Avs depart ice arena, leaving city with seats to fill

Palmer has lost its junior-league hockey team after spending $1.1 million on a major upgrade to the MTA Events Center that coincided with the Alaska Avalanche's move to the city two seasons ago.

Photo courtesy of the City of Palmer
A Zamboni smooths the ice at the MTA Events Center




 

Last month, the North American Hockey League approved the sale of the Alaska Avalanche to a Johnstown, Pa., partnership. Team owner Mark Lee didn’t respond to an interview request, but the team had logged declining attendance numbers despite two strong seasons. Lee is an investor and co-owner of the new team.

The Avalanche left Wasilla’s Curtis C. Menard II Memorial Ice Arena in 2010. That year, Palmer's city council agreed to arena improvements like new locker rooms, hundreds more seats to meet hockey league standards, an office and equipment storage. Some $400,000 from the Legislature helped pay for the project. Lee promised to pay the city $50,000 toward the upgrades as part of the team’s agreement with the city. 

Lee still owes the city at least $25,000, city manager Doug Griffin said this week. The team also got a reduced rate on ice time for practices and games, though the city shouldn't have trouble selling any leftover time at the popular rink. 

The city is trying to find an "amicable solution" to Lee's financial obligations, said Palmer Mayor DeLena Johnson. City officials this week were looking into what Lee still owes and whether any benefits the city got from the team might offset what’s owed. 

Hockey team or not, the city is still hoping to finish the project that started with the arrival of the Avalanche. 

The team's departure comes even as the city waits on another $725,000 in state funds to finish the third phase of the MTA center expansion. 


Officials last year requested another $500,000 from the state to install an elevator, generators, complete an outdoor canopy and increase arena seating to 1,100. Now that the Avs are gone, it seems the legislative appropriation would be moot, right?


No, city officials say. The upgrades to the arena weren't just for the team, Johnson said. The improvements also benefit future users of the soccer fields outside. The 3-year-old fields still need to green up and aren't playable yet - maybe by late summer, the mayor said - but once they are, players and fans will be able to access locker rooms and restrooms. The mayor also hopes to host future Palmer High School graduations at the arena.


And there's a new emphasis on a potential emergency-response role for the center that comes with a bit of an ick factor. 


A few months ago, the city council amended the description of the center's expansion plans to include emergency response.


On the recommendation of the office of the late Rep. Carl Gatto, the city in February changed its state capital request to include $225,000 for a backup generator, bringing the total request for the MTA center to $725,000.


The city in March adopted a resolution revising its description of the MTA expansion: “As the City becomes more aware of what community assets are needed to address major disasters and emergencies, it has become apparent that the MTA Events Center could fulfill a specific need for the Palmer area as an Evacuation Staging Point, Logistical Supply Staging Area, or Mass Fatality Storage and Processing Facility.”

"Mass Fatality Storage and Processing Facility"??? Yikes. Let's hope that need doesn't arise any time soon.

Barring disaster, the city is working to diversity the uses of the arena. Coming this Friday, May 12: roller derby. The Denali Destroyer Dolls take on the Rage City Rollergirls, with doors opening at 6 p.m. In another upcoming, albeit much more tame event, the city will hold a "Capital Project Fair" from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. on May 18 at the center.

The mayor said she's confident the arena will continue to serve the public. The loss of the Avs contract bothers her less, she said, than the loss of the "community-building" that accompanied the team's presence in Palmer.

"It bothers me more to lose the enthusiasm. People came in and were excited about having a home team," Johnson said.


-- Zaz Hollander

The message on the Web site of the Junior "A" hockey team
formerly known as the Alaska Avalanche. The new owner
has yet to pick a name for the Pennsylvania-bound team.

City mourns loss of its go-to guy, Rep. Carl Gatto

Rep. Carl Gatto, R-Palmer

State flags across Alaska flew at half-mast Wednesday in honor of Palmer-based Rep. Carl Gatto, a Republican who represented Palmer in the Alaska Legislature since 2002.

Gatto, 74, died April 10 in Washington state, where he was being treated for a kidney condition. Gatto had for several years battled prostate cancer. He recently took a break from the legislative session to receive radiation treatment for tumors and, after heading back to Juneau, was flown to a Seattle-area hospital for treatment for dehydration and a kidney condition. His chief of staff told Associated Press reporters last week that it appeared unlikely Gatto would return to Alaska before the end of session.

