Operation Clean Sweep

PALMER — A local man tired of seeing trash got some friends together and did something about it.

Saturday, community members painted over vulgar graffiti under the Matanuska Bridge and cleaned up garbage in the parking lot, which has long been a popular place for drug use.

It was all a part of “Operation Clean Sweep.” Steve Paine started the “Old Matanuska Bridge Area Cleanup Group” on Facebook, tired of seeing loitering and drug use in the parking lot from his property.

“I guess someone else piped up and said if you’re so hell bent on cleaning it up you should go down there and clean it up,” Paine said.

That’s exactly what he did. The social media group yielded 12 adults and six kids who came out to clean up. Paine serves as the School Safety and Emergency Preparedness Manager for the Mat-Su Borough School District, and gave a safety briefing as the group started at 2 p.m. By 4 the group had loaded up what Paine estimates to be four truck-bed loads of garbage (although he used a trailer) and painted over all of the vulgar graffiti.

“Everybody really got into the painting over nearly everything graffiti wise left a few pieces that were pretty hopes that it would spur art instead of vandalism,” Paine said.

Paine said that the work is not over, and that he intends to keep the group active and respond when necessary to the type of loitering that parking lot attracts. Barricades were put across the top parking lot. Paine guesses that enough people complained about squatters and drug use that it got barricaded. The issue with the bottom parking lot is that part of the land belongs to Division of Natural Resources, part to the state and part belongs to the borough. Paine said there was a lot of finger pointing when he reached out to ask local government to clean it up. Paine called on one or all of the organizations to step up and maintain the area so that it no longer remains a drug hub and unsightly eyesore for residents and tourists alike.

“I expect it’ll have to keep happening,” Paine said. “I feel like someone’s got to put heat on to make that it’s less of a known drug hangout. It needs barricaded off.”

Paine lives in the area and has been down to check out suspicious activity before. He said he’s spoken with members of the homeless community, some of whom were even picking up trash themselves. The area has become dangerous, and he was told that guns and knives have been brandished by ne’er do wells in the area. It offers a perfect hideout under the highway, with spots not visible from the road. Paine says he hopes to keep the area clean and free of drug users and squatters so that it can be a safe place for families to enjoy the natural landscape of the Matanuska Valley on display at the bridge.

“What we’ve created, the way the dirt works have been done is a perfect dark spot for them to go down and do their dirty deeds,” Paine said.

After two hours of cleaning and five gallons of gray paint coated on the concrete, Paine invited the volunteers to his home for fellowship. Political candidates in a race against one another, Republican Representative DeLena Johnson and Democrat Eileen Patterson, both joined in to help make their community a better place.

“It was just such a beautiful sunny day. Everybody wanted to make it nice,” Paine said.