Adelyn Baxter

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is coming up on Monday.

It’s a day to remember the legacy of the famous civil rights leader and a national day of service, and local organizations and volunteers will host events to mark the occasion. 

The Black Awareness Association of Juneau will also host a virtual MLK Day event on Monday from 1 to 2 p.m. It’s advertised as a family-friendly service featuring soulful music and accounts from people whose lives were impacted by Dr. King. 

More information is available at baajuneau.org, where participants can also register for the event. 

The Alaska Bar Association, in partnership with the Alaska Court System, Alaska Legal Services Corporation, ACLU of Alaska, will host a free legal clinic at Ḵunéix̱ Hídi Northern Light United Church in the Flats neighborhood from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and at St. Paul’s Catholic Church in the Mendenhall Valley from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

Local lawyers, judges and legal professionals volunteer their time to help advise people on legal matters. Kevin Higgins from the Alaska Bar Association shared information about the clinic on Juneau Afternoon Wednesday. 

“Really anything can bring you in the door,” he said. “And a lot of times what we’re able to do at the clinic, you know, it’s a very limited representation. I’s not like we’re going to be coming into court with you over the life of a potential case, but we can really kind of help you figure out how to orient yourself with the court system and what steps you can take next.”

Higgins said they can help with any stage of a legal situation, including how to potentially avoid one. No appointments are required. You can find more information at alaskabar.org/MLK. Similar clinics are also happening Monday in Anchorage, Bethel and Fairbanks.

The state of Alaska is preparing to give away millions of dollars worth of gravel to public corporations, a move that would amount to millions of dollars in assistance to some of the state’s biggest construction projects.

According to a Q&A posted by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, the beneficiaries could include the proposed Ambler Access Project and the proposed trans-Alaska natural gas pipeline.

The state’s plans were disclosed the day before Thanksgiving in a public notice stating that DNR is planning “regulation changes on material sales and conveyances to state agencies.”

The Department of Natural Resources oversees mining on state lands in Alaska, including the extraction of gravel and fill dirt for use in construction.

While humble, gravel can be serious business — in November, DNR commissioner-designee John Crowther signed an order that prohibits gold, silver and other kinds of mining near gravel quarries along the Dalton Highway, which links Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay.

For state maintenance crews that need to keep the highway open, gravel is more important than rare minerals.

In 2024, High Country News reported that for construction projects on the North Slope, gravel is a “precious commodity” because of its scarcity.

One of DNR’s proposed changes to its gravel rules declares “that the department convey material to a state agency or public corporation at a base price of $0.00 per cubic yard and without retaining a reversionary interest.”

Currently posted price charts show the state selling gravel for $3 per cubic yard in Interior Alaska.

State law prescribes that any time DNR wants to sell land or public resources for less than market value, the commissioner must declare that the sales “serve a public purpose and are in the public interest.”

The upcoming regulation change states that transfer to a state agency or state corporation is automatically consistent with that requirement.

That would allow the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities to get gravel from state land for free, excepting the cost of processing and transportation.

In a question and answer notice published Dec. 26, DNR said the change is intended to allow “for maximum use of state land consistent with the public interest.”

“Examples of a public purpose would be a state agency or public corporation using gravel to construct a gravel pad on a state leased site for infrastructure development; to construct a new state highway right-of-way or expand an existing state right-of-way; or to build an embankment along a river; or gravel needed for the development of a gas line right-of-way,” it wrote.

The free gravel and dirt would also be available to state-owned corporations, which is likely to affect some of the state’s biggest development projects.

The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority is developing a 211-mile road between the Dalton Highway and mine sites in northwest Alaska and would be eligible for the free rock and dirt. So would the Alaska Gasline Development Corp., which is now a junior partner in the development of the proposed trans-Alaska natural gas pipeline.

A spokesperson for Glenfarne, the pipeline’s lead developer, said the firm did not request the regulation change.

In 2024, the Bureau of Land Management estimated that the proposed Ambler Road would need between 15 million and 22 million cubic yards of gravel, plus an additional 220,000 to 347,000 yards annually for maintenance.

If the state of Alaska provides that gravel for free, it would be a revenue loss of between $45 million and $66 million for construction alone.

The public comment period on the change expired on Jan. 2, and it was not immediately clear when the change would take effect.

Lorraine Henry, director of communications for DNR, said by email that it isn’t yet clear how much gravel might be affected by the regulation change, and that the agency didn’t intend to benefit any specific project.

“DNR cannot speculate on the volume of gravel that may be involved, as each application from State of Alaska agencies will be evaluated on its merits – and will include a public process and follow statutory authorities,” she said.

