In the coming months, the borough plans to get stricter about enforcing parts of its municipal code — particularly rules prohibiting trash and derelict cars or boats from accumulating on people’s property.
At a work session June 25, the assembly met with Borough Manager Jeff Good, Police Chief Tom Radke, Economic Development Director Kate Thomas and Public Works Director Tom Wetor to discuss what this new push for enforcement might look like in practice.
“We’re not here to have a revenue stream,” said Radke. “We’re here to improve the town. … It’s like a building block. One you start addressing issues, things start getting cleaned up. … It’s just hard to get that ball rolling.”
Good reached out to municipal officials in Sitka, Petersburg and Craig to learn how nearby communities approach the issue, and shared his findings with the assembly.
In Craig, the police department handles code enforcement, with the city planner occasionally stepping in for zoning code violations. Petersburg has a designated code enforcement officer. Sitka has a code enforcement panel comprised of representatives from the police department, planning and zoning, fire department, and public works. Juneau uses a similar approach.
The Wrangell assembly expressed interest in creating a code enforcement panel based off the model Sitka uses. Borough officials are still not certain of the exact form this panel might take: how often it would meet, what step of the existing enforcement process it would slot into, the types of decisions it would make and whether it would be written into municipal code, for example.
“I think we’re just trying to figure out the process,” said Borough Clerk Kim Lane. “My next step is going to be looking at different codes and just trying to figure out how we want ours to look.”
The assembly was also interested in one of Petersburg’s enforcement techniques — holding a cleanup period where disposal fees for junked cars would be waived, as long as owners agreed to get rid of them within the designated time. To dispose of a junked vehicle in Wrangell, its fluids must be drained, which can cost over $200. Good suggested the possibility of setting money aside to pay for the extra borough labor that would be required to move a high volume of vehicles during a grace period.
“If you do that, you’re going to get some vehicles,” Radke added. “Be prepared for what you’re going to get. I think you’re going to get a lot more than you think.”
Assembly Member Jim DeBord supported the goal of enforcement, but didn’t want it to become overly punitive. For example, clearing the sidewalk in front of a property is a property owner’s responsibility even though sidewalks are borough owned, but he hoped that stricter enforcement wouldn’t mean “asking some 78-year-old woman to go out there with a snow shovel,” he said.
“I support low-hanging fruit,” he continued. “I don’t support going down the rabbit hole too far.”
Economic Development Director Kate Thomas offered her department’s services to get the word out to community members about the coming changes. A public education campaign should be part of the effort “so that folks know what they’re getting into,” she said. Many people aren’t aware of their responsibilities as homeowners and aren’t intentionally violating the code — they just don’t know what it says. “It’s just about education, initially.”
Radke stressed that the push for enforcement is not coming top-down, from the borough. Instead, the departments are responding to community input. Some residents, for example, have shared concerns about how a neighbor’s junk could reduce their property value. “We want the public to comment,” he said. “It’s not just those of us here that want this. It’s the public that has complained. That input is critical to us.”
Certain parts of the enforcement effort may need to be written into the municipal code. If so, the assembly would hold a public hearing on the ordinance before taking any action.
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