Borough begins court-ordered cleanup of long-running Badger Road junkyard; code enforcement caseload at record high

Kellen Spellman, the Fairbanks North Star Borough community planning director, told the Planning Commission on Aug. 12 that the borough obtained a court judgment clearing the way for a contractor to begin cleanup of a six-year junkyard and illegal landfill case near Badger Road.

The case, which opened in 2019, covers a roughly 2-acre parcel off Lacloy near a large gravel pit and the Homestead Pumping and Thawing site. The borough began on-site cleanup in early August after receiving final judgment two weeks earlier, Spellman said.

The work is the result of years of efforts to obtain voluntary compliance. Spellman said staff made roughly 47 site visits and engaged the property owner repeatedly before filing suit, and that those enforcement attempts “didn't come” to a lasting solution. "We just hit kind of an all time high in code enforcement cases. I think we have approximately 560 open code enforcement cases right now," Spellman said during his update.

Nut graf: The borough said it is using an existing multi-year project fund and other internal resources to pay for the cleanup; staff warned the site contains hazardous materials and that soil remediation is not part of the current contractor scope. The commission heard details about staffing, timeline and how the borough plans to avoid recurrence.

Spellman said the borough now has two full-time code enforcement officers and a technical support position after the mayor and assembly approved an additional code enforcement position earlier in the year. For this site, Solid Waste is assisting with tipping fees and hauling. Staff estimated the cleanup will remove roughly 200 tons of material and said the effort may take about two weeks rather than the initial one-week estimate because the volume of items was greater than anticipated.

Attorney Mr. Esposito represented the borough in the litigation that led to the judgment, Spellman said. Borough staff and the contractor have required on-site supervision during the cleanup; Spellman said trooper escorts have been used at times for safety. Spellman added that the borough can place a lien on the property after the cleanup to recover costs once total project expenses are tallied.

Commissioners pressed staff on time and cost. One commissioner asked for an estimate of staff hours invested before legal action; Spellman said the work amounted to “hundreds, if not thousands of hours,” and reiterated the 47 site visits as a documented figure. On the anticipated cost and who pays, Spellman said the borough is drawing on a multi-year project fund the assembly previously authorized for large projects and vehicle towing; that fund will cover the majority of the cleanup cost, he said.

Commissioners also asked about hazardous materials and soil contamination. Spellman confirmed the presence of hazardous items on-site and said the borough has staged hazardous-waste containers and coordinated daily hauling with the solid waste department. "Yes, quite a bit," Spellman said when asked whether hazardous materials were present. He told the commission the operation will not include soil mitigation as part of this contract; the borough’s action is based on health-and-safety and landfill code violations for an unpermitted landfill.

When commissioners asked what the borough would do to prevent recurrence, Spellman said he and Mr. Esposito discussed additional court options if the property starts to re-accumulate debris.

Ending: Spellman asked the commission to expect a future work session on the borough’s broader code-enforcement status and programs, including staffing additions and tools to track compliance across dozens of active cases.