More snow is on the way this week for Juneau and the rest of the panhandle, even as recovery from last week’s storm continues.

The Juneau School District announced Sunday night that school would be closed Monday. City and state offices are also closed, and the University of Alaska Southeast campus will operate remotely.

National Weather Service meteorologist Greg Spann says communities from Elfin Cove to Juneau can expect anywhere from 5 to 13 inches of new snow on Monday. The heaviest snow is expected mid-morning through the afternoon.

There’s a possibility for a changeover to rain or a mixture of rain and snow sometime later Monday. It’s expected to change back to snow Tuesday and continue into Wednesday. Spann said the variability of that makes it hard to predict precipitation amounts on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“One part of Juneau might get three inches or four inches of new snow out of a new snow shower,” Spann said. “Another part of Juneau might not see anything at all.”

The snowstorm that hit the region last week dumped about 4 feet of snow on the capital city in as many days. That helped break the record for Juneau’s snowiest December ever and made it the second snowiest month ever.

“We do not expect to get as much snow overall as we got with last week’s event, that event that we got up previously, around Christmas through New Year’s, that was an extraordinary event that broke a whole lot of records,” he said. “Hopefully this event will not be quite as extreme.”

Spann advised that people take their time with travel and do their best to uncover any nearby fire hydrants that may be covered by snow.

Light snow showers will continue later in the week. Spann said there’s a chance for another system to bring even more snow after that — for those who haven’t had enough yet.

This story has been updated with additional information about state, school and city closures. 

A 7-year-old child died from injuries suffered in a car accident near Auke Lake on Christmas Eve. 

Police received a call around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday reporting that two vehicles had collided along Glacier Highway near Auke Lake, according to a press release from the Juneau Police Department. 

Emergency responders extracted multiple people who were trapped inside the vehicles at the scene, including a child who was reportedly unconscious at the time. 

The child was transported to the hospital and police later confirmed that the child had died. 

The accident closed traffic along Glacier Highway between Pederson Hill and the Auke Bay roundabout for several hours before the road was reopened shortly before 5 p.m. 

Police say they are still investigating the cause of the accident.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued a state disaster declaration Sunday in anticipation of a glacial lake outburst flood expected to hit Juneau’s Mendenhall Valley very soon.

That follows a preemptive disaster declaration issued Friday by the City and Borough of Juneau and the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.

According to the latest data, Suicide Basin — the glacial lake that is expected to unleash an outburst flood soon — is about to reach its full capacity. That capacity is the same or larger than the total water volume seen in prior years.

The annual release has been happening since 2011, but record-breaking outburst floods struck the Mendenhall Valley in August the last two years. Last year’s flood damaged hundreds of homes.

“Our goal is to act early to reduce impacts and preserve community safety,” Dunleavy wrote in the declaration.

Current reports from the National Weather Service estimate the basin will be full Monday, but a release can happen at any time.

Find the latest news on glacial outburst flooding and resources for how to prepare at ktoo.org/flood.

Sunshine and warm temperatures brought a heat advisory to Juneau and surrounding communities on Monday.

The National Weather Service issued the advisory for Juneau, the Upper Lynn Canal, Gustavus, Hoonah, Tenakee Springs and Yakutat – where temperatures were expected to reach 80 degrees.

It’s the first-ever heat advisory for Juneau and much of the region, though the Weather Service issued similar advisories for the Haines Highway and Klukwan earlier this summer.

Heat advisories are new for Alaska. National Weather Service Forecaster Grant Smith says they started issuing them this year after establishing localized criteria that allows them to distinguish extreme heat conditions in Alaska from the Lower 48.

“We’re just not used to those warmer temperatures, and so we were starting off just working with our state climatologist and local management,” Smith said. “We have a threshold of 80 degrees is our starting point, and then we’ll adjust as need be going forward.”

Smith says Alaskans generally are not used to such high temperatures since they don’t happen very often. That can make it more dangerous for people with health issues and for pets.

“When we get to these warmer temperatures on sunny days, a car parked in a parking lot in the sun, an 80 degree temperature, the inside of the car can reach over 100 degrees in 15 to 30 minutes,” he said.

He also said that many people who have spent time outside Alaska notice that it often feels much warmer here than what thermometer shows. Part of that has to do with the sun’s angle.

“It’s so much more direct on us because it’s so much higher up,” he said. “It’s just all that sun’s energy is beating down right on you more directly, and so it feels warmer.”

Cloudy conditions are expected to return in the coming days, but while the warmth persists it’s important to stay hydrated, wear sunscreen and keep an eye out for heat exhaustion.