Emphatic Pause

Valley residents are getting very touchy about trash. Didnt used to be that way, and indeed, a lot of us still joke about the number of junked cars in our yards. A junked vehicle or two, spread about the lawn like fountains or enormous, rusty yard gnomes, was a sign of ones Valleyness.

But a lot has changed in Mat-Su. Not only the population of the place, which has skyrocketed since the 1990 census, but the attitudes of the people who live here as well.

And one of the things that people have changed their thinking about is trash. When there were no more than a dozen people living in the borough, it was easy to hide a load of miscreant garbage. Dump it behind a bunch of trees a ways off the road and whod see it?

Nowadays everyone sees it, because there are a lot more of us piled on top of each other. And were a lot quicker to complain to the borough about the offense.

Its always been illegal to dump garbage on borough-owned lands, according to Ken Hudson, chief of code compliance for the borough. But just last year, the borough enacted the infamous junk ordinance, finally giving people a tool to use when they find their own property values are threatened by a neighbors passion for storing garbage on their own property.

If garbage becomes a threat to the health and well-being of a neighborhood, even if it is on private property, the borough now has the power to step in and demand that it be cleared away.

That ordinance has been on the books for almost a year now, but only a couple of weeks ago, the borough announced it would begin actively enforcing the law and was looking to make an example of someone.

Meet Pat Mathias.

Mathias owns the Motherlode Lodge on Hatcher Pass Road. Roughly about the same time the borough decided to enact a get-tough policy on dumping, somebody hired to dump garbage at the landfill for the Motherlode made an error in judgment.

For four years now, Mathias has hired a couple of young men she knows to haul her garbage down from the restaurant to Central Landfill on Palmer-Wasilla Highway. She paid them for the dump fees plus their time. For a woman without a truck and a great deal of trash to haul, the system has worked just fine.

It has, Mathias said. Ive had no problems with it.

Only a couple of weeks ago, her usual guys were out of town. One was participating in the Arctic Winter Games in Whitehorse, and the other was busy with the Iditarod. Needing to take a couple of truckloads to the dump, she asked another young man to haul it down. The first load made it to the dump, but by the time he made it down with the second load, the landfill had closed.

This is where the bad decision comes in.

The 18-year-old, instead, took the truckload of garbage over to Pittman Road and dumped it on the side of Amber Drive, where he was caught in the act by area resident Jerome Oates. Infuriated by the young mans actions, Oates sorted through the garbage and found out it had come from the Motherlode.

Calls to the Wasilla Police and the Alaska State Troopers didnt prompt any action the incident took place outside the Wasilla polices jurisdiction and the troopers claimed they couldnt respond because of budget cuts.

Oates also called Mathias.

He was really angry, Mathias said. He was making it sound as if it was routine with me.

When she confronted the young man she had hired, he admitted it, Mathias said.

He was very apologetic, she said. He didnt come to me with a chip on his shoulder.

Within a couple of hours of the incident, the young man Mathias had hired picked up the trash. What couldnt be seen in the dark was raked up the following day, she said. Hudson talked to Mathias, but did not take action because the problem had been remedied.

Mathias understands the extent of the garbage problem in the Valley, she said. She deals with it herself up at Hatcher Pass, hauling out not only her garbage but garbage left behind by visitors, as well.

I know its a problem, I see it everywhere, she said. This is a problem in the Valley.

She doesnt want to be the example to everyone else in the borough, however.

We dont want that reputation, she said.

Eric Burkett is a Frontiersman reporter whose beat covers the borough.