The Anchorage Assembly agreed late Tuesday night to put roughly $134 million in bond proposals, including a plan to replace a middle school, before city voters in the April 3 citywide election.
Meanwhile, the Assembly killed proposals that would have set age limits for people who serve on most city boards and commissions. As written, the proposals would have taken voting powers from 14-year-old Ally Beischer, who serves on the Parks and Recreation Commission.
"People say you can't fight city hall," said Beischer, happy to keep her vote. "It was nerve-wracking."
Among the bond proposals that passed the panel and that will go before voters was a $65 million project to replace Clark Middle School. Students and parents gathered at the Loussac Library to tell the Assembly the roughly 50-year-old facility is small, cramped and outdated.
"There are stains in the ceiling, exposed pipe beams in the middle of the classrooms," said eighth-grader Michael Bramer, one of several students who testified.
Clark principal Cessilye Williams said the condition of the school makes it hard to retain some teachers.
East Anchorage Assemblymen Ken Stout and Paul Bauer questioned why Clark Middle School was the school district's priority -- why not Chester Valley Elementary, for example?
In the end, Bauer was the only Assembly member to vote against putting the Clark project on the ballot.
Voters also will decide during the April 3 municipal election on a $20 million school bond that would pay for major roof replacements, electrical upgrades and other projects. The state has agreed to cover more than half the cost of the school bonds, subject to approval by the Legislature.
The Assembly put a roughly $35.6 million road improvement bond on the ballot. Assemblywoman Pamela Jennings asked to remove a contentious, $8.4 million Strawberry Road project from the package, but the motion failed 7-3. Jennings, Bauer and Assemblyman Chris Birch voted to remove the project.
Other bonds that will appear on the ballot would pay for public safety and transportation improvements, fire equipment and parks and recreation projects.
$82 MORE A YEAR
The school bonds would be paid by property owners across the municipality, while some of the other bonds would only be paid by people who live, generally, in the Anchorage Bowl. If all the bonds went before voters and were passed, some Anchorage taxpayers could pay an additional $82 per $200,000 taxable value of their property.
The Assembly voted unanimously to put a proposed land swap near Lake Otis on the ballot. The measure would ask voters whether the city should pursue a trade between the municipality and the Alaska Jewish Historical Museum and Community Center.
The Historical Museum and Community Center would get a one-acre parcel of municipal park land with road access along 36th Avenue that it would use to create parking for a new museum. The city would get about half an acre of wetlands next to Lake Otis that it would add to Jacobson Park and would get a $100,000 donation for park improvements.
The Assembly also voted to ask voters whether the city should lease land in Ruth Arcand Park in the lower Hillside to a pair of nonprofit horse groups, partly to give a therapeutic horseback riding program a permanent home.
A referendum to repeal tougher anti-smoking rules was already scheduled to appear before voters, while the question of whether to drastically reduce the cost of taxicab permits won't appear because a related case before the Alaska Supreme Court isn't finished, said municipal attorney Jim Reeves.
"It's premature to put it on the ballot until we see the final outcome with the court," Reeves said in a Monday phone interview.
MINORS RAISE VOICES
A group of teenagers, including members of the city's youth advisory board, showed to testify on a proposal that would have kept anyone under 18 from holding a voting role on city advisory boards.
The youth advisory board wouldn't have been affected, because those seats are specifically designed for young people. But rather than vote on the proposal, which originally came from Midtown Assembly members Traini and Dan Coffey, the Assembly shelved the plan as well as a similar proposal from Coffey that would have required commissions to ad non-voting teen members.
Traini, whose wife serves on the Parks Commission, said other Assembly members were opposed to very young commissioners in the past but "caved in" to public opposition to the age limits.
Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich appointed Beischer to the Parks Commission when she was 13 and threatened to veto any attempt to impose age limits.
"I know that I am young and being in an adult commission like this is a big job, but ... I'm really passionate about learning about it and I think these issues are important for youth and adults, so it's good to have a youth perspective," Beischer said.
Daily News reporter Kyle Hopkins can be reached at khopkins@adn.com or 257-4334.
