State park officials look to tech upgrades to cut crime

PALMER — A spate of thefts at state parks in the Valley has prompted officials to end cash fee payments at some locations.

At issue are the use fees placed in envelopes and into brown ‘iron rangers,’ a system long used to collect money from users. The system frees officials from placing an attendant at entrances. And at park locations with electronic payment kiosks the iron rangers offer a second payment option.

Going forward, officials are looking to make as much of the system cashless as possible, said Matt Wedeking, the parks operation manager for the state. Instead they’ll be relying only on the kiosks.

“We’ll be putting them in as quickly as we can put them in,” he said.

Currently the state has five parks with the cashless kiosks, including Finger Lake in Palmer. But they have funding to install 20 more locations next year, he said.

In the Mat-Su region that means Nancy Lake, South Rolly, Hatcher Pass, Thunderbird Falls, Byers Lake and Kesugi Ken will be next to go completely cashless, he said.

“We are just removing the iron ranger,” he said.

Wedeking declined to discuss on the record how thieves gain access to the funds on the boxes. He said doing so could inspire copycats.

Until the boxes can be replaced, officials have changed the frequency at which they empty the boxes or patrol the area. They’ve also discussed other options, like installing security cameras.

Officials with the Mat-Su Borough did not respond to request for comment as to the rate this year of similar crimes at borough parks.

Meanwhile, the state parks system is moving forward with another tech upgrade made this season — online reservations.

In July park officials rolled out online camping reservations for four parks, including Finger Lake. That small sample let officials work out kinks in the system, including a problem that created the potential for double booking.

“We found a lot of hiccups as we started implementing this but we’re working it out,” he said. “Once you get the hang of the system people really like it.”