Adelyn Baxter

Juneau’s anti-smoking law is poised for an upgrade.

At a Juneau Assembly committee meeting Monday night, Assembly members advanced an ordinance to bring Juneau into compliance with a new state anti-smoking law. The full Assembly will take it up at a future meeting.

City attorney Robert Palmer explained at the meeting that making local law conform to state law avoids legal ambiguity and gives the city and borough more control over prosecuting violations.

The biggest change would be an increase in the smoking buffer outside of business entrances, expanding the city’s current 10-foot buffer to the state’s recommended 20 feet. Assembly members expressed some concern about the increase, which leaves many downtown sidewalks off limits for smoking.

Assemblywoman Michelle Bonnet Hale said at the meeting she hopes the city can improve public signs.

“I would hope that we could work with that law to actually really let people know where they can smoke downtown, because they’re pretty frustrated right now and basically they say ‘Well, I guess I have to go out in the middle of the street because that’s the only legal place to smoke,'” Hale said.

The impact of the change may not be obvious. The city’s smoking ordinance is enforced by local police. According to Juneau Police Lt. Krag Campbell, only about 20 smoking citations had been written since 2013. He said other things tend to take higher priority.

Meanwhile, the state Marijuana Control Board is working on a new regulation that could allow on-site consumption of marijuana at licensed retail shops. If adopted, it would directly conflict with the city’s indoor smoking ban. City law currently prohibits smoking marijuana in bars or retail shops.

The committee decided to wait and see what happens to the draft marijuana regulation.

The Alaska Court of Appeals affirmed a superior court ruling Friday and will not test DNA evidence in a 36-year-old double murder case in Juneau.

A jury convicted Newton Lambert of the murder of Anne Benolken in 1982 but acquitted him of killing her husband, James Benolken. Lambert, who was 19 at the time, was sentenced to 99 years in prison.

Lambert’s co-defendant, Emmanuel Telles, was later tried for both murders but acquitted. He died several years later.

In 2010, the Alaska Legislature passed a law allowing for post-conviction DNA testing. Shortly after, Lambert filed a request to test the two remaining pieces of physical evidence in the case — forensic samples of bodily fluids taken from James Benolken’s clothes.

A 2013 ruling by a Ketchikan Superior Court judge denied Lambert’s request, saying it failed to show how testing samples from James Benolken’s clothing would raise the probability that Lambert was innocent in Anne Benolken’s murder. Lambert appealed the ruling.

The appellate ruling affirms the superior court decision, saying that Lambert’s appeal “did not refute any of the other evidence against him.”

Beginning Thursday, Juneau’s cold weather emergency shelter will open on nights when the temperature is below freezing.

This is the second winter the City and Borough of Juneau will operate the shelter. The facility in the old state public safety building on Whittier Street sleeps up to 28 people and operates from 11 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. through April 15.

Chief Housing Officer Scott Ciambor said overnight staffing was the hardest part about running the shelter last winter.

“This year we’re in a better place because we have the experience and had the funding allocated ahead of time so we kind of knew and could do some planning,” Ciambor said.

Last year, local shelters AWARE and the Glory Hall helped with staffing and spreading the word. Those partnerships will continue this year with the addition of St. Vincent de Paul.

According to the city, the shelter opened on 70 different nights and served 158 individuals last winter.

Ciambor said it helps meet a critical need in the community. An annual homeless count last January found 235 homeless individuals living in Juneau, 44 of whom were unsheltered. Juneau’s existing shelters regularly operate at capacity in winter.

In a report last spring, Ciambor wrote that the additional shelter likely saved lives and relieved pressure on emergency services.

Notifications about when the shelter will open will go out on the city Housing Program website, social media accounts and by word of mouth. Ciambor said they will also post a sign outside the shelter.

“Basically, we’ll give notice at 4 p.m. the day before and then get the word out whether it’s open the following night,” Ciambor said.

The Juneau Assembly approved $75,000 to fund the shelter this winter. Ciambor said the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority also approved a grant request for an additional $30,000.

The city recently purchased the old public safety building from the mental health trust and plans to tear it down in the spring after the shelter closes for the season.

Ciambor said the city is working on identifying a future location for the emergency shelter.

Ciambor is married to a Coast Alaska employee.

Update (11:55 p.m.) – Adelyn Baxter
Celebrating with her supporters at a restaurant in the Mendenhall Valley, Story said she was excited to serve and grateful to her volunteers. She said it’s time to make some changes for the state.