Gatto chaired the House Judiciary Committee and pushed this year for a bill to ban texting while driving, a measure that stirred a little controversy. But locally, he was known more for the hard work he put in on several sizable projects. 

Last fall, Gatto was one of several dignitaries who spoke at the grand opening of Mat-Su Senior Services Center, the new and spacious senior center in Palmer. Seniors in Palmer had been working on getting a new building for nearly 20 years but Gatto put the project on his top priority list for the state budget for five years running. He did so after visiting the center and literally cringing at the cramped space and piles of paper files that occupied nearly every corner of the building. A former Anchorage Fire Department chief, he said the building was one giant fire hazard, in addition to being too outdated to meet the various and many demands of Palmer’s growing senior population.

Another project Gatto championed was the new, broad thoroughfare that is Trunk Road. The project to widen and straighten the narrow old road had languished on state Transportation project lists for years. Gatto, who lived on the road, was familiar with its failings. An avid runner, he had a cadre of horror stories to tell about being forced off his path by drivers zooming around its twists and turns.

Gatto championed many projects but Palmer Mayor DeLena Johnson said she would remember him for his unfailing support for the city fire department. When a new piece of equipment – and none of them are cheap – was needed, Gatto was the city’s go-to guy. In fact, Johnson said she’s a little worried the city’s top capital project, a new fire tanker and roof replacement for the city fire station, might get lost in the legislative shuffle without Gatto there to shepherd it through. It’s a big-ticket request, $780,000, and Johnson said she hopes it won’t be forgotten. She and city manager Doug Griffin were headed to Juneau for a session-end lobbying trip this week to make sure that and other city requests are on legislators’ minds.

Johnson said she felt Gatto did a great job keeping in touch with community needs and representing the city at the state level.

“He was always visible in the community, we were always able to talk to him,” she said. The news of his passing, she said, was not unexpected given his recent health battles, but it was a tragedy nonetheless.

Palmer City Council members passed a resolution Tuesday night honoring Gatto for his service. City leaders meant to give it to him in celebration of his retirement – he had announced he would not seek another term in the House earlier this year. But with his passing, the council felt it important to mark his “unwavering support” to the community.

Here's the proclamation the city passed:

-- Rindi White

Palmer to residents - let's talk

Developing Palmer-area businesses like the Pioneer Square Shopping Center

 was one of four goals the city council approved Tuesday. 

What are your top priorities for Palmer? Drop us a line. The Post is always interesting in communicating with the people of Palmer. So, apparently, is the city council. 

Two of the four priorities selected by the council during a Tuesday night goal-setting session centered on community outreach: improving customer service as well as communications between the city and the community. The other two priorities are recreational opportunities and retail/business development. 

Mayor DeLena Johnson convened the session. The Mat-Su Borough held a similar one in late December. A facilitator helped council members winnow down their favorites by giving each member three votes to put behind the priorities they liked. The top four won out. 

“These are goals,” city manager Doug Griffin told the Post on Wednesday. “Now it’s laid on me and my directors and city employees as a whole to come back with what objectives and action plans we have to implement these goals.”  

Basically, the community outreach piece boils down to the city doing a better job telling taxpayers where their money goes. Much of the city’s business centers on day-to-day operations -- water and sewer, garbage collection, roads. But most taxpayers don’t actually run across a city employee unless something goes wrong. They geta speeding ticket, or get a call from a bill collector for an overdue notice. A few council members reported going to Greater Palmer Chamber of Commerce meetings only to be asked just what the city is doing these days, Griffin said.

The retail-boosting piece has been a local priority for years. And the city can use a stronger tax base. But city government walks a fine line when it comes to getting involved with business, said deputy mayor Richard Best. “You want to support your current businesses, you want to encourage growth,” Best said. “On the other hand, some folks don’t want to see big box stores come in.”

Developers have expressed the desire for Palmer to expand its footprint so they can take advantage of city utilities and the resulting lower insurance premiums, Best said. Some citizens want the city to help market the former Carrs building, and the council would like to see it filled, but it’s privately owned by Carr Gottstein Properties. 

“So its their choice to leave it empty or not,” he said. 

The recreation piece, which also includes library services, is a bit tricky too, Griffin noted. The city has no parks and recreation department and just finished a bunch of budget cuts. But the city does have a number of recreational facilities, including the expanding MTA Events Center - completion is now due in March, after initially being promised last fall - and the golf course. A new recreation and trails master plan is nearly done. The goal involves streamlining these resources, Griffin said. 

So what do you think? Are these your priorities for Palmer? The city is all ears.