Wrangell’s Borough Assembly gave the go-ahead to an ordinance updating the city’s procedures for handling junk vehicles during its Tuesday evening meeting.
The new verbiage comes as a result of a workshop addressing the issue held on September 26, and brings Wrangell’s code more in line with state statutes. Changesd were to adjust deadlines, giving owners more time for notification and redress before disposal.
If the vehicle is being auctioned off, the state gives municipalities a total of 50 days to contact the owner of record or lien holder of an abandoned vehicle, and to publish a notice of auction beforehand. It will remain against the local law for a junk vehicle to be left in public view on any property, public or private, within the borough for more than 10 days. The fine schedule puts a $50 fine on each offense, with every 10 days that passes considered a separate violation.
“I’m still kind of bothered with the idea of private property,” said Assembly member Patty Gilbert, specifically where a junk vehicle is removed without the owner’s permission. “A junk vehicle is sort of in the eye of the beholder.”
Clerk Kim Lane also pointed out an attorney had been consulted in crafting the draft ordinance, and after looking at other communities’ versions for comparison.
“She said that a lot of those – Ketchikan, Sitka – although they’re vast, a lot of those don’t meet state statutes,” Lane said. The updated version would conform to state rules, however.
Mayor David Jack also noted many of the draft’s procedures were already in place: Police attempt to track and contact owners beforehand. If a vehicle is deemed repairable they are given time to fix it, and there are further steps to reclaim a vehicle should it be impounded.
“Right now they’re just not enforcing it,” Assembly member Becky Rooney commented. One of the major impediments to tackling the island’s assortment of disused and unusable vehicles is a lack of space to keep them at the waste transfer facility. Due to economic factors and the cost of disposal, derelicts and other scrap have accumulated to the point where it is about past capacity.
The city has been looking at several options, the least expensive of which Public Works director Amber Al-Haddad explained would be to arrange for a scrap dealer to load up and take what it could by barge in lieu of payment. She spoke with such a firm last week, and an arrangement has tentatively been set for sometime after the new year begins. The deal would be contingent on whether the barge had space left for Wrangell’s scrap, and a suitable loading site would have to be worked out.
“We just don’t have the room at the landfill to take it right now,” she added.
“It would be nice if we had a staging area,” Gilbert agreed. She suggested making a public service announcement ahead of time to encourage residents to participate. Talk also produced the suggestion a waiving of fees could be done to further spur interest.
Assembly member Dave Powell disagreed with taking that tack, noting that giving a free service does not help pay for the actual costs of disposal. Similarly, the city’s yearly “free dump days” are another example of the issue. These have been discontinued the past two years due to lack of storage space and solvency concerns with the waste disposal program.
Fellow member Julie Decker said she supported passing the ordinance, but “I think the bigger issue is direction to staff on what to do with it.” Another issue with enforcement was the problem of where to begin. With derelict vehicles on public and private property an island-wide state of affairs, which vehicles to start with and where to begin can become a delicate issue.
Al-Haddad explained her department is primarily concerned with rights-of-way conflicts, and during the winter time hindrance of plow activity. The department has already notified owners of problematic vehicles along Evergreen Road, which is due to be widened and resurfaced next year.
“We’ve gotta start somewhere,” said Rooney.
In other business, the Assembly approved redefining job descriptions of current operator leads for the wastewater and water treatment plants, stemming from July’s emergency water shortage. Borough manager Jeff Jabusch explained that during the summer crisis it became apparent the positions needed to take on more responsibilities, and a different reporting structure to suit. Under the new definitions, both would report issues directly to the public works director, rather than through the shared foreman.
“That comes with an addition in pay,” Jabusch pointed out. The pay raise was budgeted in the previous year, and would apply retroactively to the current fiscal year, beginning July 1. “I didn’t feel we should shortchange them because of our delay in doing this.”
The Assembly similarly reconfigured how the shared water and wastewater treatment operator position was configured, in order to reflect the changes to the other two positions. That change did not come with a pay adjustment.
Reader Comments(0)