State officials plan meeting on Jonesville

WASILLA — Officials plan a public safety meeting on the Jonesville area about two months after a death at a popular shooting range.

The public safety meeting will take place Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Sutton Elementary School, according to a press release issued by the office of Alaska Rep. Jim Colver (R-Palmer).

Representatives from the Alaska Department of Public Safety, Alaska State Troopers and Department of Natural Resources will attend the meeting to hear local residents’ issues on the matter, according to the press release.

“We can’t wait for a long term plan to be implemented,” Colver said. “The safety of Alaskans is at risk.”

The meeting comes about two months after the April 16 shooting death of Adam Malaby, 30, of Anchorage. Malaby died after stepping into the line of fire at a shooting range while photographing the man who shot him, according to Alaska State Troopers.

Since Malaby’s death, no new enforcement strategies have been implemented in the area, said spokeswoman Megan Peters.

“We go up there when we’re needed,” she said.

The investigation into Malaby’s death remained open Monday, Peters said.

The area is widely known to host unregulated shooting ranges on weekends, and debris bearing bullet holes — including propane fuel tanks, car wreckage, vacuum cleaners, and other unconventional materials — is frequently strewn across the surrounding properties, as are metal shell casings and plastic shotgun shells.

Shortly after Malaby’s death, the issue appeared set to become a campaign issue between Colver and opponent George Rauscher. Rauscher penned an op-ed for the Frontiersman, detailing land-use issues in the area starting in about 2009, including trees being cut down by gunfire, shooting into and across adjacent hiking areas, and trespassing caused by an absence of clear boundaries.

“Since then, everything the quaint little town of Sutton enjoyed about the ‘coal hills’ has been progressively shattered,” Rauscher wrote.

The properties that make up the heart of the area are owned by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, which means shooting — along with hiking, biking and camping, are allowed by state law with no restrictions other than other existing state and federal laws, said Clark Cox, Southcentral regional manager for the DNR’s Division of Mining, Land and Water.

Officials have been familiar with some of the issues surrounding Jonesville for years, though in general terms, the DNR doesn’t change policy based on isolated incidents, Cox said. The area could be approaching a tipping point, where excessive public use outweighs the benefits derived from public enjoyment, Cox said. The area is attractive because it’s far enough off the beaten track that people can still get away from more densely populated areas, but close enough to the road system that people can still drive there, Cox said.

“When the public starts to get fed up, when we start to hear people who say ‘I don’t go there anymore because it’s no fun,’ is when we start to think about changing things,” he said.

Alaska State troopers echoed that sentiment. Col. James Cockrell said an emergency call at Sutton can draw troopers from Palmer, about 30 minutes’ drive, which means they’re unavailable to help with enforcement in the more densely populated regions of the borough. Other longstanding nuisance areas — like the Jim Creek campground in the Knik River Public Use Area — have been cleaned up by the use of restrictions, Cockrell said. Local residents have become concerned about heavy use, and that’s what officials plan to hear Tuesday evening.

“Jonesville Road is state public land, and they don’t have any specific regulations to govern the use of those lands,” he said. “The only thing we can address is other types of criminal offense.”

Contact reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.