Palmer receives earful on projects

PALMER — Whatever else you say about the city of Palmer, don’t ever accuse it of putting on a boring capital projects fair.

With fire trucks and other big rigs parked outside and a police car and various apparatus inside, the ice rink at the MTA Events Center was divided among various city departments, each seeking input its various ideas to improve city infrastructure.

Attendees were given stickers to place on posters to indicate support for various projects.

The finance department, between inviting attendees to toss beanbags and guess the number of beans in a jar — get it? Bean counters? — was hoping city residents would vote for its project to upgrade the heating and ventilation at city hall.

City hall is an old building and the current system usually leaves stagnant air inside.

Across the way, at the Community Development department, building inspector David Meneses paused periodically to tap the “play” button on an iPad so folks could catch his movie-trailer-style video about what the department does.

Interspersed with videos of department employees at work and buildings under construction, text zoomed across a red, smoky background while dramatic music played in the background.

“It kind of brings attention to the things that need brought attention to,” Meneses said with a smile.

What was the most popular project on Community Development’s list? Developing new parks won by a country mile. The red green and yellow voting dots the project collected resembled some kind of Technicolor shotgun blast.

In the opposite corner, Emergency Services was trying to get the same level of support for a plan to fix up and expand the fire department’s training facility. A couple hours into the fair they hadn’t come close.

Emergency Services director Jon Owen said that, actually, he’d spent more time that afternoon talking about the golf course than anything. Owen is interim airport manager. The airport is adjacent to the golf course. Safety concerns might necessitate moving the golf course’s fence.

“A lot of people are worried about it because they love to golf,” Owen said.

He said he will give a full overview of the issue at Tuesday’s city council meeting.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.