Long-time municipal administrator, Palmer city manager to retire in June

After years of service in local government, Palmer city manager John Moosey is retiring. He has been Palmer’s manager for four years and before that was the Matanuska-Susitna Borough’s manager for nine years.

Moosey will stay the job at the city of Palmer until mid-June, he said. After that it’ll be more time with family and particularly seven grandchildren. He’ll continue living in Palmer.

“We’ll never leave Palmer,” Moosey said.

In the Jan. 9 meeting the city council discussed advertising for a replacement for Moosey but will post the notice after the next council meeting on Jan. 23.

In its other business council members ticked through an agenda of administrative issues, among other things agreeing to an additional seasonal hire at Palmer’s city-owned airport to keep facilities operating for more hours including in bad weather.

This was welcome news to owners and managers of aviation operators doing business at the airport. Palmer is important for medivacs from the Mat-Su region and it’s important to have runways operating and cleared of snow in bad weather, aviation operators told the council.

It is also the only airport in the region certified by the FAA for precision instrument landings, they said. Business at the airport is booming with new hangers being built but snow clearing is a continuing issue, the council was told.

Additional seasonal will help address that. The salary of an additional seasonal employee would be paid by an increase to airport lease rentals.

In another aviation-related issue, Moosey said he and other city officials met recently with the Alaska Airmens’ Association board with a pitch to make Palmer the association’s home base.

This would build on the success of the Great Alaska Aviation Gathering, a major summer event that brings thousands of people interested in aviation to Palmer.

The event centers at Palmer’s airport and the Alaska State Fair grounds and builds awareness of Palmer in the aviation community. If the association locates its headquarters in Palmer it would result in more aviation education and training there along with having more building space leased, Moosey said.

In other city council actions a revised land-use ordinance was adopted that lays out guidelines for approvals of new housing including single-family residential and low, medium and high-density residential housing. Provisions for homeless and emergency shelters were included in this.

A new contract for operation of Palmer’s golf course was approved for Eagle Golf Course Management Inc., for the amount of $425,000. Greene Garden Services was awarded a contract for $48,540 for seasonal horticultural services to maintain municipal gardens.

Resolutions were adopted allowing the city manager to execute a five-year contract with the Matanuska-Susitna Borough to provide fire emergency responses in the Greater Palmer Fire Service Area and to create a fleet replacement fund for Palmer Fire and Rescue.

Approvals were also made for purchase of fire hydrant cleaning systems and an extension of the contract now held by Wolf Architecture for design and construction management services for the rebuilding of the Palmer public library, which was damaged last winter by a roof collapse.

Moosey also reported to the council on meetings held by city officials in late December with Palmer downtown retail business owners on the city’s restrictions on snow removal in adjacent public access space.

During recent heavy snowfalls many retail operators removed snow to allow access but placed it in public spaces such as streets, which created other blockage and conflicted with city rules.

Heavy snow fell just before the Colony Christmas celebrations, a major holiday shopping period. The meeting was held to improve communication between retail owners and the city and to better explain the municipal rules, Moosey said.

A compromise is being discussed that would allow a temporary lifting of restrictions during heavy snow events but with the snow removal and placement done with the city being informed and giving permission.