Palmer to get indoor ice within year

PALMER -- Borough bond money or not, within a year Palmer will have indoor ice.

This is the prediction of Palmer officials, who say the city bond for $1.5 million that passed last week will be enough to get a building up and put a sheet of ice down by next fall.

"And we'll go as far as we can with the internal building," said Palmer Public Works Superintendent Rick Koch.

What may be lacking during this first phase of construction are finished, permanent locker rooms and other amenities within the building. Palmer officials were shooting for a total of $3 million to fund the project, including $1.5 million from the Mat-Su Borough.

The fate of this bond and the other parks and recreation proposals included in a boroughwide proposition during the election was still unknown as of press time. At last count, the bonds were narrowly failing by just more than 100 votes.

Koch said last week that he wasn't giving up hope yet -- absentee and questioned ballots were still being counted. However, even if the proposition fails, Koch said the ice arena project will still go ahead.

"Our goal … is by next October we'll have skaters on ice inside in Palmer," Koch said.

Part of what will make this possible is the fact that last spring the city purchased around $300,000 in used ice arena equipment from the shut-down Bonnie Cusack Memorial Ice Arena in Anchorage. The 5-year-old equipment included an ice refrigeration system, scoreboard, skate sharpener, Zamboni and a wide variety of other arena accessories -- a total package worth more than a half-a-million dollars if purchased new, according to Koch.

With this and the $1.5 million city bond in hand, Koch says Palmer is well on its way to have an indoor ice facility. The next step will be to decide where to put it.

One of the most talked-about locations is a 14-acre site on Cope Industrial Way near Palmer Junior Middle School that Palmer already owns. It offers several advantages, including the fact that there would be no land costs and it is located next to a school. But Koch says by no means is this a done deal -- others have proposed purchasing property near Sherrod Elementary so that the new ice arena could be part of the complex of sports fields already located there.

Koch said he will be working with a consultant this week to come up with some proposals and within the next month he hopes the city will have chosen a site.

Another significant step in the process will be ordering the steel for the building. Koch said this product is increasingly in demand and Palmer will have to find a place in line, but he predicts it will take at least 16 weeks for it to be delivered once the city makes its order. Whether ground will be broken this winter or not depends largely on the weather in the next few months, Koch said.

Wherever it is located, city officials envision the ice arena as being part of a larger multi-use area that could include running tracks, BMX bicycling areas and other facilities for youths and families.

Already, Koch said he is looking into a Nike grant that could help pay for an indoor running track in the ice arena.

"It's really exciting," Koch said. He said by the time the next high school hockey season starts, Palmer will have a place to practice.

"And we'll have home ice," he said.