From Rindi White in Wasilla:
Palmer City Council will consider at its 7 p.m. meeting tomorrow whether to ask the Alaska Railroad Corp. to remove rail tracks that have split the city since it was founded.
The city proposes to remove the railroad tracks from a spur near the Alaska State Fair grounds that serves the Palmer Municipal Airport to Arctic Avenue. The city would also ask for permission to manage the former rail bed.
City leaders have said removing the railroad tracks would free up more green space in the city and give them more flexibility as they design a park along the rail bed. The tracks are used infrequently, and Railroad officials say trains must travel at walking speeds on the rickety rails to prevent problems such as disrailing.
But some city residents say the tracks are vital to Palmer's history. The roughly 200 Midwestern families who moved as colonists to Palmer in 1935 arrived by rail and, for many years Palmer residents commuted north on the railroad to work at coal mines in Sutton.
If the city council agrees to ask for the tracks to be removed, the request will be reviewed by the Alaska Railroad Board of Directors.