Park-design potluck is BYOV

The City of Palmer is inviting you to a novel potluck this weekend to help plan a new public park in the Brittany Estates subdivision. It's BYOV - Bring Your Own Vision.

A toddler-age design idea for a new playground in Palmer.
The city hasn't picked any designs yet.

The city hopes to build the new park - they're calling it Wilson Park - on a half acre at South Felicia Street across from Gurn Circle. A new park tracks with the local demographic: Brittany Estates is a dense residential area home to lots of young families. 

But instead of kicking off the planning process with the usual wonky work sessions, Palmer’s community development director Sandra Garley decided to try something new: a community-based brainstorming session at a kid-friendly hour, with home-cooked food. 

Voila! The Wilson Park Design Event was born. The city will host the family-friendly potluck Friday from 5:30 p.m. until 8 p.m at the First Baptist Church at 1150 E. Helen Dr. Children are welcome. Bring a dish and your ideas for a new park. Garley, working with vendors, will bring posters showing different playground equipment designs to choose from.

Saturday morning, landscape architects from Sustainable Design Group in Wasilla will pore over the comments from Friday night and develop a drawing of what the park might look like. 

Then the community is invited to come back to First Baptist Saturday from 2 p.m. until 3:30 p.m. to see what materializes.

The city needs a new park in the fast-growing neighborhoods on the west side of the Glenn Highway that includes Brittany Estates, but also the Hidden Ranch and Greatland Terrace subdivisions too. Right now, there’s only one little “tot lot” off Arctic.

Another possible design idea,
 for 5-12 year olds.

The last new park built by the city? Garley thought for a minute. The MTA Events Center includes a soccer field that opens for the first time this year. Other city parks have been around for a while. 

Whatever comes out of this weekend’s process will go before the city council, where it will resume a more conventional route to creation that includes the requisite grant proposals. 

Garley said she doesn’t know how many people to expect at the potluck Friday night. The city sent invites to nearly 200 people. 

“Fifty or sixty would be awesome. Ten or twelve would be great,” she said. “We’re going to work with whoever shows up.”

She does know what she’s bringing: salmon. 

For more information, go to www.cityofpalmer.org and scroll down to the “Wilson Park Design Event” link or call the Community Development Department at 745-3709.


 -- Zaz Hollander

Feed store pulls up roots

Photo courtesy Mike Presley.
Budget Feed's new spot on Outer Springer.

Budget Feed and Farm, the 37-year-old Palmer feed store, has moved from the old red shop on S. Colony Way in Palmer to a new spot on Springer Loop. The new address is 301 E. Outer Springer Loop, Suite B4.

Owner Mike Presley said he was chased out of the old building by a crummy economy and business costs that made it tough for him to continue milling pet and livestock feed at the store. Without the need for so much space, he said, it just didn’t make monetary sense to keep leasing the old shop.

Rest assured the feed he sells is still being made with all-natural and locally sourced ingredients, like Delta Barley and Alaska Wild Salmon meal. Same ingredients, same formula, Presley said. It’s just being milled at a different location.

Budget Feed opened at the new location Oct. 11, Presley said. And while the shop meets his needs for now, he said he's looking for a long-term spot. But he’s also trying to pin down future plans.

“Business has changed,” Presley said by phone.

Retail sales are down, he said, and the part of his business that is growing best is wholesale feed sales. His Alaska Grown Dog Food, made with salmon meal, potatoes and kelp, is sold at Alaska Mill and Feed at several stores between Anchorage and Fairbanks, including grocery stores and even a health food store in Eagle River (Ri-Generation Nutrition). It might make sense just to focus on the wholesale end of things, he said. But Presley said he’s still looking at the possibilities for his business.

Bob Thom, who previously owned Budget Feed and Farm, still owns the building on S. Colony Way. There are “For Lease” signs on the building but Thom wasn’t immediately available Wednesday afternoon to talk about its future.

For now Duane Clark, who has sold Christmas trees there for several years, is using the space. Presley said he and Clark discussed selling the trees at his new location but the new space just isn’t as good a fit as the roomy old shop.

Clark and his family sells trees at the S. Colony Way spot from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and will be open from 2-5 p.m. for the next two Sundays. He’ll be there through Christmas Eve unless he sells out before then.

Check out Budget Feed and Farm online at their website, http://www.budgetfeedandfarm.com/.