PALMER - Mary Kvalheim wants you to help stop the abuse of parking spaces for the handicapped in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.
Kvalheim, a borough assemblywoman, proposed a law that would give everyone the power to file a complaint whenever they see a vehicle inappropriately parked in a spot that bears the familiar blue, reserved-parking sign.
The system would work much the same way complaints about fireworks or incessantly barking dogs are handled, borough attorney Nick Spiropoulos said Wednesday.
It would be in effect everywhere in the borough except within the city limits of Palmer, Wasilla and Houston. The cities have their own enforcement programs.
Anyone could file a complaint, so long as they’re willing to testify to it in court, he said.
The borough Assembly scheduled a public hearing for 7 p.m. Tuesday on Kvalheim’s proposal.
Robert Guertin, chief borough code compliance officer, said the proposed law levies a $125 fine for a first offense and $250 for a second offense. However, Guertin said his officers would issue only a warning to first-time offenders.
Anyone issued a citation could either pay the fine or contest the complaint in court.
Kvalheim said watching people park in spaces that are designated for disabled people drives her nuts. She has a parking sticker of her own for medical reasons, she said, but she’s championed this issue for decades.
“It’s always been a bone of contention with me because of my husband being handicapped,” she said.
Her husband, Ray, started using a wheelchair after his back was broken , Kvalheim said. He died in 1994.
Kvalheim said she and her husband were told that they should move out of Alaska, where “conditions weren’t made for handicapped people.”
They stayed in Wasilla. But along with forcing a wheelchair through snowy parking lots, Kvalheim said, they found maddening the abuse of parking spaces for the handicapped.
In the late 1980s she asked then-Sen. Jalmar Kerttula, D-Mat-Su, to pass a statewide bill addressing the unauthorized use of parking reserved for people with disabilities. The bill passed, although with no promise of enforcement.
But state law allows municipalities to enforce the law on their own, Spiropoulos said. That’s what Kvalheim’s measure would do.
Right now, Wasilla is on the leading edge of enforcement when it comes to parking laws. Wasilla code compliance officer Mike Rager has turned the abuse of disability parking space into a crusade.
Rager, who has held his position at the city for two years, spends more than half of his time enforcing the city’s parking laws for the handicapped.
He works on it between other code enforcement duties, like checking to see that businesses keep their trash containers closed and that signs aren’t too close to city roads, he said.
“It takes up a lot of time, partially by choice, but it gets applauded by businesses and folks in the community,” Rager said.
Marguerite Goodman sings Rager’s praises.
She is an independent living specialist at Access Alaska, a nonprofit aimed at helping disabled Alaskans live independently.
When people park in the reserved spot near their front door, she said, she often calls him.
“He’s our guy,” Goodman said.
Goodman said she thinks expanding the law across the borough is a good move. Enforcement is a common problem, she said.
“It’s obvious, when you go to the store or the shopping center (people think) 'Oh, if they leave the car running it’s OK.’ No, it’s not,” Goodman said. “It really strikes a chord for a lot of us.”
Guertin said he doesn’t envision borough code compliance officers spending as much time on parking enforcement as Rager does if the law passes.
They won’t patrol parking lots, he said, although if they happen to see someone misusing a spot, they could write them up.
If it passes, the borough law would rely mostly on residents to report violators, he said.
“The person who’s doing the complaining is going to have to fill out a complaint form,” Guertin said.
“We need the public to be sharing this information with us.”
Find Daily News reporter Rindi White online at www.adn.com/contact/rwhite or call 352-6709.
