The city of Kodiak has run out of room for storing abandoned vehicles.
Abandoned vehicles in Kodiak are typically impounded and stored in a city-owned storage lot located off of Selief Lane before being disposed of. But now a new housing development is taking up that lot.
Kodiak Police Chief Tim Putney said the department has not been able to store any new abandoned vehicles recently. The city’s main vehicle storage lot on Selief Lane is being cleared out to prepare the property for an upcoming mutual self-help housing project. Participating homeowners will build their own homes, with help from family members and friends, putting in 35 hours of labor a week to gain “sweat equity” in lieu of a standard down payment.
Putney said he supports the project, which is a public-private partnership involving RurAL CAP, Kodiak Island Housing Authority, Koniag, Inc., Tangirnaq Native Village and the City of Kodiak to develop at least 10 new homes in Kodiak.
“But not having an impound lot is a big deal though for the city," Putney said. "It’s really had a huge impact on operations.”
Vehicles in the city of Kodiak are considered abandoned if they are left unattended on public property for more than 24 hours without permission. It could also be inoperable, not registered, or pose a public safety concern as outlined by city code.
Kodiak’s City Council officially transferred four of its lots on Selief Lane to the Kodiak Island Housing Authority and its partners for $500,000 in March. They plan to start work on the foundation before the end of this year.
Before construction can begin on that housing project though, the roughly six acres of city property has to be completely cleared off. That includes removing all of the impounded vehicles the Kodiak Police Department was storing on site. Nick’s Auto Wrecking Salvage in Bells Flats was assisting the department in towing and disposing of those vehicles.
According to Putney, towards the beginning of the summer, the department had processed roughly 35 abandoned vehicles and gotten them ready for disposal. He said that the whole process can take a month or more per vehicle.
The police department works with Nick’s Auto Wrecking Salvage to remove and scrap the abandoned vehicles, which Putney estimates can cost anywhere from $300 to $13,000 a piece depending on the type of vehicle. Sometimes those vehicles can be sold through a public city auction if the owner does not reclaim it within a specified time frame, typically 30 days.
But without any city lots with space available to store the vehicles, Putney said the police department cannot remove any more abandoned vehicles from public roads or wherever they might have been left by their owners.
“Unfortunately those cars just have to sit there with a sticker on it," he said. "So it probably gives the appearance that nothing’s happening after the sticker gets put on it. And it’s just that we don’t have anywhere else to put them right now.”
Putney added that other city departments, not just the police department, are struggling to find storage space at city-owned lots because there isn’t much suitable property that is available within city limits.
Earlier this month the city was accepting sealed bids for some of those abandoned vehicles in a surplus vehicle auction. But Putney said typically they are scrapped and disposed of instead.
For the time being, Deputy City Manager Josie Bahnke told KMXT that Nick’s Auto Wrecking Salvage has been working with the city to tow and dispose of more abandoned vehicles at its storage yard in Bells Flats.
Bahnke added that the city has been looking for alternative storage lots to put vehicles as they wait for disposal, such as the small lot behind the police department or one of the Kodiak Island Borough-owned lots, but no concrete alternative has worked out so far.
