The council is applying for a 1.4 million dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to form a regional consortium aimed at developing a 20-year plan for the region. Details will come if the grant is approved, but Tlingit and Haida Business and Economic Development Manager Carrie Sykes says the plan could address a number of regional issues.
“There are needs for housing, there are needs for transportation, and of course we know that affordable energy is a definite need in our region,” says Sykes. “But basically the way this HUD funding works is they want you to get buy in from the community and have a lot of input at the grassroots level.”
The Juneau Assembly last night (Monday) adopted a resolution of support for the grant application, and agreed to take part in the regional consortium. Sykes says other communities as well as tribes, businesses and nonprofits will also be asked to participate.
“I’ve been trying to pull in as many partners as we can find who have different types of interests in the region,” Sykes says.
HUD invited the Central Council to submit a full grant application earlier this month, after reviewing a pre-application in August.
If the agency approves a grant to the council, Sykes says it will take three years for the plan to be developed.
Juneau Assembly candidate Carlton Smith has family roots in the Capital City dating back more than 120 years. But his campaign slogan is “For Juneau’s Future.” Lately, Smith has been having a lot of “kitchen table” talks with his sons, 16-year-old Kevin and 21-year-old Alex.
“They’ve been asking me, ‘Well, Dad, I’m thinking about establishing my roots here and looking what my options would be for a career. What is Juneau’s future going to look like?'” says Smith.
To answer that question, he points to his understanding of Juneau’s past. His grandfather worked at the Treadwell Mine until it closed in 1922, when the family moved to Skagway. Smith grew up in Haines, and went to Stanford University, where he graduated with a degree in political science in 1974. He moved Juneau for the first time after college to work in state government. Later he lived in Anchorage, but returned to the Capital City for good in 1998.
“I have a context that is Juneau past, present and hopefully Juneau future. That’s why I’ve chosen for my campaign to be future oriented,” Smith says.
A well-known businessman, Smith has owned a commercial real estate company since 1989. His clients have included Alaska Native corporations; federal agencies like the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; and multinational corporations, like Exxon Mobil. He’s also been on the board of directors for Sealaska regional Native Corporation; was CEO of Kootznoowoo, the Native Corporation for Angoon; and has served on various non-profit boards over the years.
“I have a keen understanding of what it takes to keep a business afloat, and I think I also have a keen understanding of priorities, and I’m a decision maker. So this is what I hope to bring to the assembly,” he says.
Ask him what his vision for Juneau’s future entails, and Smith rattles off a list of ambitious goals that include making the city a regional leader in health care and solid waste, a statewide center for vocational education, and a national model for energy efficiency and savings.
“We need a creative vision of where this community is going. And that’s what I want to be a part of,” says Smith.
But he says details will be just as important as the big picture. The city predicts a 2012 budget shortfall in the millions of dollars. Since announcing his candidacy, Smith says he’s been meeting with city department heads. He thinks Juneau can find ways to save, but says it will have to be a collaborative process.
“I don’t think anybody wants to see job loss. That certainly wouldn’t be my objective,” he says. “But, the sooner we get to it the better, because in the first year, Rod Swope’s going to take to the assembly a first year deficit reduction of five million dollars. And that’s very admirable. But it’s going to require great focus by the assembly.”
Smith supports a ballot proposition extending Juneau’s temporary three-percent sales tax, which among other things pays for police, fire, and emergency services, as well as some capital projects. He’s against a citizens’ initiative imposing a tax on plastic shopping bags, designed to encourage consumers to bring their own. And he’s in favor of an assembly-backed proposition exempting Juneau from state financial disclosure rules for public officials, and replacing them with local regulations.
“In my opinion they really do have a chilling effect,” Smith say. “The requirements really do discourage quality people from public service.”
Smith says the city should proceed cautiously on the AJ Mine – one of the more controversial issues taken up by the assembly in the last year. But before any mine development takes place, he says Juneau should develop an alternative water supply.
“The drinking water issue is number one and it has to be assessed first,” says Smith.
Smith faces Loren Jones and Geny Del Rosario in the race for an area-wide assembly seat. This is his first run for political office.
The Kensington Mine near Juneau began operations in June 2010, and currently employs about 300 people. According to mine owner Coeur Alaska, most Kensington employees – 72 percent – are Alaskans, while 61 percent live in Southeast. But just a little over half – 53 percent – live in Juneau.
Last night (Tuesday) the Juneau Planning Commission approved changes to a 2004 permit issued to Coeur, which set conditions for the mine within the city and borough. The modifications allow the company to build more permanent housing at Kensington, which officials say will make it easier for workers to live nearby. Casey Kelly has more.
On Tuesday, the Juneau Planning Commission reviews Coeur’s application to modify a 2004 allowable use permit, which set conditions for the mine within the city and borough.
In addition to construction of a new three-story, 96-bed dormitory, modifying the permit would allow Coeur to convert two temporary dorms built last year into permanent housing. The result would be permanent on-site housing for 216 employees at the mine, located 45-miles north of Juneau.
Kensington also has 10 trailers on-site, which serve as temporary housing for 64 workers. Five of the trailers will be transitioned to office or storage space, according to a memo from CBJ Planner Beth McKibben.
Kensington Environmental Superintendent Kevin Eppers submitted a letter along with the company’s application to modify the permit. In it he says the new dorm is needed to provide 24-hour coverage, and account for winter weather which may prevent travelling to and from the mine. He also says it will provide for additional local and regional hire.
