City of Palmer admits fault for removing memorial plaque from MTA Events Center

PALMER — Palmer City Council members recently discussed a local issue involving a memorial dedicated to Dave “The Hammer” Hanson being taken down from the MTA Events Center during the regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday, Jan. 25.

Dave died in 2021 due to health complications. He spent many years supporting the Valley’s hockey community and left a lasting impression among many, according to his widow, Diane Firmani.

“Dave got along with everybody,” Firmani said.

Dave’s death prompted a large gathering of local hockey players and community members for an honorary hockey match at the Brett Memorial Ice Arena in October of 2021.

Firmani said they hung up a memorial plaque at the Brett during the community hockey match, Oct. 16, and they hung up a second plaque at the Palmer ice rink the following day. She said that she found out that Palmer’s Community Development Director Brad Hanson had the plaque taken down less than 24 hours after it was hung up.

“It’s hard. It really hurt my feelings,” Firmani said.

Firmani said that she was told that the plaque was hung up without following the proper procedures. She said that it took several months of attempting to follow through with city officials to get any kind of response.

During the Tuesday meeting, Deputy Mayor Pamela Melin stated that there was an error in the existing legal language, which caused this issue to begin with.

“We want you to know that we do have positive intent to definitely memorialize Mr. Hanson, known as ‘The Hammer,’” Melin said. “This was a process that didn’t occur that would permit an employee the authority to put up a memorial.”

Melin asked to bring the city’s honorarium procedure to the Palmer City Council at the next meeting so the council members can get the process finalized. The motion was seconded by several members.

Palmer City Manager John Moosey said that he researched the issue and found that council was struggling with the issue of honorarium ordinances about seven years ago. He said they pulled anything that had to do with the process out with the intent of dealing with it later, but “it was never done.”

“It’s really the council’s fault,” Moosey said. “We need to work on fixing that and getting that squared away… If something’s not an issue and you don’t pay attention to it, it really doesn’t come back until something bad happens. Unfortunately, something bad happened this time.”

Moosey said they’re “ready to go” for moving the matter forward.

“It will be done,” Moosey said. “This is a very good case of a man from the community who needs to be honored.”

Firmani testified in front of the council, asking them to fix this as quickly as they can.

‘Do the right thing. Put the plaque back up,” Firmani said to the council.

In a follow-up interview, Firmani said that she wasn’t entirely convinced by what the council had to say that evening. She said the whole ordeal seemed unnecessary and hurtful.

“I was really disappointed,” Firmani said. “Now they have to talk about it some more.”

Firmani said that she’s cautiously optimistic that the council will move forward and find a reasonable resolution within a reasonable amount of time, but she’s wary after waiting this long for the wheels of bureaucracy to turn anywhere.

“I want it to be done,” Firmani said. “Now they need to get to it… It’s just frustrating.”

Firmani said the plaque itself is only an 8-inch by 10-inch sized monument that can simply occupy a small amount of space at the MTA Events Center. She said that people regularly acknowledge the first plaque at the Brett regularly.

“People love that stuff,” Firmani said.”I don’t why it’s such a big deal. It’s not like a monument. I’d didn’t ask to change the name of the rink,”

Firmani said that several community members attended the recent council meeting and others said they watched from home in support of her cause.

“It’s just the dearest thing. It lifts me up,” Firmani said. “Lots and lots of people loved Hammer. He was just a good guy. Somebody tried to make it Palmer/Wasilla thing, but it’s not like that.”

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com