Nominations open for Palmer political seats

July 13, 2007

By Hannah Guillaume/Frontiersman

PALMER - Try running for mayor or city council if you're frustrated with how the system works in Palmer.

Nominations for Palmer's next mayor and two city council members are being taken from Monday through 5 p.m. July 27. Nominating petitions are available at 8 a.m. Monday at the City Clerk's Office on 231 W. Evergreen Ave. Petitions must have 20 signatures from registered Palmer voters.

Mayor John Combs said he plans to run for nomination on the October ballot. If re-elected, he would serve his second term. Combs, 56, was the only candidate in the 2004 election.

&#8220I just have an innate desire, when I get something started I like to see it finished,” he said.

Combs said it takes more than three years for a Palmer mayor to be successful at improving the city. He spent his first year groping around and getting things in order, the second year making connections with movers and shakers in Juneau and last year he found momentum to cause change. If re-elected, Combs said he will work to pave every road, including streets in outlying subdivisions, sell the airport's remaining lease lots and build wastewater infrastructure before piping and facilities reach capacity.

Combs also wants a park for skateboarding developed at Arctic Avenue near South Alaska Street.

For anyone else thinking about applying for nomination on the 2007 ballot, Combs said &#8220good luck.”

Kathrine Vanover, a council member who's term ends in October, said she is applying for nomination on the 2007 ballot.

The biggest difficulties in Palmer's future are hiring a new city manager and Matanuska Electric Association's intent to build a coal-fired power plant, she said.

&#8220This coal plant is supposed to be out here at the end of this town where the wind blows,” she said. &#8220I don't think the one that they're proposing is safe, but I know nothing about engineering or electricity.”

Vanover noted that she likes and is friends with MEA's board members; however, she questions why Palmer residents never got asked to vote about whether or not to build the plant and resents that co-op member-owners weren't given any options in the direction to go for future energy beyond the plant's location.

For a new city manager, Vanover wants to hire someone with a vision for economic development that won't tarnish Palmer's quiet arts and crafts nature or insult its blue-collar workforce. One of the first things to do for that is put businesses into the old Matanuska Maid warehouse.

Jim Wood, a council member who's term ends in October, said he will put his name in the nomination hat for the 2007 ballot. He said the main challenge for the post-election council will be balancing the wants of residents looking to keep farmlands near downtown and those craving economic growth through commercial development.

&#8220There's a delicate balance that needs to be struck there,” he said.

An annexation of commercial development for farmlands near downtown could satisfy all equally, Wood said.

The mayor and council members elected in October 2007 will serve until October 2010.

Contact Hannah Guillaume at 352-2284 or hannahguillaume@yahoo.com.