Wasilla considers lake launch fees

WASILLA -- The free ride may be over for boaters at Lake Lucille.

The city of Wasilla is estimating now that it will cost more than $50,000 to regulate a makeshift boat launch on Lake Lucille, and users will most likely be asked to help pick up the tab.

During the past summer, dozens of residents have beseeched the Wasilla City Council to close down or at least more closely restrict a city lot on East Susitna Avenue that has become a popular place for boaters to access Lake Lucille. Nearby neighbors say the free, unimproved launch has left the subdivision in chaos each summer, with dogs roaming free, boaters parking their vehicles and trailers along the streets and in residents' yards, and people going to the bathroom and littering along the shores of the lake.

After several public meetings and work sessions this summer, the city council is poised to follow a plan set out by Wasilla Mayor Dianne Keller in which about $52,000 will be used to install a locking gate at the launch, a fence around the perimeter of the city lot and an educational kiosk and seasonal restroom facility. At the same time, a city-owned lot about a block away from the launch is being developed into a parking area designed to handle around 30 vehicles and trailers.

"With the planned improvements, this area will be enjoyed for years to come by city, borough and state residents," the mayor told the city council during a presentation earlier this week.

But the planned improvements come with a cost, and the city is looking for help in covering it. The mayor said several local businesses, including Wasilla Arctic Cat and Marine, Valley Diesel and Marine and Team CC, have already committed to donating money to the project, "to keep the access open," she said.

At the same time, Keller is proposing that users shoulder some of the cost through a parking fee. The idea had been suggested during recent meetings and most neighbors seemed supportive of it. However, some said the city should be careful to not to compete with private industry.

"The proposed launch fee is $5," Merle Frank, a Lake Lucille resident, wrote to the city council last week. "If private business in the Wasilla are is charging $10 for launch fees, we feel that city government should not be undercutting private business with a lower fee. That's not fair."

Councilman Rob Sande agreed and said that in addition to not undercutting private industry, the city should use the parking and/or boat launch fees to limit the number of people who use the lot, which is situated in a largely residential area.

"So we don't cause this huge influx of people at Lake Lucille," Sande said.

Wasilla resident John Dewar, who lives near the boat launch, agreed.

"The only reason people are using it this much now is because it is free," Dewar told the council.

Setting the parking fee isn't the only decision the city council faces in resolving the ongoing Lake Lucille issue.

At its Sept. 8 regular meeting, council members will consider several agenda items designed to carry out the mayor's plan, including the $52,000 allocation from the city's general fund to pay for improvements at the launch and several ordinance changes.

A new ordinance would ban the parking of vehicles or trailers along the rights of way of streets near the boat launch and would authorize a gate to be installed on East Susitna Avenue near the edge of Lake Lucille to keep people from launching boats each night from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. In conjunction with this change, the city would also decrease the hours that motorized vehicles are allowed on the lake. In the past, ordinance allowed motorized vehicles on the lake until 11 at night, but the council is considering changing that to 10 p.m.

The ordinance limiting hours of operation states that it is specifically aimed at Jet Ski-type vehicles and that it is not designed to restrict airplanes, boats or other vehicles that are simply traveling across the lake on their way to a destination.

Another ordinance change would make it illegal to use the boat launch during the summer months for anything but watercraft. Four-wheelers, snowmachines or other "land vehicles" would be banned from the launch May 1 through Nov. 1.

All of these agenda items will be up for public hearing during the Sept. 8 meeting. The meeting is set for 7 p.m. at Wasilla City Hall, and public testimony is limited to three minutes per person.