The long-term parking lot at Nome’s Alaska Airlines terminal is crowded - not only with the vehicles of fellow travelers, but with abandoned, derelict cars and trucks taking up precious parking space. And when winter snow hits, the problem only gets worse.
Angelica Stabs is a public information officer with the Alaska Department of Transportation, which oversees Nome’s long-term airport parking lot. She said her office is aware of the situation.
“We get concerns about no parking through the winter seasons, especially when there's storms or there's a large snowfall that year,” Stabs said.
She said the parking problems extend to DOT employees too.
“With the increased number of cars that comes with an increase of congestion, it's hard for our DOT maintenance crew to plow and make the parking lot accessible for everybody,” Stabs said.
But change is on the horizon, according to Stabs. Next summer the DOT plans to overhaul Seppala Drive, a one mile road that links the airport to the center of town. Stabs said the parking lot will need to be fully cleared for the project to move forward.
Clearing the way
This summer the DOT will compile a list of vehicles that have exceeded the long-term lot’s 30-day limit. Then, Stabs said, the department will start tracking down the owners. She said the DOT will allow “adequate time” for owners to move the vehicles, but wasn’t able to confirm an exact number of days.
Then, the DOT will work with the City of Nome to remove the abandoned vehicles. The city’s director of Public Works, Cole Cushman, said his team hasn’t received the list of abandoned vehicles yet, and hasn’t in quite some time.
“It's been a few years. I think the last time we took vehicles out, we took five vehicles that had been parked in the east corner,” Cushman recalled.
Cushman confirmed his team will remove the vehicles at no cost to the DOT.
“And that's the service the city's providing just trying to get rid of the junk vehicles,” Cushman said.
As a longtime resident of Nome himself, Cushman said the removals are long-awaited.
“Like most of the residents who use the parking lot, it's frustrating to have all the abandoned vehicles there,” Cushman said.
Stabs said the DOT will do one final roundup of abandoned vehicles next spring ahead of the anticipated renovations to Seppala Drive. The project is estimated to cost the state $14,935,111.
