August 18, 2004
Wednesday

For five days a week, the residents of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough pay for two Borough employees to go to the two airport parking lots and pick up trash.  Much of it is deposited by the slobs that dump their coffee cups out the door of their vehicles along with their McD's

Fast food trash left in the back of a pickup to be blown out going down the road or by the wind. Household trash easily accessed by the ravens... The ravens opened the trash bags and spread the trash around the truck bed.

trash before they head to work or to catch the plane.  One guy was so kind to leave his old shoes in the new shoe box when he got back to town.  He must have wanted to impress his girlfriend or something.  Most of this is dumped so they have a clean vehicle to come back to after work and they are not inconvienced by walking the few steps to use the trash can provided for their use.
 
Additional litter is being deposited by the wind and ravens but that is about to change.  On August 16, 2004 the Ketchikan Gateway Borough Asssembly passed a new Borough ordinance affecting vehicles parked in the airport parking lots.  It will be illegal to park a vehicle in the parking lot with household garbage, waste and refuse, fast food containers and other materials in the back of trucks or vehicles which allow the exposure of these items to wind and wildlife.  It is already illegal to transport such materials on Borough roads unless the load is covered to prevent it from dropping or otherwise escaping from the vehicle (KGB Code Section 29.40.050 Littering Prohibited)  Materials may be allowed in vehicles on the airport property if securely covered by, for example a tarp or camper shell, (garbage bags do not meet the requirements).
 
The new ordinance has a $50.00 penalty and reads as follows:  A vehicle containing household garbage, waste and refuse, fast food containers and wrappers, and all materials listed as garbage, household solid waste, litter or rubbish as defined in 29.20.090 is prohibited from entering or parking on airport property unless the material is covered in a manner to prevent it from being blown out.  In order to comply with this section, if the material is placed in a bag to prevent it from bing blown out, the bag must be secured or covered to prevent access by wildlife.
 
The mateirals left in the beds of pickups gets blown out when we have our October and November gales and when they are driven on our roads.  The ravens make sure that the household trash gets spread around the parking lots.   The last picture shows what the ravens do to trash bags when the vehicle has been left in the parking lot for a week or so.  I once watched ravens get into trash in front of the old 108 bar.  After watching for a few minutes I realized they weren't in trash but someones groceries which were left exposed.  Recently ravens opened black trash bags in front of the State Office Building to see what was in them and then they continued their game by taking spray paint cans out and dropping them on the ground.  In the airport parking lots, tin cans and fast food wrappers are frequently removed from the backs of trucks and dumped on the ground by ravens.
 
Users of the parking lots are being notified of the new ordinance with fliers and enforcement will be starting September 1, 2004.
 

Jerry Cegelske
Code enforcement
Ketchikan Gateway Borough
E-mail: jerry.cegelske@borough.ketchikan.ak.us
907-228-6621
Ketchikan, AK - USA

 

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