“We need to have a financial path forward and it needs to be more than the price of oil. We need to make some strategic investments to get Alaska growing again and I think that message resounded with a lot of people that I talked to,” she said.

Nankervis could not immediately be reached for comment, but Story confirmed he called to concede Tuesday night.

Update (10:17 p.m.) – David Purdy
With about 86% of precincts reporting, Andi Story currently has more votes than Jerry Nankervis. Story has 53% of the votes tallied so far and Nankervis has 46%.

Original story
Andi Story and Jerry Nankervis are vying for the open seat in Juneau’s House District 34.

The winner will succeed Democratic Rep. Justin Parish for a two-year term. District 34 includes the entire Mendenhall Valley, Auke Bay and Out the Road.

Story, a Democrat, is a longtime Juneau school board member. Instead of seeking an eighth term on the board, she decided to run for the Alaska Legislature to put her experience in education policy and budgeting to other use. She won the Democratic nomination in August.

Nankervis, a Republican, retired from the Juneau Police Department in 2011 as a captain. He’s now a commercial fisherman and was elected to represent the Valley on the Juneau Assembly in 2012, serving as Deputy Mayor before his term ended last month.

Nankervis and Story both ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility and improved public safety, but they differed on how to pay for state services and taxes. Story has stated support for a state income tax, while Nankervis opposes the idea.

They both support expanded funding for the Alaska Marine Highway System, but Nankervis is staunchly pro-road, meaning he supports extending Juneau’s road north closer to Skagway and Haines.

This story will be updated as election results come in.

Watch live election coverage:

The Juneau Assembly approved a motion Monday to turn space formerly occupied by a pocket park in downtown Juneau into a seasonal food court.

David McCasland, who owns fish taco stand Deckhand Dave’s, typically operates with other vendors on the Archipelago Lot by the cruise ship docks in the summer.

“This is just a stepping stone toward something greater because this is only a small part of the project,” McCasland said after the meeting.

An ongoing development plan between the city and the company that owns the lot McCasland uses has left vendors unsure if they will have a place to go next summer.

McCasland originally wanted to buy the currently vacant lot from the city to serve as a seasonal food court, but the city Lands Committee recommended declining the offer in favor of a temporary lease.

The Assembly motion to allow the city to lease space in the former Gunakadeit Park passed with a five to three vote with Assemblymember Maria Gladziszewski absent.

Assemblymember Loren Jones objected, saying he worried that the cost of installing infrastructure and permits to make a food court feasible might be too expensive for a seasonal business.

“It’s a great idea and if he owned the land outright and he owned the other land around it and he wanted to do that, that would be his prerogative to develop his land,” Jones said during the meeting. “This is CBJ land, and it would set us up on a short term basis to be in competition with brick and mortar restaurants right downtown.”

McCasland said he’s excited to move forward with the plan. He’s prepared to install whatever electric and water hookups are needed to make the food court a reality.

“It’s the cost of doing business. If I don’t have a place and that’s the only option, then whatever it takes,” he said.

For now, McCasland said the small lot will only allow space for his business and Alaska Crepe Escape. He said he would like to purchase the vacant lot next door to give other displaced vendors a place to go.

The city reached a settlement with the owners of that neighboring lot this summer and has expressed interest in packaging the two lots together for sale.

Another proposal to lease city land behind Home Depot to Juneau Composts! also passed unanimously Monday.

Juneau Mountain Rescue announced Monday they have suspended the search for the remains of two climbers who went missing on the Juneau Icefield last spring.

Ryan Johnson, 34, of Juneau and Marc-Andre Leclerc, 25, of British Columbia were presumed dead after a weeklong search when the pair didn’t return from an attempt to climb the Mendenhall Towers in March.

The search was called off after crews found ropes in a crevasse halfway down the towers. Juneau Mountain Rescue, together with other organizations, continued trying to locate their remains throughout the summer and fall by both helicopter and on foot.

In a statement on Facebook, Juneau Mountain Rescue wrote that the climbers’ remains are presumed to “lie in a hazardous and inaccessible area, making a recovery infeasible.”

The volunteer search and rescue organization worked together with the Alaska State Troopers, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Alaska Army National Guard and other organizations to try to recover the climbers’ remains.

The statement says that if new evidence about the specific location of the climbers comes up, they will evaluate the risk and consider further attempts.