Economic growth, trails top priorities for Palmer

PALMER — Palmer officials met this past week to discuss the city’s priorities and goals.

City council members used the session to brainstorm ideas on issues like improving local trails and establishing more retail business opportunities in Palmer. Councilman Brad Hanson, along with Mayor John Combs, pushed for more focus on meeting specific objectives.

“I think it’s important that the city council goals and objectives are being accomplished and being communicated to our administration and staff,” Hanson said.

Hanson, Combs and Councilman Tony Pippel shared similar thoughts on one issue — economic development. In a nutshell, all three believe more economic opportunities, such as retail businesses, are needed to bring the cash flow to the city. More sales tax revenue generated means the city can be more aggressive funding its own improvement initiatives, they said.

“I want to see a more sustainable source of revenue for capital projects,” Hanson said.

Although grants are often available and used for capital projects, Hanson and Pippel believe the city shouldn’t rely on outside sources, which means Palmer needs to focus on its own economic development.

In addition to gleaning more money for capital projects, economic development is also an important part of diversifying the services offered in Palmer, Pippel said. With a recent increase of payroll due to a reorganization of administration, more money is going out and not coming back in.

“What I’m saying is the city needs more revenue to continue providing the level of service it currently provides,” he said.

When it comes to establishing more revenue for the city, Combs said annexation is an integral part of the process.

“We don’t have any more room for the things we’d like to see come to town,” he said, which means smart expansion will be key.

Council members also would like to build more and improve the trails in Palmer. Councilman Richard Best and Pippel both agreed local trails should be on the city’s goals and objectives list.

“Somebody in administration needs to pick up our trails plan, dust it off and take a good look at it,” Pippel said.

Although council members presented many ideas, Counciman Mike Chmielewski expressed concerns council and city staff are doing a lot of talking and taking little action.

“Tonight we’re meeting to talk about it, but I don’t know what it means,” Chmielewski said.

Chmielewski said the process needs clarification. While it is fine to talk about goals and objectives, the discussion lacked specifics about how the goals and objectives would be accomplished.

In response to Chmielewski’s concerns, City Manager Bill Allen said the session is meant to be a starting point where he and other administrators get an idea of what the council wants to accomplish. Now city administration will organize the goals and come up with a concise game plan.

“If you agree to give us that guidance we will do the grunt work,” Allen said.

Allen and the council agreed to revisit the city’s goals in a month.

Contact Chris Gillow at chris.gillow@frontiersman.com or 352-2284.