Clarise Larson

Juneau’s Crimson Bears high school football team is slated to be featured in the most-watched sporting event in the United States this weekend — the Super Bowl. 

In September, a team of five reporters and cameramen from NBC Sports visited Juneau and filmed their game against Anchorage’s Dimond High School at Adair-Kennedy Memorial Park. 

This week, NBC released a short film featuring Juneau’s team — and others across the U.S. — in the lead up to Super Bowl Sunday, when millions of people will watch the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots go head-to-head during the National Football League’s 60th championship game in Santa Clara, California. 

The film examines the impact of football across the U.S. and features longtime NFL sports reporter Peter King. 

“The dedication of some players goes further. Noah Ault plays receiver and safety. He punts, he returns punts and kickoffs, and the aspiring athletic trainer even tapes ankles before the game,” King says, talking about wide receiver Noah Ault in the film.

King interviewed the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé senior on the field.

“I just fell in love with this sport, and it just makes me happy every day,” Ault said.

In this newscast:

• On Monday, a Juneau jazz musician canceled a show that was meant to be a part of a festival in town this week.  The show was advertised as a fundraiser for the ACLU of Alaska but the organization who planned the festival said they didn’t agree to that.
• The Alaska Department of Fish & Game recently euthanized a sick mountain goat that had a highly contagious viral skin infection that can transfer to humans and pets. The department learned about the goat from a Juneau resident who found it on Perseverance Trail and took it home last weekend.
• The Juneau Assembly is considering whether to ask voters to renew a 3% temporary sales tax and approve two multimillion-dollar bond packages on this fall’s municipal ballot.
• Juneau’s Crimson Bears high school football team is slated to be featured in the most-watched sporting event in the United States this weekend – the Super Bowl. 

The Juneau Assembly has some big financial decisions to make in the coming months. That’s because the city faces a multimillion-dollar budget hole that could result in cutting some city services in order to stay afloat. 

Along with figuring out how to balance the city’s budget, the Juneau Assembly will need to decide in the coming months whether a temporary tax and two bond debt proposals will appear on October’s municipal ballot. 

“I think at the end of the day why we put things on ballots are to give voters the choice. If they don’t want to fund these things then they won’t. We don’t lose anything because of that,” said Christine Woll, an Assembly member and finance committee chair. 

At a finance committee meeting Wednesday night, the Assembly discussed whether to ask voters to renew a 3% temporary sales tax currently in place, along with putting two bond packages on the ballot to fund critical repairs and upgrades to Juneau schools and the city’s water and sewer systems, which proponents say are sorely needed.

Juneau currently charges 5% in local sales taxes. That’s made up of both permanent and temporary taxes. 

Of that 5%, 3% is a temporary tax, which Juneau has had in place for decades. Voters approved extending it for five years in 2021. It expires in mid-2027. The money collected from that 3% tax currently goes toward numerous city services, like police and fire, street maintenance and snow removal, and general government operations. 

City Finance Director Angie Flick said the money is fairly flexible. 

“Really your roads, drainage, retaining walls, sidewalks, stairs, and we’ve been doing some utility work in that realm as well,” she said. 

At the meeting on Wednesday, some Assembly members were hesitant about whether to put the questions on the ballot. That’s because tax questions dominated last fall’s election and because the city is in a time of budget uncertainty. 

When it comes to bonds, Juneau voters approved adding nearly $23 million to the city’s debt in 2024 for public health and safety improvements. But last year, the Assembly narrowly voted against putting school and water and sewer systems bonds on the 2025 ballot because of how crowded the ballot was already. 

Assembly member Paul Kelly said he is still undecided on whether he wants to put them both on this year’s ballot, but he’s interested in approving at least one. 

“I’m interested, for sure, in the general obligation bond for schools,” he said Wednesday. 

Despite the initial discussion, the temporary tax and bond packages still need to go through a few committees before the Assembly votes on whether to put them on the ballot. This year’s municipal election is on Oct. 6.

