Borough officials hope a massive clean-up project can turn a Wasilla neighborhood around

What you need to know:

• The Mat-Su Borough will lead its largest private property cleanup Sept. 11 to 13 in Wasilla’s Williwaw subdivision, aiming to clear about 450 lots of trash, junk vehicles and unsafe structures with the help of hundreds of volunteers.
• Property owners must sign waivers before participating. Officials and residents hope the effort will improve safety in the crime-plagued neighborhood, building on past cleanup work by a local group.
• The $60,000 project is funded through a 2024 court settlement paid to the borough, with local businesses donating services and supplies.

WASILLA — Mat-Su Borough officials hope a massive private property cleanup effort slated for a Wasilla neighborhood notorious for crime and drug use will help improve safety — and they are looking for volunteers to pitch in.

The cleanup will run from Sept. 11 to 13 in the Williwaw subdivision, with volunteers performing yard maintenance, trash pickup, junk vehicle removal, and some structure demolition.

Jason Ortiz, an assistant borough planning director who oversees the private property cleanup program, said the goal is to clean up about 450 lots in the neighborhood over three days. He said the project will be the largest borough cleanup effort organized to date.

“The idea is to change the look, change the entire look of everywhere driving down the neighborhood,” Ortiz said during a Williwaw neighborhood cleanup information picnic Sunday. “The super cool thing about this to me is this is not government working. Government is not doing this. This is the community working, which is really cool. It wouldn’t happen without everyone coming together.”

Hundreds of volunteers from Mat-Su-area Latter-day Saints congregations, the neighborhood, and local community groups are expected to participate, Ortiz said.

Individuals interested in helping can come to the Williwaw neighborhood on any of the project dates or contact organizers. Volunteers must sign a waiver before working at the event, officials said.

The project is expected to cost the borough about $60,000 in supplies, demolition, fuel and other needs, Ortiz said. Local businesses are donating some services and food for volunteers. The funding is part of $188,000 the borough received in 2024 from a permanent injunction in a junk and trash case regarding private property in Meadow Lakes.

Tucked off Bogard Road outside Wasilla city limits, the Williwaw subdivision is infamous for squatters, drug use, violent crime, trash and junk. 

While the area is slowly improving as problem properties are sold and converted to modern single-family homes, property theft and drug activity persist, some Williwaw residents said during the Sunday gathering.

The neighborhood has about 25 active borough junk and trash violation cases, including an illegal junkyard, borough code compliance officials said at the picnic. It is also an active hotbed for felony crime, according to public safety data presented by Alaska State Troopers at a borough meeting last month. Specific crime data was not available for the area.

Just how successful the project can be will depend on how many residents are willing to let the borough and volunteers on their property, Ortiz said. Each owner must sign a waiver before volunteers or borough officials can enter, and an additional notarized waiver must be collected for any demolition work, officials said. About 35 cleanup waivers were collected at the event Sunday, Ortiz said.

Organizers with Williwaw’s Families for the Improvement of Safety and Health organization, or FISH, said they hope the effort sparks continued improvement. The group has removed more than 77 tons of trash from the neighborhood in the last seven years and seen known drug houses drop from 14 to four, but there is still more work to do, said Rachel Sayen, the group’s treasurer.

“We’ve been back of the burner for so many years that a lot of people here aren't going to believe that it's going to happen,” she said.

Williwaw resident Franklin Conaway, who also sits on the area’s North Lakes Community Council, said the borough doesn’t need to clean up all the properties to inspire long-term change. He said he hopes the organization can gather donations to provide trash service to the area to help residents keep properties clean.

“If we can come through with trash service paid for a year, that has a good possibility of changing habits,” he said. “To see a change, you’re not trying to get 100%. You’re trying to get 50.”

The Williwaw project is part of a boroughwide private property cleanup funded primarily by taxpayers and launched by the Mat-Su Assembly in 2024.

That program typically targets individual properties throughout the borough, not entire neighborhoods, Ortiz said. It usually uses people assigned to court-ordered community service or provides small payments to volunteer organizations that lead the work.

Since July, the program has removed junk from about 11 properties at a cost of about $13,000, Ortiz said. In 2024, the program cleaned up 19 properties for about $85,000.

-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com