Wrangell is still preparing to deal with nuisance abatement, though it will be approaching with an amiable cautiousness.
City manager Lisa Von Bargen updated the City and Borough Assembly last week on progress so far made in reducing the various collections of junk and scrap to be seen around town. City code proscribes such gatherings, both on public and private property. The Port Commission has long had in its sights the removal of abandoned vehicles from its harbor facility parking lots, and since last fall the city assembly has taken a similar interest in the wider town’s appearance.
Around 20 property owners have been contacted by letter this year, letting them know they are out of compliance. Rather than pursue the matter militantly, Von Bargen reported that everyone who has been contacted by letter and is still out of compliance will soon be called up by phone and invited to chat about things face to face. The letters that were issued earlier were very broad, she explained, and do not lay out the particulars of what might be considered to be in violation of code.
On the city’s side of things, Von Bargen noted its own code could use some cleaning up with regard to nuisances. For starters, it is not terribly specific about what constitutes a nuisance, and does not clearly lay out the proceedings for how to remediate identified problems. This could weaken the city’s position if a dispute ended up being taken to court. She also recommended the assembly adopt the most recent International Building Code, a standard held by many municipalities nationwide. Wrangell’s last adopted version was based on 1997’s, and an update could have the added bonus of benefitting holders of homeowners insurance.
As far as tackling individual properties, Von Bargen suggested taking the initiative piecemeal, focusing first on three or four properties in the city’s “visual corridor,” or those seen most often. There will be some variety to the selections, with one “a very large” nuisance and another a relatively small one.
In other waste matters, the city’s sanitation services will finally end its free scrap initiative, which for seven months encouraged residents to part with their old metal by waiving dump fees. Scrapping firm Channel Construction recently completed another collection of materials from the waste transfer yard, including several junk vehicles.
Metals moved, the department will next focus on household hazardous waste with its annual collection drive. Though times are yet to be set, staff will be at the sanitation center on June 15 and 16 for collection of paints, chemicals and other potentially harmful or unusual wastes.
Assembly members were also informed that a pilot feature being tested at the local water treatment plant has performed below expectations and will likely not be pursued on a larger scale. A Forsta-model self-flushing filter unit was being explored as a possible replacement for the plant’s existing roughing filter setup. A preliminary part of the filtration process, the current filters have a tendency to clog up and waste a considerable amount of water in the clearing process.
For six weeks the new filter unit was tested on a small scale to gauge how well it would perform using Wrangell’s water. Contracting with CRW Engineers, the city learned the system’s test results came back poorly. Not only did it need to flush itself often, which ended up wasting comparable amounts of water to the current filter setup, but the quality of water obtained was of lesser quality. Under the circumstances, Public Works director Amber Al-Haddad recommended seeking other alternatives.
Looking ahead to the summer season’s increased demand, Public Works’ water department has already started one of its two full-time seasonal workers needed to boost production. In an effort to keep up on labor-intensive maintenance during last year’s rush, the department had taken on four temporary workers in addition to its permanent staff. That proved to be more than was necessary, so only two were requested this year.
Also an experiment in efficiency last year, the sand filtration bays will be cleaned by plunging them, which proved more useful than the previous stirring method. Left to themselves, the sand material in each bay will quickly clog during a rush, and bays have to be cleaned regularly by the department’s staff to keep on top of demand.
City staff are still pursuing funding sources for a new water treatment facility, one based on dissolved air filtration rather than traditional media. A grant application to the Economic Development Administration was sent off on May 14. If approved, the $2.98 million it would yield would allow the city to purchase and install the $9.1 million plant, for which it has already secured $3.82 million in loans and another $3.16 million in grants. The remainder would come out of local reserves.
Coming off from a water conservation watch earlier last month, Al-Haddad reported water reserves at the reservoir are again at capacity. Levels have been aided by a combination of reduced demand and wetter weather, while the filtration process has benefited from the cleaner water coming from full reservoirs. When they run low, sediment collected at the bottoms tend to raise overall turbidity.
In an update on capital projects, Von Bargen reported bids for the rebuild at Shoemaker Bay Harbor are scheduled to be publicly opened on June 5, inside City Hall. Meanwhile a construction schedule for the rehabilitation of Evergreen Avenue has not been submitted by the primary contractor. However, mobilization for the project is anticipated to start sometime next week.
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