From Rindi White in Palmer:
Palmer City Council agreed Tuesday to ask the Alaska Railroad Corporation for permission to make the railroad tracks that split the city inactive and consider removing them.
After several hours of debate and numerous amendments, the City Council agreed by a 5-1 vote to seek permission to remove the tracks north of a rail spur that runs to the city airport.
The decision doesn’t mean the railroad tracks are going to be torn out, however.
City Council members initially were reluctant to ask permission to remove the tracks at all because community residents said there had not been enough public discussion about removing them. They struck a compromise by requiring the city to hold at least two public hearings to gather community input before any track removal happens.
The city wants to remove portions of the rails that split Palmer’s downtown area so it can develop a greenbelt running through the city. City leaders also hope to remove the rails at several intersections so school buses and fuel trucks no longer have to stop, as federally required, at the mostly inactive track.
The railroad tracks predate Palmer and carried Matanuska Colonists to Palmer in 1935 as well as hauling coal from mines in Sutton to seaports. But today only one train comes into the city's downtown each year, a train carrying tourists for the city's Colony Christmas celebration, and that train must be brought in at a walking pace because rails in the city are old and unstable.
Bruce Carr, Alaska Railroad director of strategic planning, told city council members Tuesday that the railroad maintains the tracks up to a point near the Alaska State Fair property. Beyond that, however, the rails are more than 50 years old and are not regularly maintained.
City manager Bill Allen said he wants to apply for $4.5 million in federal economic stimulus funding to build the greenbelt, but to do so the city must prove it has control over the portion of tracks running through the city. That means getting permission from the Alaska Railroad Corporation board of directors to manage that part and, essentially, declare it inactive. Management could mean the city removes some of the rails. Allen and other city officials said a plan for the rail corridor will be created after the city gets permission to manage it.
Most city council members at a special meeting Tuesday said they needed more input before agreeing to rip out any rails, so they added a requirement for more public hearings on the issue. They also voted to pay a Washington, D.C., law firm up to $60,000 to help craft an application for the stimulus funding and lobby for the project to get approval.