Illegal camp cleaned up last week on Talkeetna's riverfront

Neighbors and residents walking near the Tee Pee Bar along B street in Talkeetna on Sunday have questioned the presence of three trooper vehicles parked near the riverfront.

Trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters says that Halloween was quiet enough that troopers had extra time to help clean up an illegal campsite along the Susitna River from this summer. She says nothing as exciting as arrests occurred, but troopers wanted to help clean up trash from the now-empty camp. *

Borough maintenance employee Ralph Napfziger asked his employer whether he could take one or 2 days to complete the cleanup. He says he was on the river on Monday cleaning up with his 6-wheeler. He was cleaning the rest of the mess up Tuesday afternoon. He said the campers left books, bags, tarps, backpacks, beer bottles and a number of other items. He guesses that he has removed 2 full pickup loads of trash from the area, but added that the area wasn’t as bad as he originally thought it would be.

Meanwhile, the Borough has taken some of the illegal activity of the summer to heart and Code Compliance Officer Robert Guertin has announced that all junk vehicles and illegal campers in the short term parking area by the Chase trailhead and Borough-managed area will be ticketed and removed by the end of this week.

Chris Mannix, chair of the Talkeetna Parks Advisory committee, announced at the latest community council meeting that the Chamber of Commerce, the Borough, and possibly the State Troopers, will be invited to participate in a Riverfront Management Plan discussion in January or early February. The plan was completed in 2003 but never enacted.

editors note – **the camp this summer, on Alaska Railroad property, (according to some property maps), had at least 30 trees cut/torn down (presumably for firewood). There are still remnants of the camp.  Fairview employees report that some of the camp was cleaned up before the Troopers and Borough started cleanup and that an entire dumpster was filled with trash.