Fair could get $1.1 million

Palmer City Council member Joe Lawton's last meeting after 12 years of on-again-off-again service will be Oct. 9.

Palmer council members have established a tradition of skipping out on their last meeting, but Lawton is also general manager of the nonprofit Alaska State Fair Inc. (ASF), and a lobbying effort on behalf of the fair will bring him to the chambers one last time.

"It's customary that people leaving don't show up at that meeting," Lawton said during the council's Sept. 11 meeting, "and I don't want to break that precedent. But I have to attend, at least to be in the audience."

ASF will benefit from a $1.1-million federal grant to build a transportation hub at the fairgrounds if the fair corporation can convince the city government to accept a federal grant for the project. The transportation grant is on the agenda for Oct. 9, Lawton's last meeting.

During last week's meeting, Lawton explained to the council that the fair had applied for the grant to relieve parking lot and highway congestion during the fair.

ASF officials thought they had the money in the bag, but the people in the federal government who approved the grant were under the assumption that ASF was a state-owned corporation, which it's not. Now ASF needs an appropriate government, such as Palmer, to accept and administer the grant.

"Or we're going to lose a million bucks," Lawton told the council.

Lawton said in an interview this week that the transportation hub will benefit the community as a whole, not just ASF.

"There is no one else addressing the fact that a third of a million people come to the fair, and that a small nonprofit corporation and a two-lane road is supposed to take care of it. This is a little relief," Lawton said.

The Alaska Department of Transportation will build the project with the $1.1 million in federal funds making up 90 percent of the costs. Lawton said the plan calls for a commuter drop-off center, which would be integrated with an Alaska railroad passenger terminal.

Currently, train passengers who arrive at the fair are dropped off at temporary platforms along the rail line, and there is no rail siding onto the fairgrounds. During the 2001 fair there was no train service to the event, but a railroad spokesperson told the Frontiersman it was due to lack of equipment. Lawton said ASF and DOT plan to go forward even if the trains aren't coming anytime soon.

"As we envision it, this would accommodate train traffic and facilitate private vehicle drop-offs, and allow buses to come by and drop off in the core of the fairgrounds. It puts you right down in the center of the grounds in a hurry," Lawton said.

Lawton said the drop-off center will be valuable to Palmer-area commuters all year, and it would be designed with loading zones for buses and van pools. It would even accommodate commuter trains, which might become a possibility in the future.

"Here we have lighting and police patrols," Lawton said. "It's conceivable that it would be a safer place for people to ride-share from. So that's one of things we're considering implementing."

Lawton said the grant would still be available for a few months if his colleagues on the Palmer council refuse to accept it, in which case ASF might go elsewhere for help.

"It doesn't have to go through the city, but that's the most logical place for it to go through," he said.