Palmer’s council hears city’s plan for 2022 road work, including fix to icing problem on Eagle Avenue

Palmer’s city council ticked through a routine business agenda at its Tuesday, March 8 meeting but also honored two well-known community leaders, Barbara Hunt and Jack Snodgrass, with the city’s annual Golden Heart Lifetime Achievement awards.

Hunt is a long-time resident and local writer who has been active in community affair for years, and also writes a column for the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman.

Snodgrass, who was Palmer’s city attorney for 25 years, retiring in 2006, has also lived with his family in the area for years.

“The Snodgrass family was farming in this area before the colonists arrived. They and a few other early farmers are a large part of the reason we have train service here,” Mayor Steve Carrington said.

The Golden Heart awards are made yearly to recognize the lifetime achievements of local residents.

In other business, Palmer public works director Jude Bilafer briefed the council on the city’s plans for rehabilitation and major maintenance work on local streets.

The council had previously approved $400,000 for work on streets and roads, and the city has mapped out a plan to use $330,000 this year and leaving $70,000 as a contingency or to put toward a more comprehensive program beginning next year, Bilafer said.

Bids are being solicited now for the summer work with responses due in March 31.

One substantial project, among others, is to solve a problem of ice buildup that occurred this year along Eagle Avenue, and which has become a safety problem prompting numerous complaints, Bilafer said.

The cause of ice was a water overflow from an undetermined source but most likely a natural spring, which means that it may be reoccurring.

A design for the changes needed has been developed and a preliminary estimate for the modification Is $190,000, but the bids due at the end of the month will provide a more reliable cost figure.

Future projects, to which leftover funds from this year will be applied, include an upgrade of Aqua Avenue that will include bike paths. This project was planned previously but bids came in higher than expected so it will now be done in phases, Bilafer said.

Another set of projects on the priority list is to upgrade a number of local streets to improve “walkability” in the city and to include paving so that winter snow clearance is easier.

Currently, the operation of snow plows on gravel roads is challenging, Bilafer said, because the plows pick up and throw gravel, which results in cracked windshields and complaints. “We recognize the need for paving, so this is on the priority list,” Bilafer told the council.

In other business, city manager John Moosey said a group of western region Federal Aviation Agency officials met at Palmer’s city airport last Friday, March 4.

Briefing at the meeting included matters of local and regional aviation safety and noise abatement procedures in place for the airport. Plans were also discussed for this year’s Great Alaska Aviation Gathering, sponsored y the Alaska Airmen’s Association, which will be held in Palmer for the second year.

The event was shifted from Anchorage to Palmer due to COVID-19 restrictions in Anchorage, and brought 20,00 people to Palmer for the event, 10,000 more than was anticipated, Moosey said.

The event is set for three days May 6 through 8 this year, a Friday, Saturday and Sunday that is one day longer than last year’s event.

In other business the council approved a liquor license renewal for Turkey Red Liquor, a local business, and approved the nomination of Penny McClain to the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission.

The council also approved a $1,500 community grant to United Way of Mat-Su. The grant will fund work by four local artists to create art for display at various places.

Originally $2,500 had been proposed but the council reduced it to $1,500

Business owners and property owners will be consulted and shown the art work, United Way Outreach Director, Michele Harmeling said.

The artists have been approved by the city’s Parks and Recreation department along with other community members, Harmeling said.

There is sensitivity to art commissioned with public funds after an experience at a Wasilla middle school a few years ago where art commissioned under the state “one percent for art” resulted in a sculpture that was deemed inappropriate for young people.

The sculpture was removed.