Hanson resigns from Palmer City Council; members remain skeptical about commuter train

PALMER — The Palmer City Council said farewell to its longest-serving Councilman on Tuesday. The meeting was held a week in advance so that members of the council could attend the Palmer High School graduation on May 8. During the meeting, the Council declared May to be both Older Americans Month and Bike Month, recognized the Palmer Paralympians, prepared for spring cleaning and handled the resignation of the longest serving council member; Brad Hanson handed in his resignation at the end of the meeting after serving for the last 16 years on the Council. The Council had voted in favor of AM 18-057 prior to Hanson’s resignation, approving an exception to Palmer Charter section 2.3 and allowing Hanson to take the position of Community Director.

“I think Brad has the most intimate knowledge of the workings of the city of anyone on the council,” said Councilman Pete LaFrance. “That’s an incredibly valued asset in any situation he’ll bring that to his new role.”

City Manager Nathan Wallace detailed the upcoming events within the city in his report. Palmer beautification starts on May 7 and Wallace encouraged Palmer residents to partake in spring cleaning and bring their unwanted waste to the curb for pickup. However, not all items will be picked up on Monday the 7th and residents need to arrange with the city for larger pickups of broken appliances and such.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen the wind blow a refrigerator down the road but you never know here in Palmer,” said Wallace.

Carol Montgomery of the Mat-Su Zero Waste Coalition spoke on OR 18-004, Prohibiting distribution of single-use disposable plastic bags. The council had amended language to set the thickness at 4 mils, allowing for some thick plastic bags that have more strength and are designed for multiple uses to be legal. The ordinance did not come to a vote, but was presented for the first time. It is scheduled to be on the agenda for the May 22 meeting.

“The vast majority of people i’ve spoken to support this. It’s got grassroots support from our downtown community, small businesses matter a lot in Palmer and we’re listening to them. They support this in general,” said LaFrance.

Montgomery, a frequent public commenter appearing in front of the council for the last few months to voice her opinions on plastic bags, described them as a hazard, and praised the council for raising the limit from 2.25 mils to 4. Cordova, Bethel, Hooper Bay, Soldotna, Kodiak, Wasilla, and Glenallen have already banned plastic bags.

“We increased the thickness of bag which is important and one of the only major changes we really imposed. I’m excited to get more information from Councilman Carrington on the effect it’s had on communities that already banned it,” said Councilwoman Sabrena Combs.

Council members again railed on the Commuter Rail Task Force report. Council members made claims that the rail was all for the benefit Wasilla and not for Palmer. Councilman Fuller made a motion to end the taskforce, which died without a second. A vote is expected to come from the task force meeting that was held Friday. The taskforce will make a recommendation as to what they wish to do with the pilot program. Palmer council members were dubious about what they considered frivolous spending of money, lack of proposed access to Palmer residents, and so on. Council members said on three separate occasions that they loved trains, but found multiple flaws.

“I think option five should be to stop spending money on it until something viable comes along that’s going to reinvigorate infrastructure and make this a realistic tangible project,” said Fuller. “As much as I don’t like Wasilla, it’s not about Wasilla it’s about the state spending money.”

Each council member gave well-wishes to Hanson on his new position with the city.

“Honored and humbled by opportunity served with many great people,” said Hanson.

Hanson will now fill the position of Community Director, a position currently staffed on an interim basis by David Menesses.

Mayor Edna DeVries first met Hanson when he was a young boy attending school and playing sports with her son. Since then, she has served with Hanson on the Council. Hanson has been active within the community on projects near and far from the council. Hanson was instrumental in getting roads paved and was part of the group that originally brought the MTA Events center forward before that was a City endeavor.

Hanson has also served as a coach in Palmer Little League, Palmer High School Hockey coach, and was a member of the legendary Palmer Football coaching staff as the offensive coordinator for the better part of the last two decades.

Hanson came to the Council after serving on the Planning and Zoning. DeVries said that much of his expertise concerning Palmer Municipal Code and the Budget stem from his advanced business degrees and hands-on experience with the Planning and Zoning Commission. DeVries notes the attention to detail on every line item, able to see what she describes as the 10-foot view and the 10,000-foot view. Hanson has been a stickler for details in the best, most researched type of way. DeVries credits Hanson with his preparation, having always arrived to meetings with an established plan of how he sees the agenda and what questions he plans to ask.

Hanson often reluctantly began a line of questioning by pulling his glasses off of his head, turning on his mic, but speaking softly into his board packet notes.

“I think Brad has the most intimate knowledge of the workings of the city of anyone on the council,” said LaFrance. “I think that is an incredibly valuable asset to any situation and he’ll bring that to his new job.”

Each of the members of the council thanked Hanson for his service at the end of their meeting on Tuesday. Hanson and Mayor DeVries, surprisingly held their emotions in check for the duration of the meeting.

“It’s a little bit of a list,” said Hanson of what all he’s had his hands on in the Palmer Community.

“We’ve done a lot of good things, I hope to do a lot more good things. The city manager will be my boss and will dictate what i’m doing and that will be the biggest difference. I’m real excited.”