By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
After a months-long development process, space for long-term parking at Sitka’s airport has doubled, but those who leave vehicles longer than seven days will now face fines.
The fee system, and the barnacle device that disables cars parked overtime, has been employed at the airport since October, but the secondary seven-day parking lot opened only recently, Department of Transportation spokesman Sam Dapcevich told the Sentinel.
“We opened up the second lot that’s a little way south on Old Airport Road. That’s the big change. There’s additional seven-day long-term parking available,” Dapcevich said over the phone from Juneau.
The new lot adds 70 spaces to the 68 formerly available for long-term parking. The new lot is a quarter mile southeast of the terminal.
In addition, there are three handicap accessible seven-day parking spots near the southeast end of the airport terminal, near the Post Office boxes.
Under the new policy, there’s a $35 fine for each day a car is left longer than seven days in one of the long-term lots, and the vehicle is immobilized by a barnacle. Also known as a windshield boot, a barnacle device blocks the vehicle’s windshield. It’s removed when the fine is paid.
Cars left overnight in the larger day parking lot in front of the terminal also are subject to a $35 per day fine and a barnacle.
Driving a vehicle with a barnacle attached can result in a ticket and additional fines, Dapcevich said.
“In October, we started using it, Dapcevich said. “The city started last summer with their downtown parking – they were using it and we were trying to iron out some details,” he said.
Since then, he added, DOT has deployed a barnacle 50 times and accrued $2,500 in fines, meaning that, on average, the device has remained on vehicles for about 1.4 days. The owner of a barnacled car can call (907) 966-2960 between 5 a.m. and 11:30 p.m. to have it removed.
“We want to make sure that there’s adequate parking for travelers,” Dapcevich said. “We understand that there’s transportation difficulties for people to get to and from the airport, but it has to be managed.”
He said that over the coming months, DOT will seek a management company to administer parking at the airport.
“I talked with our statewide aviation team last week, and they told me that they have an RFP 95 percent ready to put out, but they’re still trying to iron out some details,” he said.
DOT aims to have parking under private management by next summer, he said, and that in the future there may be a system to allow for parking beyond the current seven-day limit.
“What we’re looking for is more of a standardized (setup) like you would see at... an airport in the Lower 48 or other places in Alaska, where people might need to travel for a month and they want to leave their car behind,” Dapcevich said.
He added he also wanted to remind drivers not to leave their vehicles while in the loading and unloading lane in front of the terminal. “It’s very important that people only pick up and drop off right there and not leave their vehicle unattended.”
More information on airport parking is online at https://dot.alaska.gov/sereg/projects/sitka-airport-parking/.
