Clarise Larson

Spanning an outside wall of City Hall in downtown Juneau, there’s a 10-and-a-half by 61-foot mural called “Raven discovering mankind in a clamshell.” 

It shows Raven opening a clam and releasing a man. Around it, there are Alaska Native clan symbols like the bear, the frog, the eagle, the orca and the wolf. A vibrant blue and cloudy sky fills the background.

It’s one of the first things cruise ship passengers see, and KTOO listener Shirley Dean said it’s one of her favorite pieces of art in Juneau.  

“It just brings me delight with the colors and the whole image of the beginning. and it just brings me peace and joy,” she said. “Because in the winters, as you know, when it’s really dark, and gray and rainy, those colors just make me happy.”

During the local election last fall, Dean wondered what would happen to the mural if voters approved the city’s plan to build a new City Hall. That ballot measure failed, but the city still plans to move its staff to a new location one day.

Dean asked KTOO to find out what would happen to the building and mural if that happened. 

“I don’t know how they can do it. But if we can put people on the moon, I think we could preserve an art piece,” she said. 

 A familiar face

The mural was painted in 1986 by then-local artist Bill. C Ray. He’s the son of former state senator Bill Ray, who died in 2013. Now, nearly four decades later — it’s showing its age. The paint is chipping and colors are fading. 

When KTOO reached out to talk to him about the mural, he declined an interview. 

But, in an old newspaper article, Ray said the mural was inspired by a carving by the late Bill Reid, a renowned Haida artist from British Columbia. It tells the Haida legend of how man came to be. 

Ray is not Alaska Native, but in the article, he explained the legend like this: Raven was flying around and landed on a beach to dine on some shellfish. He had his fill, and was just about to take off when he saw a giant clam under the sand. He dug it out, popped it open and squirming inside … was man.

Gary Waid was the model for the man. He is Lingít and Haida and has lived in Juneau his whole life. He’s 78 now — so he was in his 30s when Ray painted him. 

Standing next to the mural now, Waid looked different — his hair is short and white instead of black and flowing, and he looked like he’d seen some things since popping out of that clamshell. 

Waid said if he had known back then how iconic the piece would become in Juneau, he would have made a few requests. 

“I should have had residuals in some way or another on this stuff,” he said, laughing. 

Though he frequents downtown and drives past City Hall often enough, Waid has an interesting relationship with the mural  — he doesn’t like to look at it. 

“It’s like being in a movie, or in a play that gets recorded. You don’t really like watching oneself do the thing,” he said. 

But, he said the mural serves an important purpose. When he was young, public art depicting Alaska Native culture wasn’t common like it is today. He said he isn’t attached to the mural itself so much as its ability to share his culture through the story it tells. 

“We got the story from the elders,” he said. “‘Tell the story to as many people as you can and pass it on.’ Any which way that the story gets passed on, I’m all for it.”

Waid said he doesn’t care so much if the mural is preserved or destroyed — as long as something similar takes its place. 

A City Hall without the city?

City Manager Katie Koester said what will happen to City Hall and the mural is still unclear. 

“Where we are going to eventually end up moving downtown employees is a question that’s still up in the air,” she said. 

Koester said she’s in the middle of negotiating a lease for two floors of the Michael J. Burns Building downtown, which houses the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation.

The city has been trying to figure out a long-term office plan for staff after Juneau voters rejected two separate bond proposals for a new City Hall. 

Fewer than half of city employees now work at City Hall, which has issues like cracking walls, leaking ceilings and asbestos in the carpet. The rest of the employees work in rented office space in other buildings. 

If City Hall does get emptied out, the Juneau Assembly will decide what happens to the building.

Koester said the city had a photographer take high-quality photos of the mural in 2011. Potentially, those could help recreate the piece in the future. 

“I do think there’s a real desire to preserve that iconic piece of Juneau. In fact, I was walking over here, and people were taking pictures of that mural,” she said. “So it’s really come to represent Juneau and it’s just a beautiful story and a beautiful piece.”

So for now, the mural will continue to greet visitors of Juneau, and Waid will just keep having to drive past his big face downtown. 

Eaglecrest Ski Area’s board is hiring a new general manager. The job posting went live on Friday. 

But, at a meeting the night before, local skiers and residents asked the board to reinstate the previous general manager, Dave Scanlan, whom the board asked to resign last month. 

Barney Bogart said he was disappointed in the board. 

“Dave should never have been fired. Give us a reason. Don’t just leave us in the lurch. We’re not stupid idiots,” he said. “We need an explanation. And if you can’t give us one, reinstate him right now.”

Bogart was one of 50 people who came to the meeting at the downtown library. There were so many people that some attendees were asked to step outside the room to comply with fire code. At least another 50 attended online.

Many testified in support of the previous general manager and wanted to know why the board abruptly asked him to leave his role after seven years.

Another resident and former Eaglecrest board member, Dave Hanna, said the board is going to have a hard time finding a replacement for Scanlan. 

“This board apparently failed to engage Dave in his review, and they failed to get his perspective and his advice on dealing with whatever procedural or personnel issues that were perceived to exist,” he said. 

Hanna is also part of a group that is gathering signatures for a petition to demand answers from the board. As of Monday, it had 485 signatures. 

Scanlan’s resignation came after he met with the board late last month to evaluate his performance. The decision to ask him to resign came after the board met in executive session.

Board chair Mike Satre said the details of Scanlan’s performance review and the reasons behind the decision can’t be shared with the public.  

“It is simply not appropriate to disclose items discussed during the review process,” he said. “I doubt that there’s anyone in this meeting who would want the details of their reviews made public.”

