Palmer gets initial water and sewer cash

PALMER -- Officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, joined by U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, transferred the first quantity of money intended for the Southwest Palmer Utility Extension to Palmer Mayor Jim Cooper, at a Palmer Chamber of Commerce meeting on Wednesday.

This money, totaling $2.4 million, is the down payment for the USDA's share of Palmer's cost for extending water and sewer service to the new hospital at the intersection of the Parks and Glenn highways.

Preliminary cost estimates put the price for this expansion at approximately $8.2 million, but more recent studies that have the route veering northward toward the end of its movement along the Glenn -- in order to address the troublesome terrain in that area, according to Cooper -- place the total price tag closer to $9million.

The USDA portion of the utility construction costs is capped at 75 percent of the total amount.

The rest of this money, in the neighborhood of $3.5 million, will be available at the beginning of the next fiscal year in October, Cooper said.

"Given how critical water and sewer service is to the construction of the hospital, it is wonderful that the government has moved so quickly to get the first payment into local hands," said Murkowski, R-Alaska, in a press release.

Hilda Legg, administrator of the USDA's Rural Utilities Service, was on hand at the meeting to praise the behind-the-scenes work that had gone into the acquisition of this grant.

"Senators Stevens and Murkowski have just been absolutely dogged about ensuring that the funds that need to go to Alaska do so," Legg said. She added that the RUS had put hundreds of millions of dollars into creating utility infrastructure within the state.

"This presentation would not be possible without the efforts of these senators."

Legg, who hails from a rural Kentucky community, said small-town activism is a critical means of influencing political decisions.

"We in rural communities must be strong advocates for those communities so our children still have a place that they're proud to call home," she said.

Cooper accepted the giant check from Murkowski and Legg. "This not only opens up great opportunities for expansion to the hospital, but also for opening up a large area for future development," he said.