Palmer Mayor ‘getting better everyday'

June 30, 2006

By JOEL DAVIDSON/Frontiersman

PALMER - Doctors expect a full recovery for 55-year-old Palmer Mayor John Combs. It'll just take some time, the mayor said Wednesday.

Speaking from his home in Palmer, Combs said his recovery from a severe lung infection is painful but progressing well.

&#8220I would expect a couple more weeks yet before I'm back,” he said. &#8220Everyone is telling me to take it easy, but I'm kind of stubborn - I like to get after it.”

On June 5, with a serious lung infection, Combs was transported by ambulance from Mat-Su Regional Medical Center to Alaska Regional Hospital in Anchorage, where doctors scraped the lining of his lungs and placed him in isolated care.

For the past month, different council members have helped take up the slack in the mayor's absence, conducting council meetings and attending community events that the mayor had planned on attending.

Combs said he hopes to begin working part time in &#8220another week or so.” For now, he is continuing with physical therapy and trying to take it easy.

&#8220I'm doing well,” he said. &#8220I'm getting better every day.”

Combs was elected to the Palmer City Council in October 2000. Palmer residents elected him as mayor in 2004, while he was also employed as a juvenile justice officer, or counselor, at Mat-Su Youth Facility. Comb's current mayoral term ends October 2007.

Contact Joel Davidson at

352-2266 or joel.davidson@

frontiersman.com.