Palmer couplet has raised local concern

A proposed rerouting of traffic in and out of Palmer has raised some hackles, particularly among the town’s business owners.

The plan is to run two lanes of one-way traffic into the core area from the Palmer-Wasilla Highway and then move traffic out of town on Dogwood Street that would be a one-lane, one-way street connecting with Hemming Road and then back to the Palmer-Wasilla Highway.

The reason businesses are concerned is manifold.

First, some fear they will lose parking spaces to the project, making it hard for their customers to reach them.

Second, the idea of a loop that goes right by the main business district and toward the courthouse and comes back through town a few blocks north doesn’t sound like a good way to ask people to stop and shop.

More possible, in business leaders’ minds, might be the threat of Wal-Mart setting up shop near where the two roads meet again at the edge of town.

That has been the rumor around Palmer since Wal-Mart showed interest in the property a few years ago.

At the Palmer chamber meeting Wednesday, Mayor John Combs gave some updates about what is going on in his town and naturally the couplet plan came up. He encouraged people to go to the town hall meeting Tuesday at the Depot. That starts at 4:30.

A member of the audience asked Combs point blank if the couplet was planned with Wal-Mart in mind.

He answered point blank, “No.”

In the back of the room, somebody mumbled, “I don’t believe that.”

That’s probably the sentiment of many in the business community. When Wal-Mart sets up shop in small towns, local shops tend to suffer.

The one thing Palmer has always enjoyed is its small town environment with lots of small shops serving the local community.

That’s why the couplet/Wal-Mart has the look of a double-edged sword to business people there.

In the city’s defense, the project has been discussed for a long time. Typically, though, people don’t go to meetings or read advertisements about projects until they start seeing surveyors squinting into their scopes. By then the wheels are about to turn and reversing them is hard to do.

In defense of the community, the city could have done a lot more toward letting folks know of its plans. The chambers of commerce in the Valley meet weekly. So do service groups like Rotary and Kiwanis. Taking the show on the road would have made this project less controversial in its present stage. A lesson for the future.