The company says utilities are already in place at the mine site for the new dormitory.
Employee commuting practices are not expected to change as a result of any new housing. Goldbelt Corporation currently operates 12 round trip buses per week from Engineer’s Cutoff Road to Yankee Cove, about 30 miles north of Juneau. From there a boat takes workers the rest of the way to the mine in Berners Bay.
Tuesday’s Planning Commission meeting starts at 7 o’ clock in CBJ Assembly Chambers.
In August 2001, Nicole Hallingstad moved from Fairbanks to New York City pretty much on a whim.
“My first choice would have been to move to Europe. My master’s degree was in European history. But given that I didn’t have any prospects in Europe, I thought, well, what’s the best domestic choice? And so of course it had to be New York City,” Hallingstad says.
Her apartment was located three blocks from the World Trade Center, and she decided to visit the twin towers for the first time on September 10th. A fear of heights kept her from going up to the observation deck.
“No, never made it up to the top and you know, I’ve still got receipts from the shops that I went to that say September 10, 2001, World Trade Center. And the next day, they were gone.”
Ten days after the attacks she was allowed back in her apartment for 15 minutes, accompanied by National Guard soldiers. She remembers it being filled with debris from the fallen towers. It would be five weeks before she was allowed back for good.
“People talk about it like it was a movie, it was a war zone. It’s something that you don’t experience in real life and the only way you can reach to describe it is by comparing it to things that you’ve seen in magazines or on the screen,” says Hallingstad.
Having grown up in Petersburg, the lure of Alaska brought her back to Juneau in 2003, and today she’s vice president and corporate secretary at Sealaska Native Corporation. She says it’s still kind of surreal to think back to that time.
“I absolutely am still processing it,” Hallingstad says. “I find that I still get a little teary-eyed and I get shaky when I think about that day. And part of the reason I get so emotional is because I remember the tremendous upswell of humanity and kindness that I experienced in those days and weeks and months in New York City after 9-11.”
Destiny Sargeant went to New York about a month after 9-11.
“I saw the best and the worst of humanity,” says Sargeant.
A psychologist at the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, Sargeant leads Juneau’s Critical Incident Stress Management Team, which exists simply to talk to people and guide them through traumatic events.
“We literally walked around every day, ground zero, to talk to the people that were having to look at this trauma day-in-day out,” Sargeant says. “Tried to help support them emotionally and educationally, let them know what to expect and where they can get the assistance and help they needed, and we helped normalize their feelings for them.”
Critical incident stress management teams have been around for over 20 years, but only started gaining recognition in the wake of 9-11. Several teams like Juneau’s went to New York after the attacks at the request of authorities there. But if September 11th taught us anything, Sargeant says it’s that the fear bred by terrorism isn’t isolated in one place.
“People watched the same things over and over again on television, even the newscasters were affected, you know it was traumatic for them,” she says. “Our nation really came to standstill. That’s what I remember. No planes were flying, it was difficult to go anywhere, and it really sort of took over everybody’s life.”
Juneau Police Detective Kim Horn is also a member of the stress management team. While she hopes to never have to go through something like that again, she says it was rewarding in the sense of being able to help people cope, especially her peers in law enforcement.
“Being able to help somebody else go through something very personal and tragic, not only for themselves but for their community,” she says.
Horn says many of the New Yorkers she met were more interested in hearing about Alaska, than they were in talking about their recent trauma. Some have since come to visit Juneau and other parts of the state.
“This last summer one of the officers who we had talked to came up on a tour, so we actually gave them a tour of Juneau,” says Horn. “So there is that connection that we still do hear from them every now and then.”
Horn, Sargeant and Hallingstad plan to mark Sunday’s 9-11 anniversary in different ways. Horn will join other Juneau officers and Capital City Fire and Rescue firefighters in a memorial stair climb.
“It’s in honor of the firefighters who climbed the twin towers. We’re going to be doing 110 flights of stairs at the federal building.”
Sargeant will be at the annual memorial service held at Riverside Rotary Park.
“I go every year that I’m in town,” she says.
Hallingstad says she’ll be on a plane for at least part of the anniversary. She’s flying to Seattle to be with her fiancée and other loved ones.
“At the end of the day, I think that’s the very best way to mark any kind of remembrance is to love one another, and to make those connections with people and keep those connections with people,” says Hallingstad. “Because, as I think almost everybody realized ten years ago, that’s really what matters.”
The number of Alaska post offices being studied for possible closure is down to five – and Douglas is still on the list.
The others are Elmendorf, Fort Wainwright, Eielson and the Anchorage Postal Store. That’s according to a U.S. Postal Service internal study provided to Alaska’s Congressional delegation yesterday (Thursday), and shared with the media.
Originally 36 Alaska post offices were being considered for closure. Twenty-five remote locations were eliminated from consideration almost immediately, and six more came off the list in the last month.
As we reported yesterday (Thursday), three Postal Service officials from Anchorage got an earful from Douglas Post Office customers Wednesday night arguing that the station should stay open.
Alaska District Manager Diane Horbochuk says several factors will determine which offices make the final closure list, including the cost to run each location, access to other post offices, volume, customer demand, and public input.
Communities can appeal if their post office makes the closure list.
Thousands of post offices nationwide are being studied for possible closure by the financially strapped agency, which is facing a 10-billion dollar shortfall.
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