Wasilla voters OK sales tax for sports center

ANCHORAGE (AP) -- Wasilla residents have given the go ahead to building a new multi-use sports center in town and to raising the city sales tax to pay for it.

With final votes counted Friday, residents voted 306 to 286 in favor of a measure to raise the city sales tax from 2 percent to 2.5 percent to pay the estimated $14.7 million cost of building the center.

The measure was passing by a slim 16-vote margin Tuesday when ballots were cast. That lead was extended to 20 votes after the remaining questioned, absentee and mail-in ballots were tallied.

The election is to be certified Monday and could still be contested, although supporters thought it unlikely given the margin by which it passed.

Curt Menard Sr., who chairs a pro-sports center group called ''Build It Now,'' termed the victory a relative landslide given the low turnout. Only about 600, or 14 percent of registered voters, cast votes in the election.