VALLEY FRONTIERSMAN
Published each Wednesday
Palmer, Alaska
Entered as second class matter on Oct. 21, 1947, at the post office
at Palmer, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription rates.75c month, $8 a year
Viola Daniels ..Editor
Walter Freeman .Associate Editor
Beverly Larsh .Advertising Manager, Palmer
No printed material in the Valley Frontiersman may be
reproduced except by permission of the editor.
Mailed to all points in Alaska and the United States.
DANIELS -- In the Lion's Den
Palmer’s lack of municipal responsibility appears to have lost
us another community service this week, as it seems certain at this
writing that the Valley’s library will be closed on Dec. 1. Eking
*out a precarious existence through donated help, a territorial book
subsidy and charity, the announcement that a $40 rental payment
will be assessed hereafter, has given the library the final push to
ward oblivion.
The blame can be attached to no particular individual or
group of individuals. Faced with growing competition on the part
of private industry, your Valley co-operative has been forced to
drop public services in favor of monthly revenues from its holdings.
Your Co-op can no longer assume all of the responsibilities of a
municipality while retaining none of the rewards.
For too long, we of Palmer have been content to lean on some
one else—to “let John do it” when any plan needed action. We
have been complacent to the point of smugness. We have watched
our neighbor town’s struggle to retain their library with detach
ment and not a great deal of interest — we had a library by the
blessing of the Co-op and we refused to look ahead to a day when
the existing situation might be changed.
Now that change is imminent. It will take immediate action
to save our library. It has been announced that its doors will be
closed on Dec. 1. Yet it would take only $10 a month from four
public-spirited Valley residents to keep those doors open — eight
citizens, should they care to, need give only $5 each month to re
tain a library in Palmer.
Those measures, of course, are only temporary. However they
would help while some long-term plan of action was being worked
out. Should Palmer incorporate and plan construction of a city
hall, then space for a library, rent-free, might be included in that
hall.
If incorporation is not undertaken, then some plan for con
struction of a permanent building, or conversion of a building al
ready standing, must be worked out. Any plan is possible, if only
Valley residents are interested enough to sec it through.
The loss of our library is a step backward. If we allow it to
come to pass, then we fight a losing battle in our struggle for recog
nition as a progressive community in the terrtiory of Alaska.
The establishment of a library proves an interest in our youth,
an interest in our community development, and an interest in the
development of a way of living that offers more than a daily fight
/or food and shelter. When a community which has once reached
that point in its development allows these things to slip from its
grasp, then that community has ceased to move forward and is slip
ping backward into the stagnant backwater of decay and oblivion.
Palmer stands at a crossroads. We who live here must choose
whether our community steps forward or begins the backward
regression.
Take Your Cleaning
To
BROWN'S SHOP
It Will Get the Best Possible Core There.
Hospital
Ins and Outs
Patients newly admitted to the
Valley Hospital during the past
week included:
LaVerne Moonier and Mrs.
Vernon' Moonier, Annabelle and
Jeanette Ross, Mrs. Lloyd Hill
and Mrs. Alice Smith.
CLASSIFIED
FOR SALE
SINGER SEWING machines, re
built; portable type; immediate
delivery. Machine on display at
Grasser’s Hardware. Call Free
man at Frontiersman or at
61Y1 or call Schmidt in An
chorage, Main 165, evenings.
ROADHOUSE, doing excellent
business, on Palmer Highway
at Mile 36. First-rate location
on trout stream. Must sell due
to ill health. Write P. O. Box
713, Palmer.
'35 CHRYSLER, good condition,
good tires. Tost’s Service.
30 TONS of tires in most all
sizes; one 20-passenger GMC
cab-over-engine bus; lots more
articles. All sell at a bargain.
Inq. Mile 40, Anchorage High
way, A1 Huebner, Box 648, Pal
mer.
ALTO SAXOPHONE; Roadmaster
bike; Elto outboard motor (re
pairs needed). Inq. Gene Marsh
at Co-Op Garage.
ABC washer; trumpet; $50 each.
Inq. I. M. Sandvik.
THESE HARD-TO-GET items:
8 m.m. Kodachrome magazine
film; 8 m.m. Kodachrome roll
film; Clarus 35 m.m. camera
w/case and flash, $136.08. Our
photo department is full of
lasting Christmas gifts. Pal
mer Photo Art.
FOR SALE OR RENT
6-ROOM HOUSE—G. A. Lindsey,
Box 798, Palmer.
FOR RENT
CABINS; located opposite Hart
ley Bros. Garage. See A. H.
Marsh.
UNFURNISHED House w/stove;
3-rooms, modern. See Mrs.
Kathreen Hecker..
LOST
6:16 TIRE CHAIN, vicinity Pal
mer. Call or leave at Frontiers
man office.
WANTED
TWO OR THREE1 ~~children to
care for; by week or month.
Inq. RonDaVoo Cafe.
NOTICE
GIVE personalized stationery for
Christmas this year. 24 sheets
stationery, 24 envelopes with
name imprinted, 69c. Some
boxes with additional notepa
per at 79c. Inq. Valley Fron
tiersman office.
NOTICE
BEGINNING Dec. 1, 1948, the fire
fighting equipment and facili
ties of the Valley Volunteer
Fire Association will be on call
to members of the organiza
tion only. Membership is open
to all Valley residents at a
very nominal yearly charge.
(Signed)
AL V. HAGEN, Chairman
JACK MAZE
O. R. MITCHELL
RAY LANCASTER
BOB PETERSON
NOTICE
REWARD for return of blue suit
case, lost between Palmer and
Chickaloon. Return to Steve
Ward at Frontier Bar.
NOTICE
CLIFFORD E. LILLIETHUN: For
information of interest to you,
please contact City Loan Co.,
305 4th & Pike Bldg., Seattle,
Wash.
NOTICE
IN ANCHORAGE and Berlin,
They have the “air lift.”
In Palmer
And the VALLEY BARBER SHOP
They have the “dandruff” king
And the “hair life.”
Hours — 9 a. m. to 8 p. m.
D. S. MEEKS
NOTICE
NEED A SECRETARY but can’t
afford one? You can get your
letters written, or statements
typed at the Valley Frontiers
man office. All types of steno
graphic work.
NOTICE
Paper Hanging
SEAL ’ER up tight for the win
ter; average room, labor and
paper, $30. H. A. Braden, Pal
mer Cabins, or P. O. Box 664.
Wirtonen's Tanker
Service
Metered Delivered
Gasoline, Diesel and Stove Oil
Ph. 6-23Y-11 Eino Wirtanen
Green's Flying Service
(At Palmer Airport)
STUDENT INSTRUCTION
CHARTER FLIGHTS
GI TRAINING
M. D. SNODGRASS
REAL ESTATE
Dairy and Vegetable Farms
City Lots Acreage
Matanuska Electric
Association, Inc.
For Power Distribution
DON McKECHNIE
For all digging and
back-filling jobs
Write or phone him your
excavating orders
P. O. Box 796 Palmer