Junked vehicles: 260 moved in borough’s pickup program

The Matanuska Susitna Borough’s junk car removal program that ended Oct. 30 has been a big success by all accounts, and borough officials are already thinking of ways to get for another one.

About 260 junk vehicles were moved off scattered sites on private property to two central storage yards, borough assembly members were told at a special meeting of the assembly Nov. 14.

Private contractors did the removals, and the borough contributed $200 per vehicle toward the removal cost. Fifty thousand dollars had been made available as the borough’s contribution.

The program just ended had a limit of three junked vehicles per property.

Deputy Mayor Rob Yundt wanted to know many more junk vehicles are still around. “We don’t have any numbers but there are a lot,” said Jason Ortiz, the Mat-Su’s development services manager.

Borough manager Mike Brown said he and Ortiz are now working on how to get this junk out of the borough. At this point, old vehicles that were cluttering up private properties are now in two centralized locations. But they’re still in Mat-Su, Brown said.

“It’s like every car ever brought to Mat-Su is still here,” assembly member Mokie Tew said. “We could just put them on a barge and ship them to Seattle,” he said.

Brown and Ortiz are now working on an idea for a metal recycling operation in Mat-Su that would take care of the junk auto problem along with other metal debris.

Tew said he thinks this a great idea. There’s a constant demand in the region for metal used in construction, such as rebar, he said.

The junk vehicle removal program was part of a wider-ranging briefing for the assembly on property cleanup issues.

Another topic raised was a proposed standard operating procedure for the borough in responding to code compliance complaints and violations.

A draft was developed for the assembly Nov. 14. If adopted, if would set guidelines for how the borough would respond. For example a site inspection within 10 days of the complaint would be required

Also in the proposal is that if 12 citations were issued within a year on a property the matter can be referred to the borough attorney for legal action.

Having a written procedure on how things are handled would be a big shift for the borough, Ortiz said.

Assembly members got their first look at the proposal last Tuesday. “There’s no intent to ask for a decision tonight,” borough manager Brown said. “We were asked to put something together,” with this as an initial effort.

Brown said a problem for the borough is that there are only so many code compliance officers available to respond to complaints. “The same people working code compliance are also working on right-of-way encroachment by private snow plow operators,” another hot-button issue, Brown said.

Assembly members said they might consider making more resources available in the FY 2025 budget.

Another topic related to property cleanup is the idea for a public information database, like a web-based dashboard, that could show the location of properties where complaints about code compliance complaints, which mostly involve trash and junk, have been made.

The dashboard would be constructed so that private information can be protected.

“This was a proposal for more transparency, so that people can see the status of responses to complaints,” Brown said. Deputy Mayor Yundt said he was uncomfortable with this. “It has the potential to pit neighbor against neighbor,” he said.

No action was taken on the idea and based on Yundt’s reaction it may be on the shelf. However, there are other ideas on how junk and trash can be cleaned up including, if funds can be raised, enlisting nonprofits in the Mat-Su to take on the cleanup work.

One other idea is to allow people charged with low-level crimes to do cleanup work as a part of an organized community service program, as has been done in many locations.

This goes over well with inmates in jail, too, because it gives them a chance to get outdoors and do worthwhile work, one assembly member commented.

Borough attorney Nick Spiropoulos has been discussing this idea with state attorneys and state Department of Correction officials. They are supportive of the concept but the details have to be worked out, Spiropoulos said.