Scanlan has said openly that he did not want to resign. At Thursday’s meeting, the board asked the city to move forward with the hiring process for a new manager, despite public opposition. 

According to the city’s Human Resources and Risk Management Director, Dallas Hargrave, the position went live on the city’s website on Friday and will remain up for the next 30 days. The posting lists the starting salary as $100,000 dollars a year. Scanlan was making $114,000 at the time of his resignation.

Southeast Alaska’s cutest models hit the stage at Centennial Hall on Thursday for Celebration’s Toddler Regalia Review. Celebration is the biennial festival of Lingít, Haida and Tsimshian culture in Juneau. 

For many, it takes a lot of courage to get in front of hundreds of people and strut your stuff. But 4-year-old Bonnie Lewis said it was fun. 

“It feeled like I was proud that there was people watching me. And I was wearing this purse, and I also was wearing my moccasins. And I was wearing my blanket that my mama made,” she said. 

Bonnie and her 2-year-old brother, Marlin, came to Celebration this week from Kake, with their parents. Her mom, Chelsea, said this Celebration is especially sweet for her. 

“It’s just super special because I’ve come as a single person, but this is the first time I got to come up with my family,” she said. “So it’s really fun.”

And it’s her kids’ first time partaking in the Toddler Regalia Review. It’s one of the most – if not the most – beloved events at Celebration. This year, nearly 30 toddlers participated, all between the ages of around two and five. Some wore Chilkat blankets, cedar hats, or moccasins. Others wore Ravenstail headbands or dance tunics. 

In front of a crowd of hundreds, each toddler walked — or was carried — to the center of the stage at Centennial Hall. There, an emcee described their toddler-sized regalia, who made it, and what it meant. 

The review is a friendly competition – technically there are no winners. But, from the cheers and smiles in the crowd to the giggles and waves on stage, it’s safe to say that everybody won.

Disclaimer: KTOO 360TV is contracted to produce television and online video coverage of Celebration.

More than 1,500 Indigenous dancers from across Southeast Alaska filled Willoughby Avenue and Centennial Hall for the Grand Entrance Procession of Celebration 2024 on Wednesday. 

The procession marks the kick-off of the four-day Celebration festival in Juneau — a biennial gathering that honors and uplifts the culture of Lingít, Haida and Tsimshian people.

Throughout the coming days, there will be dances, cultural demonstrations and art markets and exhibits. 

Here are some images from the grand entrance. Click on any photo for a slideshow view.

Disclaimer: KTOO 360TV is contracted to produce television and online video coverage of Celebration.

As the board for Juneau’s city-owned hospital begins hearing public testimony on services it might cut or reduce, residents say there could be damaging consequences for the community if they’re gone. 

At a public meeting Tuesday night, Leslie Chandler Holzman spoke in support of the Home Health and Hospice services run by Bartlett Regional Hospital. 

“I just have to say — do not give up on this thing,” she said. “The reward to this community is immeasurable.” 

That service and others — like the Rainforest Recovery Center and adult and adolescent crisis services — could be discontinued as the hospital tries to address a major budget crisis. 

This year, the hospital is absorbing a $7.5 million budget deficit by pulling from its savings. But hospital leaders say they can’t do that for much longer. They say that if they don’t find ways to significantly cut costs, the hospital will run out of money within the next three years. 

Hospital Board member Hal Geiger explained the dilemma like this.

“The decisions we have before us, they’re like the decisions we would have if we were gonna drive on a long car trip and we don’t have any gas in the car, and we don’t have any money to buy gas,” he said. 

The services that the board is discussing cutting or reducing are considered “non-core” services, and they’re costing more money than they’re making.

The home health program gives intermittent in-home care for people recovering from an illness or surgery, and hospice is for patients who have a life expectancy of six months or less. Bartlett began offering the services last summer, taking over the role after Catholic Community Services stopped providing it in 2022. 

Those services are expected to lose a combined $1.3 million next fiscal year.

The Rainforest Recovery Center is a substance misuse treatment center the hospital has operated since 2000. It’s expected to lose close to $800,000 next year.

The board says other options could be on the table, like subsidizing the programs with city dollars or handing them over to other providers. But if that doesn’t happen — and soon — cutting the services may be the only option left. 

At the meeting, National Alliance on Mental Illness Juneau Executive Director Aaron Surma said that demand for adult and adolescent crisis services in Juneau is high, and the effects of cutting them would be widespread. 

“You all inherited a financial situation that no individual person here created, but I think you also inherited an obligation to provide that service,” he said.

The crisis center is expected to lose $1.2 million next year. But the hospital only started offering the services last December after the building that houses it, the Aurora Behavioral Health Center, was completed. 

The board says that if the service is cut or moved, they would repurpose the new building to house other programs.

But Surma said he wants the board to make sure the service does remain available – whether that’s with Bartlett or with a different organization that takes it over. 

The meeting Tuesday night was the first of two in-person opportunities for the public to share feedback on what they’d like to see happen. The next meeting is June 10 at the hospital’s campus. Public comments can also be submitted electronically or via mail until June 19. As of Tuesday, the board says they have already received 25 emails offering feedback. 

The board is expected to give a final recommendation on June 25 on how to move forward.

In this newscast:

•  Last week, an Alaska Coach Tours bus backed into a totem pole at the Juneau-Douglas City Museum, and drove off. Witnesses called the museum to report the accident. There’s minimal damage to the pole and city engineers made sure it was stable. But for the son of the man who carved the 57-year-old totem pole, the accident was a reminder of what this piece means to him and his father’s legacy.
• Naomi Michelson shares her reflections on the practice of respectful harvesting for this week’s Garden Talk.