What better way to spend a Tuesday night?

May 17, 2005

Spectrum/Kate Golden

Living wages or not, Wal-Mart has been a wonderful thing for Palmer so far.

This winter, the audience section of City Council chambers was barren and sometimes tiring, despite the constant stream of entertainment coming from behind the podium. It's tiring being the only audience member. They're all looking at you. You can't squirm or pick your nose. And you feel, too, a certain heaviness, which is the burden of your anachronism: You belong in the days when people crowded into town meetings to claim their democracy.

In the last two months, however, there's been a rash of interest in Palmer City Council meetings. People who have never spoken before come up to the stand. They state their names and addresses for the record, make suggestions and sometimes criticize the heck out of the council.

Sometimes, they even sit through the whole meeting.

Last week's meeting saw the biggest crowd yet. Chairs and rules were shoved aside for extra public comment. About half the people came because they don't want a Palmer Wal-Mart. These members of the new community organization People for Palmer want to preserve Palmer's small-town charm, and they're worried or mad enough about the prospect of the big-box store that they're willing to spend a perfect summer evening according to Robert's Rules of Order.

We've had to claim our elbow space, at least.

We cordially thank Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Palmerites, keep talking into that microphone. They seem to be listening up there.

But we have a suggestion, especially for those possessing a healthy amount of cynicism regarding local politicians: Stay until the end.

According to Mayor John Combs, those who leave after their three minutes and 2 cents miss the big, wonderful truth of how the council goes about its business.

"When I hear things like we aren't listening or we don't care …" Combs said.

"No vision," interjected council member Tony Pippel, quoting a critical constituent.

"No vision. And then, you know, they split," Combs said.

It's been eye-opening for those who have stayed. They've ended up stepping up to speak on everything from the Pledge of Allegiance to agricultural zoning. And with an audience of potential voters, the council members debate more vigorously and, perhaps, more honestly.

Oddly, the Palmer council members appear to shoot mostly straight. But don't take it from me.

A real public-meeting connoisseur will always stay for end-of-council comments, though past her bedtime they may come. In Wasilla, that's when council members draw their swords, or the mayor reports city officials' resignations. In Palmer, that's when council member Kathrine Vanover gushes about "walkable" small towns, Pippel throws his head back and hands up at the sluggishness of bureaucracy, and city manager Tom Healy reports on exactly how many millions of dollars will or will not be coming to Palmer from state coffers.

Last week, you'd have had to wait until the end to hear council member Jim Wood suggest a six-month moratorium on all large retail establishments in order to make substantial modifications to the LRE ordinance, and offer the idea of a "design manual" to tell retailers how Palmer wants buildings to look. He was inspired, he said, by the People for Palmer.

That is just what the People for Palmer wanted. But only a few stayed to hear it.

Kate Golden (kate.golden@

frontiersman.com) is a Frontiersman reporter who covers, among other things, the city of Palmer. When she's not out indulging her appetite for long public meetings, she can be found hunched over her keyboard and coffee mug in the newsroom.