Wildflower Court is a non-profit, 57-resident long-term-care facility in Juneau. (Photo by Ed Schoenfeld/CoastAlaska)
A staff member at a Juneau senior care facility has tested positive for COVID-19, but no residents have gotten sick so far.
According to a letter sent to Wildflower Court residents’ families this week, eight residents were tested and a ninth person refused testing. All the people tested received negative results and no one has shown symptoms of the virus.
Through contact tracing, Director of Nursing Emily Merli narrowed the staff member’s close contacts down to four residents. They will continue to be monitored and quarantined in their rooms for 14 days.
This is not the first case among staff at the facility, according to the letter. Administrator Ruth Johnson said Friday the other person tested positive months ago and has recovered.
Staff members are screened for COVID-19 symptoms at the start of each shift and staff testing is done weekly.
Johnson said all of the people in quarantine are doing well.
The Celebrity Eclipse is moored to one of two, city-owned, visitor funded floating docks in downtown Juneau on Aug. 15, 2019. A proposal before the Docks and Harbors board could restrict skateboarding and other activities along the seawalk. (Photo by Jeremy Hsieh/KTOO)
City staff say skateboarders are causing problems on Juneau’s downtown docks. They want to restrict skateboarding and some other activities along the seawalk.
Dozens of skaters showed up to push back against that idea during a committee meeting on Wednesday.
City Harbormaster Matthew Creswell says the issue is about safety. And, a small group of people damaging public property.
“We really don’t know how many people are down there doing it the right way and being safe and polite and not causing problems in that area, but it’s very obvious when someone isn’t doing it right,” Creswell said.
Cresswell says over the last few years, he and his staff have noticed skateboarders weaving among crowds of tourists in the summer.
Cement benches along the seawalk have been damaged too.
He said most of the time, it’s the same people. That’s why they’re asking the Docks and Harbors board to consider updating a 2014 ordinance that restricts skating, to include the seawalk and bus staging areas.
Board member Chris Dimond suggested that rather than punishing all skateboarders, the city could create areas nearby where they’re encouraged to skate safely.
“It would not be a skateboard facility, but it would still allow that if someone’s passing through or someone’s down skateboarding on an evening when there’s no tourists in town, that if they’re in that area then they’re not going to be damaging our facilities,” Dimond said.
Dimond, whose 11-year-old stepson also wrote to the board to oppose a skating ban, proposed the city meet with skateboarders to talk about the possibilities.
Years ago, when a similar conversation was happening in the community, skateboarders worked together with the city to build a skatepark in the Mendenhall Valley.
On Wednesday, skaters of all ages testified against restricting their access downtown.
Ryan Cortes pointed out that unlike other sports that require expensive equipment and facilities, skateboarding is accessible for people of all ages and backgrounds. He said restricting not just skateboards but scooters, longboard and rollerblades, is unfair.
“I’ll be honest. I’m one of those people that actually grind that ledge,” Cortes said. “But I don’t think that because of five of us that are actually able to do those activities on those ledges, that literally everyone else should be punished for that.”
Several people said the Valley skatepark can be crowded or too dark.
Wayne Smallwood said the docks are one of the last legal places for skateboarders to go downtown. He said healthy activities are already limited because of the pandemic.
“I think it would be nice to actually have the skatepark upgraded and maybe put some money into that, because there are a lot of kids that are in quarantine now,” Smallwood said. “There’s nothing to do.”
“That area of downtown is just a really smooth area,” Gross said. “There’s not a lot of nice, smooth places for roller skaters to learn and begin on their roller skates.”
The board ultimately asked Harbors staff to meet with other departments to talk about alternatives. They plan to create a committee chaired by Dimond to work with skateboarders.
Any decision to restrict or ban skating along the waterfront would have to be made by the Juneau Assembly.
