Most Mat-Su Borough departments presented a budget proposal to the Assembly this week for the next fiscal year. Assembly members heard about the Port Mackenzie project, updates to the Borough website, land sales, and community cleanups.
Community Development Director Jillian Morrissey focuses on providing community services to residents, such as new online recreation services, more pool hours, land transfers, and timber sales. In the Upper Valley, Morrissey highlights the opening of Sunshine Creek Campground this summer.
She also talks about the increased usage of Borough recreation sites and the need for more of them.
“We have seen exponential growth at our trails and trail heads. And now what we know is that we have the happy problem of that does have impacts on our facility and infrastructure and we need to keep investing in those in order to do maintenance. But also find new areas in order to disperse that use and develop new opportunities.”
Morrissey says the Borough needs to address deferred maintenance to better protect the assets and infrastructure. That will allow the Borough to continue providing those experiences for residents.
The Community Development Department requests an increase of more than two million dollars in the next fiscal year to support additional Borough offerings. However, Morrissey also notes the Department has recovered $1.3 million in revenue thanks to operational efficiencies.
“Our staff is looking at how we can continue to increase efficiencies while still making these opportunities, recreation opportunities, affordable for our families.”
The Borough Assembly will hold a special budget meeting at the Willow Community Center on April 24 at 6pm.
