Police Chief Bryce Johnson at City Hall, Jan. 17, 2017. (Photo by Jeremy Hsieh/KTOO)
Police are investigating how a Juneau man’s body ended up in the water north of the Douglas Bridge Thursday.
According to the Juneau Police Department, a neighbor walking near the beach around 7 p.m. found a body washed up on shore.
Police identified the man as a 60-year-old Juneau resident based on an ID card and other personal items in his clothing. They have not yet located his next of kin.
Police say he was not in the water for more than a few hours. He had a cut on his cheek when he was found, but it’s not clear if that injury happened before or after he went in the water.
Officers recognized the man as someone who recently lived in a vehicle at Harris Harbor, across the channel from where he was found. They searched his vehicle but have not found anything to explain how he ended up in the water.
The man’s body will be sent to the Medical Examiner’s office in Anchorage for an autopsy.
Namfon Noisai gets her temperature checked by Capital City Fire/Rescue’s Lily Kincaid during a voluntary screening at Juneau International Airport on Saturday, March 21, 2020 in Juneau, Alaska. (Photo by Rashah McChesney/KTOO)
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During a weekly update, Deputy City Manager Mila Cosgrove said 27 people tested positive for COVID-19 in Juneau during the last two weeks.
Nine of those cases have been attributed to community spread, meaning no known source of the virus was identified.
“With that, we are really urging the community to pay attention to what they’re doing,” Cosgrove said.
She encouraged residents to continue wearing masks when out in public and staying home if they’re sick.
Juneau remains in a “moderate” risk category due to the rate of community spread.
City Manager Rorie Watt said he’s seen good compliance with wearing face masks out in the community.
“Generally, I think the public is doing excellent. Certainly in retail spaces, supermarkets, hardware stores, whatnot,” Watt said. “I think there’s a fair element of people that are being more conservative in their COVID mitigation and every little bit helps.”
Watt said people should remain cautious of group settings and continue maintaining small social bubbles, especially now that school has started again.
The city’s weekly COVID-19 updates will now take place on Tuesdays at 4 p.m. instead of Thursdays.
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The City and Borough of Juneau’s weekly community update is at 4 p.m. today.
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. Southeast Regional Nurse Manager Sarah Hargrave from the state’s Public Health Nursing will also join to explain contact tracing.
Community members can submit questions in advance to be answered during the update. The city is asking questions be sent to COVIDquestions@juneau.org.
Watch on Zoom,Facebook Live or here once the meeting is live. You can also call the city to listen by phone.
Note: The city had issues with Facebook Live, so today’s update aired on Zoom only and the video will be posted on CBJ’s Facebook.
The JDHS swim team practices at Augustus Brown Swimming Pool, Aug. 19, 2015. (Photo by Jeremy Hsieh/KTOO)
Juneau’s downtown public swimming pool reopens next week.
Augustus Brown Pool closed down in March along with other city facilities. It will reopen on September 8th with limited capacity.
Aquatics Director Kollin Monahan said the pool will be open weekdays 5:30 to 8:30 a.m. and then re-open from 2:00 to 8:00 p.m. after a midday break. The schedule is meant to accommodate patrons displaced from Dimond Park Aquatic Center while the high school swim teams are practicing there.
On the weekends, the pool will be open 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Saturday and 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Sunday.
“It’ll be mainly drop-in rec. So lap swimming, water walking will all occur,” Monahan said. “Unfortunately, at this time the sauna, the climbing wall, the diving boards — those will all remain offline until further notice. But the fitness deck, the lap pool, the recreation pool and the locker rooms will all be open.”
Dimond Park reopened in June. At first, patrons had to reserve time in the pool in advance. Now anyone can show up as long as no more than 50 people are using the facility at a time.
No instructional programs like swim lessons or fitness classes are currently being offered at either facility.
Monahan said the same mitigation measures they put in place at Dimond Park will carry over to Augustus Brown Pool. The Juneau pools mitigation plan details what is being done.
“Every frequently touched surface, every bench, every locker is getting cleaned, disinfected at the top of every hour,” he said. “We are screening our patrons before they come in at the facility, and we do have a more robust screening regimen for our employees when they come in as well.”
Before the pandemic, the downtown pool was already scheduled to close for several months in 2020 for renovations. The roof repairs are now slated to begin next spring.
Other projects, including work on the facility’s air handling unit, plumbing system and pool deck have been put on hold for the time being.
The view from inside the trees at Cope Park where construction will begin soon on the new pump track. (Photo by Adelyn Baxter/KTOO)
Construction on a new bike track in Cope Park will begin as soon as the weather allows.
Many local bike enthusiasts are excited about the project. But some neighbors raised concerns recently, saying they weren’t informed beforehand.
Cope Park is a well-loved getaway tucked behind downtown. It was once home to mining prospects, later an outdoor swimming pool and soon — a pump track.
