Palmer City Council approves temporary structures

PALMER — The Palmer City Council approved Jan. 26 as Kawasaki Disease Day, looked at signs and approved temporary structures in their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 23.

Kawasaki disease inflames blood vessels and can lead to permanent heart damage. It primarily affects young children and is often un-diagnosed due to lack of knowledge and disappearing symptoms. The City Council proclaimed Jan. 26 as Kawasaki City Manager Nathan Wallace detailed city activity in his report.

The city of Palmer website will be undergoing a domain name change as well as a site overhaul. Since October, a new website has been drafted for the city. Staff will preview the website next week. After a grace period of 90 days with both websites up and running, cityofpalmer.org will become palmerak.org, with the expected completion near the Colony Days celebration this summer. The website brings a huge improvement in functionality, according to Wallace.

The most debated topic of the evening was a way-finding report issued by the Sustainable Design Group. Council members said they enjoyed the effort, but found it to be a bit too much to be feasible.

"We need to make sure that fits with the Glenn being changed so people aren't bypassing Palmer. It's going to be especially important to make sure people are finding their way into Palmer," said Councilwoman Sabrena Combs.

The action memorandum was accepted unanimously, as opposed to being approved.

"Some of the things didn't seem to fit. Talking about a road sign, when you look at the location of signage, want to talk about cluttering our views with all these signs. Also, we're in a technological era. Somebody new to the area is going to google maps us," said Deputy Mayor Richard Best.

The suggestion of accepting rather than approving the report was suggested by Wallace so that the city staff may use elements of the report to help sign the city without being attached to the unwanted expenses.

"I do think we need to brand ourselves, we need to identify things around the city that are important... i think it's a fantastic addition to the city if we can pull it off but I don't think we can afford this," said Councilman Brad Hanson. "The worst thing we do in the world as a council is commission reports and let them sit. If we're not going to use reports I don't think we should spend the money at all."

After accepting the way-finding report, the council unanimously passed four action memorandums regarding temporary structures. Lazy Mountain Enterprizes received approval for their temporary structure on Steel Loop, MEA received approval for two structures on Industrial Way, and Perkup Espresso received approval for their shop on the Glenn Highway.

While all the buildings with pending permits were approved, the board still seeks greater definition on how to permit such buildings. Some argue that buildings in the industrial park should not require a permit, while other buildings, such as Perkup, should seek a longer permit as there is no active plan to move the location. While the permits came before the board for the first time since the motion came about in 2015, Best still sees this as a punt. While the city council is the governing body on temporary structure permission, the ultimate goal is still to move this discussion to the Planning and Zoning committee.

The Palmer City Council will meet again on Feb. 6 at 7:00 p.m. at Palmer City Hall.

Contact Frontiersman reporter Tim Rockey at timothy.rockey@frontiersma.com.