Voters fill out their ballots just an hour before voting was to end in Juneau’s municipal elections on Oct. 6, 2020, at Juneau Public Libraries’ Valley Branch. Most voters cast their votes by mail, but some went to vote in person. (Photo by Andrew Kitchenman/KTOO and Alaska Public Media)
The Canvass Review Board met Tuesday to certify the Oct. 6 election results.
Christine Woll will be the newest member of the Juneau Assembly once she’s officially sworn in next Monday. She’ll serve a three-year term after winning the four-way District 2 race.
Current Assembly members Maria Gladziszewski and Alicia Hughes-Skandijs were re-elected to serve three-year terms.
Christine Woll (Photo courtesy Christine Woll)
Woll, who will replace outgoing Assembly member Rob Edwardson, has lived in Juneau for almost nine years and works as a program director for The Nature Conservancy, an organization that works to protect and manage land and water resources.
She said she expects to immediately begin helping the Assembly respond to the COVID-19 pandemic by deciding where the city’s remaining CARES Act money should go. And to figure out how to protect the community while the world waits for a vaccine.
“The pandemic continues to be the number one topic that we need to be focused on. And so that has a variety of facets right now,” Woll said. “Obviously, we’re still seeing a great deal of community transmission. And so we need to stay on our toes.”
The charter commission ballot proposition did not pass. That means the city won’t establish a commission to review the city charter.
Proposition 2 passed. That will allow the city to issue $15 million in bonds for infrastructure and capital improvements.
For the Juneau Board of Education, President Brian Holst was re-elected, and newcomer Martin Stepetin won a seat in an uncontested race.
Both will be sworn in Wednesday at a 6 p.m. school board meeting.
This was Juneau’s first election conducted by-mail, and it resulted in the city’s best turnout in more than 20 years.
Nearly 12,000 of the 27,000 ballots mailed out to registered voters were returned by mail, drop box or in-person, making final turnout more than 42%.
Correction: A previous version of this story omitted the word “not” from the sentence, “The charter commission ballot proposition did not pass.”
Passersby stroll by Centennial Hall, downtown Juneau’s convention center on June 18, 2018. (Photo by Jacob Resneck/KTOO)
Update, 6 p.m.:
Juneau’s COVID-19 risk level went back to high Tuesday as case numbers continue to rise.
That means city facilities will close Wednesday and bars and restaurants will be under capacity restrictions.
During a community update Tuesday, City Manager Rorie Watt said the community’s case rate is concerning.
“It is a combination of quite a few cases in (the) unsheltered and general population and, in some cases, weakness in our information about the origin of some of these cases and the likelihood of further transmission,” Watt said.
The last time case numbers spiked in the community, bars had to close. That will not happen this time.
Instead, just like restaurants, they will be required to maintain 6 feet of distance between customers and keep a contact list of all patrons. Both are restricted to 50% capacity indoors.
Personal services like hair salons must be by appointment only and gyms can’t exceed 25% capacity.
The public libraries, Treadwell Ice Arena and the Juneau-Douglas City Museum will close Wednesday. The libraries will still offer curbside service.
The Dimond Park Aquatic Center and Augustus Brown Pool will also close, but will reopen on Monday for appointments only.
People arriving at the Juneau International Airport from other communities in the state where there are also high case counts will be encouraged to get tested and quarantine.
Watt said everyone should be wearing masks in public and continue limiting their social interactions.
“To be honest and frank, Alaska finds itself in a bit of a difficult time with regard to COVID. Our trends and numbers (are) currently not headed in the right direction,” he said.
Meanwhile, 62 people who are currently unsheltered have tested positive for the virus in recent weeks. Forty of those cases are active.
The Glory Hall homeless shelter is closed for day services and has put some people in hotel rooms. Staff are still offering meals for pick-up.
The city’s warming shelter at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center remains open.
Centennial Hall is also open to provide isolation and quarantine for people who need it. About nine people are in isolation there right now.
Original post:
The City and Borough of Juneau’s weekly community update is at 4 p.m. Tuesday.
