Crosswalk conundrum

PALMER — With Palmer City Manager Nathan Wallace on his first vacation since taking office and Palmer Mayor Edna DeVries attending the Palmer High School graduation away from the Palmer City Council meeting, the agenda was light during its meeting May 14.

DeVries said at graduation that she expected the meeting to go smoothly. The council cruised through its two public hearings and passed ordinances amending airport regulations and flowage fees without a hitch. With Deputy Mayor Pete LaFrance presiding over the meeting and Palmer Police Chief Lance Ketterling serving as the acting city manager, things got interesting just as the meeting was set to adjourn. During council comments, Julie Berberich moved that the council approve the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Advisory Board recommendation for the Creative Crosswalk Committee’s plan to paint the crosswalk on the intersection of South Valley Way and Evergreen Avenue by the museum.

Jill Valerius informed the council of their plans during the first public comment section. Valerius described the motivated group of people willing to work to find solutions following Gil Penalosa’s 8 to 80 discussion at the Palmer Train Depot this winter.

“We all came up with some ideas because we didn’t want to lose the momentum that had kind of come out of that,” Valerius said.

Valerius said that the committee had met with city manager Nathan Wallace and director of public works Chris Nall and that the paint and labor would be donated.

“Most people that we’ve talked about with around the community are really excited about it and our hope actually would be to expand to different crosswalks eventually,” Valerius said.

The council had no questions for Valerius at the time of her comments. However, following Berberich’s motion, Linda Combs questioned the clerk whether the council would have to direct the acting city manager to carry out the order.

“The effect of just simple things like this, little public displays of art really just make a community better and this is a perfect spot for it. This is where our tour buses come in and they immediately cross over and come into Palmer and it’s just a really welcoming thing and it kind of sets the tone for the town that we live in,” Sabrena Combs said.

Sabrena Combs seconded Berberich’s initial motion, but not before the council could extend comments for discussion. Ketterling noted that nothing in Palmer City Code or state law prevent this from happening, but Federal Highway Administration manual uniform traffic control devices recommend against any kind of creative design. Ketterling then took concern over the colors, some of which carry separate meanings when painted on other streets.

“One person’s art is another person’s junk. Nobody has had an opportunity to comment on this other than the committee that’s basically proposed this design. The public hasn’t had a chance to look at this design, and weigh in on what they might want to do,” Ketterling said. “As a police chief I have some concerns about art projects on a roadway which is designed to function for the safe flow of traffic. Having said that, I don’t see a major public safety issue here, more of a policy question for the council about how they would want to proceed going forward.”

Councilmen Steve Carrington and David Fuller both mentioned that they would like to slow the progression of the crosswalk painting. Fuller asked for more hoops and wickets to be jumped through before implementation. Fuller expressed the fear that any group could make a proposal at a meeting and see it passed without due process.

“I think that the thing we lack on this is a procedure by which to go about doing this,” Fuller said.

Berberich spoke for the committee and alerted the council that the city paints sidewalks and crosswalks at night once the temperature reaches 50 degrees and that the colors in the design were not those forbidden by the Federal Highway Administration.

“It was just a group of people trying to roll with some positive ideas in this low hanging fruit, not asking the council for any money,” Berberich said.

Sabrena Combs moved to amend the motion to direct the acting city manager to work with the Creative Crosswalk Committee on this specific crosswalk, which passed with only Linda Combs opposed.

“We should take an honest look at that and make sure that the city government is not standing in the way of that, because I think it’s a really good initiative. Beyond that, I’m having trouble to see any huge negative implications that would come from something we would paint on a road and invariably it would be gone by next June,” LaFrance said. “We do want to encourage public art and I worry that we are not encouraging public art if we do not move forward on this.”

The final vote on the motion also passed 5-1 with only Linda Combs voting no.