The city-owned ski and snowboard area is conducting a survey to gauge community interest in future development. The survey is part of a long-range master plan being prepared to guide the course of the area over the next 20 years.
The online survey can be found at skijuneau.com. Topics include a range of development from controversial motorized use of the mountain to hiking and biking trails, lodge expansion, alcohol sales, even building condos and cabins.
A public meeting on the master plan is scheduled for Wednesday, from 7 to 9:30 p.m., at Centennial Hall.
Juneau’s Docks and Harbors Board has approved a permit for the Kensington Mine to launch and moor employee commuter boats at Echo Cove this winter.
Kensington’s parent company, Coeur Alaska, asked for and received the permit last year as well. It allows the mine to use Echo Cove as a backup to the company’s private dock at Yankee Cove when weather creates unsafe conditions in Lynn Canal. It’s good from November 14th through April 30th.
CBJ Port Director Carl Uchytil told the Docks and Harbors board that the mine pays the city for using the dock.
“It’s about 12-thousand dollars for Docks and Harbors,” says Uchytil. “Not a great amount of money, but certainly it’s something that helps the mine and helps Juneau’s economics to provide this service.”
Kensington plans to beach load and offload passengers on the north side of the Echo Cove boat launch. The number of employees commuting to and from the mine and the schedule for Kensington’s shuttle buses will not change. The company will also plow the Echo Cove parking lot on days that it’s used by the mine.
The permit request was approved unanimously at last night’s Docks and Harbors board meeting.
No compromise following a meeting earlier this week (Wednesday) of Juneau and Petersburg officials over a land dispute between the two communities. But the discussion between city leaders is being described as productive.
The City of Petersburg wants to form a borough that includes lands previously identified for annexation by Juneau. Petersburg Deputy Mayor Mark Jensen and Juneau Mayor Bruce Botelho met Wednesday to discuss the possibility of a compromise boundary.
Botelho called the meeting cordial, but said Juneau still wants to make its case in writing to the state’s Local Boundary Commission before further talk of compromise.
“We thought it would be most valuable for Petersburg to have a chance to review the basis for our assertion,” Botelho says.
That assertion is that the area in question, which is largely unpopulated, most appropriately belongs in the City and Borough of Juneau. It includes all land from the CBJ’s southern boundary and east to the Canadian border, as far south as Cape Fanshaw.
Juneau filed a 74-page brief with the boundary commission Wednesday, opposing Petersburg’s claim over those lands. On Monday, the CBJ Assembly plans to approve an annexation petition, seeking to officially stake Juneau’s claim to the area. But Botelho says that doesn’t rule out some sort of compromise in the future.
“Certainly we’re going to be prepared to have discussions as would be appropriate between neighboring communities,” says Botelho.
In its brief, Juneau argues that various state and federal agencies have historically included the disputed area with the CBJ for administrative purposes. Petersburg argues that its residents have historical hunting, fishing and recreational ties to the area. Jensen says the talk with Botelho was “constructive.”
“Expressed our concerns and why we thought we had a leg to stand on – the fishing interests in that region and the use over the years. And they’ve got their points as well. So, I guess the boundary commission will be making some decisions here,” he says.
Jensen also met Wednesday with officials from Juneau Native Corporation Goldbelt. The company owns 30-thousand acres at Hobart Bay in the contested area. In his latest comment to the boundary commission, Goldbelt Vice President Derek Duncan said the company prefers the land remain outside any incorporated borough. He said Goldbelt would continue to study its options and make its borough preference known soon.
As of Thursday afternoon, no further statement from the company had been posted on the commission’s website, and Duncan could not be reached for comment.
It’s Red Ribbon Week in the Juneau School District, and students are marking the occasion by pledging to live drug-free lives. At a Floyd Dryden Middle School assembly yesterday (Wednesday), Juneau Police officers talked to students about how Red Ribbon Week began, and reminded them to say no to drugs. Casey Kelly has more.
A memorial service for John Pugh, Jr. will be held Friday in Juneau.
The son of University of Alaska Southeast Chancellor John Pugh and former state Corrections Commissioner Margaret Pugh died this week in scuba diving accident at the age of 35.
Pugh is also survived by his wife, Myra, and daughter, Sophia. A scholarship fund has been set up for Sophia. Donations can be sent to the University of Alaska Savings Plan or the UAS Chancellor’s office with a note indicating what the donation is for. The family suggests additional donations be made to Discovery Southeast.
John Pugh, Jr. graduated from the University of Oregon in 1998 with a degree in marine biology. He owned the Scuba Tank diving shop in Juneau and was involved in commercial dive fisheries in Southeast Alaska for many years. He died Monday while preparing for the sea cucumber fishery to open near Funter Bay on the westside of Admiralty Island.
Friday’s memorial service will be held at 4 p.m. at Northern Light United Church.
Two Alaska communities that sued to stop the state Redistricting Board’s new legislative boundaries from taking effect have backed off most of their legal strategy. Petersburg this week dropped all but one of the claims it made in suing the Alaska Redistricting Board. The city still argues that the proposed House district it would share with Juneau is unconstitutional. Meanwhile, the Fairbanks North Star Borough today (Tuesday) sought to dismiss its entire lawsuit against the plan. Joe Viechnicki reports.
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