'Happy accident'

PALMER — The city of Palmer is sporting a bit of flair after the work of the Crosswalk Coalition on South Valley Way and East Elmwood Avenue in front of the museum. The rainbow crosswalk is the result of a community initiative started in January when Gil Penalosa spoke at the Palmer Train Depot.

“A big group of us got together after that to try to generate and capture some of the energy that we had,” Jill Valerius said.

The money for paint for the crosswalk was donated and volunteers helped lay the paint on the pavement on Sunday afternoon. The weather allowed paint to dry and the volunteers were ecstatic to see the results of their work visible in the community, even proceeding with an “Abbey Road” inspired photoshoot of the volunteers walking safely across the colorful crosswalk. The group received input and assistance from city administration, coordinating on what colors to use and even providing for a paint test at the Public Works Department.

“Both the Parks and Recreation Community Resource Board worked with us, supported the idea, the Palmer City Council supported the idea. It was great the way it all came together,” said Linda Kelley.

Kerry Nelson volunteered her artistic tendencies to put five ideas in front of the crosswalk coalition that had developed. Kelley said that the group put together a list of ideas ranging from low hanging fruit to higher degree of difficulty projects to improve the livability of the community. The Palmer Community Foundation helped to put on a separate meeting prior to city council approval of the rainbow crosswalk.

“My original intent with it was, I was inspired by just like mountain peaks and so that’s what all the white is,” Nelson said. “We really wanted to do something that was going to catch people’s eyes and so that’s when I just kind of went nuts with all different colors and everyone voted on that one so here it is.”

Nelson coordinated with the colors recommended not to be used by the Federal Highway Administration recommendations. None of the colors are red, the blue is not a handicapped spot shade of blue, and the green is a different shade than green used for a bike lane as to not cause any confusion to roadway users what the colors on the crosswalk mean. Valerius was grinning ear to ear as the group anxiously awaited pulling the painters tape off of the corners. Valerius is particularly proud that the group was able to accomplish their goal so quickly.

“The most exciting thing today has been like watching diff community members walking around being like hey wait i know people over there what are you guys doing,” Valerius said. “I just think it adds a little flair to our town.”

Valerius stood alongside Kelley, Nelson, and a handful of volunteers young and old who had spent the afternoon adding art to their community after months of planning and hard work.

“I just moved up here three years ago from Milwaukee and I’ve been really, really really homesick and it’s been a huge transition from me going from a big city to a small town,” Nelson said. “I’m not used to it and so instead of moping around, I wanted to become more involved in my community, and this was just a really amazing happy accident.”