City Manager Rorie Watt and other members of the city’s emergency operations center will provide information about the COVID-19 response in Juneau and answer questions.
As of Tuesday, at least 62 COVID-19 cases have been identified among community members who are homeless. Nine of those people are isolating at Centennial Hall, which the city reopened last week as a quarantine and isolation site. The Downtown Public Library, a popular daytime spot for unsheltered people, remains closed.
Some homeless shelters in Juneau decided to close temporarily last week in response to the outbreak among the medically vulnerable unsheltered population.
Watch on Zoom,Facebook Live or here once the meeting is live. You can also call the city to listen by phone by calling 1-346-248-7799 or 1-669-900-6833 or 1-253-215-8782, webinar ID 985 6308 5159.
Two people and a dog curl up near a boiler room on Shattuck Way in downtown Juneau on Jan. 20, 2017. (Photo by Rashah McChesney/Alaska’s Energy Desk)
At least 38 people experiencing homelessness in Juneau have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past two weeks.
Now, with temperatures dipping below freezing this weekend, local shelters must weigh the risks of staying open or closing to slow the spread.
Knowing that the virus spreads more easily in confined spaces, Glory Hall Director Mariya Lovishchuk said the shelter decided to close for sleeping this weekend. Staff plan to move some patrons to a hotel for better social distancing. To-go meals will still be available for pickup at the shelter.
The city’s emergency warming shelter at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center closed Thursday night. Staff decided to reopen the shelter Friday.
“The biggest challenge with this particular cluster is communication,” Barr said. “It’s hard … to keep everyone up to speed on what the appropriate thing to do is, from an isolation point of view or a quarantine perspective.”
The city believes at least one individual who tested positive is not properly isolating.
Barr said it’s not the first time they’ve had problems getting people who test positive to isolate.
“If necessary, we pursue either a state medical officer hold or a court hold on that individual to get isolation orders so that we can make sure that person is isolating during their infectious period,” he said.
The city conducted another round of testing at supportive housing sites Friday.
Although conditions should be relatively dry this weekend, the forecast calls for freezing temperatures Saturday and Sunday night.
And places to sleep will be more scarce for those experiencing homelessness.
The city opened the Mill Campground last spring to provide seasonal camping for the homeless. It closed Thursday for the winter.
Juneau Assembly and School Board candidates, starting in the upper left: (first row) District 2 candidate Derek Dzinich, District 2 candidate Lacey Derr, District 2 candidate Robert Shoemake; (second row) District 2 candidate Christine Woll, School Board candidate Martin Stepetin, District 1 candidate Alicia Hughes-Skandijs; (third row) District 1 candidate Kenny Solomon-Gross, Areawide candidate Maria Gladziszewski, School Board candidate Brian Holst. (Image created by Shayne Nuesca/KTOO)
Juneau election officials finished processing ballots for the Oct. 6 election Friday. Results are still unofficial until the election is certified next week.
In the two-way District 1 race, incumbent Alicia Hughes-Skandijs leads opponent Kenny Solomon-Gross by 1,306 votes. Christine Woll remains in the lead in the four-way District 2 Juneau Assembly race by 2,082.
Candidates in the areawide Assembly race and school board races ran unopposed. Assembly member Maria Gladziszewski and Juneau Board of Education President Brian Holst won re-election. Newcomer Martin Stepetin will also serve on the board.
Ballot proposition 1, related to forming a commission to review the city charter, failed to pass by 2,283 votes. Ballot proposition 2, related to bond measures for city infrastructure, passed by 2,248 votes.
Of the 27,000 ballots sent out to registered voters in September, Friday’s count includes 11,836 ballots.
Voters whose ballots had issues, like signatures that didn’t match the one on file with the state, had until Thursday to respond in order for their vote to be counted. Those corrected ballots were added to Friday’s count.
This was Juneau’s first by-mail election. Results were processed at the Anchorage Election Center, where Juneau election officials were able to use ballot envelope sorters and signature verification software not available in Juneau.
