The Daily Alaska empire., 1950-05-20
CHANNEL RESIDENT BLASTS BACK AT
 PALMER'5 CHARGE

The town of Palmer's threat to halt construction of a new Terri torial Building in Juneau by legal means, today brought repercussions from Gastineau Channel residents which blasted right back in the face of the tiny Matanuska Valley community.
 Palmer's chamber of commerce yesterday termed the buying of
 Juneau's city hall property by the | board of administration for 1000 as gross extravaganza" in the face of being offered a free site in the Interior town.
 House Representative Marcus
 Jensen of Douglas fired back volley after volley at Palmer's charges. and
 Trevor M. Davis, Juneau photogra- pher, let go with a barrage which put the Matanuska demand in a back seat.
 Everyone knows" said Davis, that Anchorage would be one of the first towns to be wiped off the Alaska map, with the cold war get ting warmer and war termed 'inevit- l able within a few years. ''This would include all choice tar gets, such as large public build- ing in the valley. They seem to have lost sight of the trend today to disperse the seat of government" Jensen went over the background of the legislatures making an ap- propriation for a new Territorial Building, and also reviewed Palmer's airport construction, which he termed "belies their talk about ex- travagance."
 He dug unmercifully into political mauvers in the Third Division, and
 wound up with:
 "It's time Southeast Alaska woke up to how this Territory is being run"
 1 Here is Jensen's statement in full. I was surprised and shocked to read in The Empire May l9, of the protest being made by the officials of Palmer against the erection of a Territorial building in Juneau. l
 believe under the circumstances the public is entitled to know some history on the case
 The Bill was introduced and passed by both the House and the Senate. It later came back and was passed for amendments. It was not until Speaker Stan McCutcheon came down from the chair and went into a long oration that enough staunch supporters were gained to pass a vote resembling the final passage of the bill.
 It was then pointed out by the Rules Committee that it was neces- sary, on the last day, to have two- thirds majority to rescind bill, so the bill was still passed McCutcheon then carried on to a point where he pressed for a letter to be written to the Administrative Board. advis- ing them how to interpret the locat- ing of the new site for the building
 If the City of Palmer and its representative McCutcheon have no 1 more regard for the millions oi dollars invested around the capital building in Juneau, plus the cost # making such a move into az l area where construction costs arc prohibitive. they should be willing ! to stand the airing of pertinent facts now regarding the project centered around Palmer.
 If the City of Palmer was showing
 good faith to the Territory they
 would not have had the Territory
 pend five thousand dollars for ad-
 iitional land on their airport site.
 Tor would they have increased the Ivalue of the property of the airport
 rom $2800 an acre to $1100.00 an acre.
 The necessity of an airport in Palmer to an outsider seems rid |iculous. Due to the fact that the
 Government has and is spending millions of dollars on the Anchor
 age airfield, this airfield being only
 a few minutes away from Palmer
 on a paved road The best answer
 I could get from McCutcheon, who
 is president of Alaska Airlines, as
 to why the airport was needed.
 was that the farmers needed ail
 transportation for their produce tc
 compete in the Anchorage market To me this is ridiculous.
 If the City of Palmer and its representatives want to take Che attitude that the Territory is thArs flor the asking, they first had better
 reckon with the Federal govern
 ment, that is pouring millions of
 dollars into their airport on in- Hated values.
 When the president of an air.
 line is legal adviser for the spend- ing of millions on airports, plus be- ing an able politician, anything can
 happen.
 fife time Southeast Alaska woke