tuesday.

Officials with Palmer’s 9G base dispatch center were invited to discuss consolidation efforts but did not attend the assembly meeting Tuesday. A Palmer Police Department spokesperson did not return a request for comment.

The Department of Public Safety currently leases six facilities for about $475,000 each year to house uniformed and civilian staff across Mat-Su, including the B Detachment headquarters in Palmer and a satellite post on Pittman Road next to Three Bears.

Public safety officials told the assembly they support the project because it helps them solve a quandary over office space while also creating overall cost savings.

While public safety officials know members of the public perceive that putting their post in one central location reduces patrols in other areas, that’s not how troopers operate, said state public safety department Maj. Andrew Gorn, who previously commanded B Detachment.

“Policing has advanced and evolved, and the ability to have communication with all the parts and pieces that you need under one roof is — A, financially responsible; B, improves communication; and C, brings us to the current age of policing,” Gorn said during the meeting. “To think that there needs to be a whole bunch of satellite offices, I think is largely outdated and extremely inefficient.”

Gorn said if B Detachment officials were to put a dot on the map for their ideal trooper post location based on call volume, it would be within a half-mile of the borough’s proposed location.

Trooper B Detachment, which patrols an area stretching from Cantwell to Glennallen, is authorized for 54 state trooper positions — or roughly one trooper per 2,000 residents, Department of Public Safety Deputy Commissioner Leon Morgan told the assembly last year.

Of those positions, eight are currently vacant, he said. Seven recruits currently at the trooper academy will head to Mat-Su when they graduate, B Detachment Commander Capt. Kid Chan told the assembly Tuesday.

About 2.4 officers per 1,000 residents is considered standard nationwide, Morgan said.

-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com