Two new electronic payment stations coming soon to borough parks

Electronic fee payment kiosks are coming soon to two additional MatSu Borough parks even as officials continue to rake in more parking payments than ever before thanks to a rule instituted last year that gave officials enforcement powers.

Like their State Park counterparts, Borough-managed parks come with a daily $5 parking fee or use of an annual parking pass. But prior to 2021, Borough law gave the recreation department only the power to collect fees at the trailheads — not the power to enforce the rules by levying a fine. That changed last summer when the Borough assembly OKed a plan to charge scofflaws a $40 non-payment fee, the payment of which can be used for the purchase of the annual pass.

Thanks to that change, the Borough could be on track to outpace its 2021 parking pass sales, which came in at $128,000 for the year. As of early this month almost $106,000 in 2022 passes had been sold, said Hugh Leslie, who oversees parks and recreation for the Borough. And those numbers are well above 2020 sales, which rang up at only about $60,000 despite record Brough park use during the pandemic.

“We’ve had very little real pushback,” Leslie said of the fee plan. “I think most people understand that to keep the trails in the shape that they are, revenue needs to be generated.”

The new kiosks will be installed at the Lazy Mountain and Government Peak Recreation Area parking lots, Leslie said, additions which he says will help users more easily pay the fees. Using those portals also cuts down on time spent by Borough staff collecting, counting and processing cash payments, a fact that has already been demonstrated at the Jim Creek and West Butte locations where the current kiosks are installed, he said.

“At Jim Creek and West Butte we did about 600 electronic transactions [May 22 to 28]. And if those had been dollars put in envelopes put in the pay pipe, and we only spent one minute opening that up counting the money doing the deposit per transaction, we are 10 hours more efficient in the use of our staff,” he said.

The kiosks paired with the parking fee enforcement has flipped what had been 80% non-compliance at Jim Creek to about 80% compliance both at that location and across the board, he said.

The new payment kiosks aren’t the only park improvement slated for this year, Leslie said. Among scheduled work is installation of lights and pavement upgrades for the parking lot at Lazy Mountain, a spot known for car break-ins as hikers and runners tackle the trails year round. And officials are continuing to push forward a plan to create an official Borough-maintained trail on Lionshead in Glacier View where there currently is an unsanctioned social trail with regular erosion problems.

Leslie said his team is trying to balance the need for regular work like bathroom cleaning with other maintenance even as park use has spiked across the region. For example, the Borough’s small campground in Talkeetna, for example, has experienced a 300% year-over-year increase in use, while use of the parking area at the Pioneer Peak trailhead is up 180%, he said.

Thanks to that interest, Leslie said his team is relying on trail users more than ever before to report problems or maintenance needs.

“What we ask people to do is to let us know if they find anything wrong in the parks or on the trails — trees blocking the trails, litter, homeless camps, any issue,” he said. “There’s so many people using the trails, they are better eyes on. And we are happy to respond to any issues that they bring to our attention.”

Leslie said problems can be reported to the Borough Parks department at 907-861-8578.