In this newscast:

• The North Douglas boat launch will soon reopen to the public after being closed for more than two weeks due to damage to its parking lot.
• As the city’s Emergency Programs Manager, Ryan O’Shaughnessy leads emergency planning, response and recovery for the City and Borough of Juneau. KTOO’s Mike Lane recently caught up with O’Shaughnessy to talk about lessons learned from the major storm events in December and January and how the department operates.
• The U.S. Forest Service is moving forward with a plan to harvest over five thousand acres of trees in the Tongass National Forest, just east of Ketchikan. A majority of that is going to be old-growth trees, which some people worry will be devastating to the forest.

The North Douglas boat launch will soon reopen to the public after being closed for more than two weeks due to damage to its parking lot. 

In mid-January, Juneau Docks and Harbors staff closed off a portion of the launch’s parking lot on North Douglas Highway that provides access to the boat ramp. That’s after they discovered a large sinkhole that developed near the entrance.

Matt Creswell, Juneau’s harbormaster, said the closure was made out of an abundance of caution. 

“Luckily, this did happen in January instead of in the middle of the busy summer boating season,” he said. “The use is fairly minimal out at North Douglas. However, there are some die-hards that are out there quite often, and it’s used as a cabin access point as well.”

Sonny Mauricio, a spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, said the damage was likely caused by erosion to a culvert pipe that runs beneath the highway, which the state maintains. The state is handling the sinkhole repairs.

He said the department plans to temporarily repair the damage and reopen the launch to the public by the end of this week. He said it’s still unclear how extensive the damage is to the area.

“We plan on going out this week to cover it with big metal plates that will stay there until the spring allows us to go out and do some more permanent repairs,” he said. 

Mauricio said the department will share details about a more permanent fix in the coming months.

Juneau residents might have to pay sales tax again on food and utilities, despite approving a local exemption during last fall’s municipal election. 

That’s because Gov. Mike Dunleavy recently proposed a statewide sales tax as part of his fiscal plan meant to stabilize the state’s finances. 

At a community town hall event Thursday evening, Juneau’s three state lawmakers weighed in on the governor’s plans and other topics at play this legislative session. Democratic Juneau Sen. Jesse Kiehl said the governor’s sales tax proposal, as written, would override Juneau’s local exemptions.

“The governor’s proposal would be to override that and to allow no variation,” he said. “I think that’s a bad choice, especially because it impacts people with a sales tax who struggle most to get by.”

Dunleavy’s proposed sales tax – Senate Bill 227– would follow a seasonal structure, set at 4% from April through September and 2% for the remainder of the year. That would be on top of Juneau’s existing 5% sales tax on most items. If passed, the state sales tax would expire in 2034 and provide between $735 million and $815 million of revenue to the state each year.

The governor’s proposal might sound familiar, because this past municipal election, the Juneau Assembly proposed implementing a similar seasonal sales tax at the local level to take advantage of the 1.7 million cruise passengers that come to town each summer. While voters shot that down, they did approve an exemption for essential food and residential utilities from local sales tax. 

Kiehl said he thinks a moderate state income tax would be a fairer way to raise additional revenue for the state while not disproportionately affecting low-income residents. At the town hall meeting, Democratic Juneau Rep. Sara Hannan agreed. She said Alaska needs to stabilize its revenue with its expenditures. 

“A state sales tax on top of local sales tax makes things really burdensome,” she said. “But right now, this is the first time we’ve been able to get the governor to use the word tax and not choke, so that’s a step forward.”

Some Alaska Senate leaders have said they’re skeptical the governor’s plans will pass the Senate this year. Leaders in the state House similarly said they’re not optimistic Dunleavy’s plans will pass this year, which is his last as governor. The House Finance Committee plans to hear public testimony on the tax proposal at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 5.

KTOO’s Jamie Diep contributed to this report.