Reid Harris is vice president of the Juneau Mountain Bike Alliance. The group worked with the city Parks and Recreation department on the design for the new track.
“It will work great for new riders and it will work really well for advanced riders too,” Harris said. “Furthermore, it will be useful not just (to) the mountain bikes but BMX bikes, kid bikes, strider bikes … So really, if it rolls it goes on the pump track.”
So what is a pump track? There’s no pedaling involved — riders build and control their speed by moving their bodies up and down to get enough momentum to carry them over a series of small hills.
“It’s also a heck of a cardio workout. Like, you do two laps around this pump track and people will be tired. I guarantee it,” Harris said.
It’s the first phase of a bike skills park expected to cost around $5,000. Other features will include jumps and a single track in other parts of the park.
The mountain bike alliance helped fundraise and will provide volunteers to help the COVID-19 Conservation Corps with construction.
The track loop will be built in a stand of spruce trees. Deputy Director for Parks and Rec Michele Elfers said one small tree will be removed. Otherwise, they designed the track to integrate into the landscape.
She said they plan to add some fencing and barriers between bikes and foot traffic. Con
“So as that’s been happening, I think the conversation has gotten going with the city and with users of, you know, how can we make this safe and how can we, you know, allow more people to be able to use these trails and features?” Elfers said.
Not everyone is excited about the project.
Some residents in the nearby Flats neighborhood said on social media that they felt blindsided by the new project.
The Cope Park Master Plan completed in 2013 shows proposed improvements to the park. (Image courtesy City and Borough of Juneau Parks and Recreation Department.)
One neighbor who didn’t want to be interviewed said they were disappointed in part because a pump track was not talked about in the Cope Park Master Plan.
Park users worked with Parks and Rec to develop the plan several years ago. Elfers said the plan, like those for other parks around Juneau, is conceptual. Some of the proposed improvements — like moving the tennis courts to improve visibility — were made, while others still need funding or have been reimagined.
At a recent Juneau Assembly meeting, member Loren Jones also raised the issue of public noticing.
“Given that I pride myself on knowing what’s going on, and when I read the report about all the things that went on with Cope Park — and I didn’t know about any of them — I was very, very surprised,” Jones said.
The department held a public meeting at the end of January to talk about the project and get feedback. That meeting was noticed in the paper and on social media and flyers were posted around town. They also put up signs at the park.
Elfers said it’s possible that the project was later overshadowed by the pandemic. For a while, pretty much all city staff were focused on COVID-19 response.
“So I think, to some extent, just continuing that outreach like we would normally do, even though the bulk of that was done in January, just didn’t happen,” Elfers said. “And then a lot of our normal work just went radio silent for months.”
They expect the track to be popular. The pandemic is inspiring people to explore more outdoor hobbies. Harris said the number of bikers was already growing in Juneau before this year.
As the popularity of the sport grows, Harris said JMBA is very aware of the need to encourage bikers to share the trails.
“We are working with people who are new to biking or those that have been biking for a while just to be aware when you’re on these trails, there are other user groups, namely hikers, but to be careful and to show them some respect and slow down,” he said.
Once the weather is dry enough for construction to begin, the track should take about two weeks to complete.
More than 400 people attended a downtown rally in June in support of Black community members and Black people following nationwide protests against police violence and systemic racism. (Photo by Rashah McChesney/KTOO)
The Juneau Assembly passed an ordinance Monday creating a systemic racism review committee.
The committee will be tasked with reviewing legislation that comes before the Assembly to ensure that it doesn’t perpetuate discrimination or inequality in the community.
Assembly member Rob Edwardson, who is Haida, proposed the ordinance after hearing from community members about their experiences with racism in Juneau.
He intends for the committee to be made up of experts familiar with systemic racism.
“If we took seven people from the pool of people that I’m talking about, they’re going to come up with a better plan than what we are,” Edwardson said.
Other assembly members voiced concern about the amount of work the committee will end up with given the broad scope of its mission.
Proposed amendments limiting the terms of those serving on the committee to 18 months and allowing more direct Assembly oversight failed to pass.
Mayor Beth Weldon proposed a successful amendment allowing committee members to determine their own criteria for how to go about their work.
She agreed that the ordinance was not perfect.
“So the workload is a concern … but again, looking to try and move forward and trying to do this, even this ordinance that I believe has some problems in it,” Weldon said. “I’ll remain the optimist and hope that things work out for it.”
The ordinance passed 8 to 1, with Assembly member Loren Jones opposed.
An accompanying ordinance introduced on Monday would appropriate $50,000 to fund the committee’s work. It will have a public hearing next month.
The Assembly will also discuss a proposed anti-racism resolution from the Juneau human rights commission at the committee of the whole meeting next Monday.
The meetings will be streamed on Facebook Live and via Zoom Webinar. It will also air live on KTOO 104.3 FM and stream on the web. You can also watch here.
Details about how to participate in the meeting can be found in the agenda packet.
