Borough trailhead fines can become season passes if paid within five days

MAT-SU — The Mat-Su Borough Assembly unanimously voted to approve $40 fines for those who do not pay for daily parking passes or have yearly parking passes at any of the 10 Borough trailheads located throughout the Valley.

However at the Assembly meeting on May 4, Mat-Su Borough Manager Mike Brown announced another detail to the parking fine schedule that had been suggested by Assemblywoman Stephanie Nowers upon passage of Ordinance 21-035 in April.

“The fine for the parking infraction is $40 but if it’s paid within five days, the ticket will be voided and the person will receive an annual pass. Persons receiving a ticket on June 1 or later can return the ticket to the Community Development offices here at the borough building, park offices at the Jim Creek trailhead or at the Talkeetna library to pay the fine and receive their pass, so you don’t have to come to Palmer necessarily to make that payment so those locations were designed around where we have active trailheads or parking spaces so folks can access those within reasonable distance,” said Brown.

When the Assembly unanimously passed OR 21-035 in April, it updated the minor offense table to allow for enforcement of previously established code for violating parking fee requirements. Library and Recreation Services Manager Hugh Leslie said that no additional staff would be needed to distribute fines to those who don’t pay for parking at borough trailheads.

“This ordinance in front of you is sort of the final piece of the trailhead puzzle that we’ve been working on for many years,” said Leslie. “We’re only having between 30 and 50 percent compliance rate at the trailheads. That’s for annual or daily use fees, so we see this as an opportunity to gain compliance with those folks that use the trailheads. We don’t want this to be viewed as a punitive standpoint, we want this to encourage people to pay the daily use fees or buy that trailhead fee.”

Brown said that prior to the beginning of fines being distributed on June 1, the Borough would engage in a public information campaign to alert trailhead users that fines would be enforced.

“Our intent is to communicate that out in advance so we are not unnecessarily ticketing folks. The goal is not to fine folks, it’s just to have general compliance,” said Brown.