Clarise Larson

A civil lawsuit aimed at preserving a historic neighborhood in the capital city is set for trial next summer. Juneau’s city government, meanwhile, plans to demolish the neighborhood before then.

At a hearing on Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Amanda Browning set the trial date for August 2026. Three longtime tenants of the city-owned Telephone Hill neighborhood filed the lawsuit in October. It seeks to both stop the city’s demolition and reverse the evictions of renters. 

City Attorney Emily Wright said, as it stands legally, nothing is holding the city back from continuing with demolition. 

“There’s nothing stopping forward movement,” she said. “Right now, the timeline that the city manager’s office is working on is a March demo.”

After years of public debate, the Juneau Assembly approved demolishing the homes on the hill this spring to redevelop the area into newer, denser housing. The Assembly says the plan is necessary to address Juneau’s lack of housing. 

But, the tenants’ lawsuit claims that the city improperly evicted people on the hill, illegally phased the redevelopment and the project fails to comply with federal and state historic preservation acts. The city has repeatedly denied these claims.

Following Wednesday’s hearing, the tenants’ attorney, Fred Triem, said he intends to file a motion to prevent the demolition pending the outcome of the August trial. Judge Browning will decide whether to accept or deny it. 

“We want to save the old buildings — that’s the object of the suit,” he said. “We will move forward in the court system with our efforts to protect the buildings while we await the trial presently scheduled for August.”

At the hearing, Judge Browning also ruled on a couple of the eviction cases the city filed against remaining tenants who refused to vacate by the city’s Nov. 1 deadline. While Browning ruled in favor of the city’s right to evict two residences, she gave different eviction deadlines to the tenants because of their personal circumstances. A third eviction case is still pending. 

Two finalists in the running for fire chief at Capital City Fire/Rescue got a chance to share their vision for the department during public presentations this week. Juneau’s city manager is expected to make a decision next week.

Finalist Sean Wisner, who presented on Monday, has been the fire chief for Alyeska Pipeline Fire & Rescue in Valdez since 2012. He’s spent more than 20 years serving in emergency services leadership roles. He founded a consulting firm that specializes in helping organizations be resilient and improve their performance.

“I’ve been in leadership positions in all sorts of complex, municipal, industrial, backcountry and critical infrastructure environments,” he said. “I think that gives me a unique perspective on a place like Juneau.”

Wisner said he’s had his eye on Juneau since he visited the capital city in 2022 to compete in the Ironman Alaska race.

The other finalist, Tom Hatley, presented on Tuesday. He served as the deputy chief for the Spokane Valley Fire Department in Washington until April of this year, when he left due to a family medical reason. He has more than 30 years of experience in fire service, holding positions like fire chief, assistant chief and fire marshal at multiple agencies in the Pacific Northwest. 

Hatley said he was drawn to the position because of the complexities of Juneau’s fire and emergency medical services. He pointed to the community’s lack of outside support, large service area and seasonal population surges. CCFR services 3,255 square miles.

“This unique operating environment is why CCFR must focus on prevention, system resilience, workforce sustainability and community-centered service delivery,” he said. 

Hatley said, as chief, he would focus on addressing staffing problems in the department, especially retaining the department’s current employees. The fire department has struggled with staffing shortages, which union officials say have led to burnout and driven people away from the department. 

The Juneau Career Firefighters Union is currently at an impasse in its negotiations over a new contract with the city.

“Retention must come before recruitment,” Hatley said. “Hiring new people is important, but keeping experienced, well-trained personnel is what maintains service quality and organizational stability.”

Wisner said his strategy for strengthening the department is focusing on staff mental health. He said he wants the department to be a place where employees feel empowered and supported when they need help. 

“Emotional intelligence and emotional literacy is one of the tools that we can use to get there, to create a better culture within the organization and to foster stronger mental health,” he said. 

Both finalists said they also want to increase transparency, leadership development and community engagement.

The new chief will replace outgoing Fire Chief Rich Etheridge, who announced his plans to retire in September. He has been at the helm of Capital City Fire/Rescue for more than 15 years.

The annual salary listed on the city’s website for the position is between $125,944 and $161,761.

Juneau Animal Rescue has finally secured a location for its proposed new animal shelter.

On Monday night, the Juneau Assembly unanimously approved leasing a parcel of city property in the Mendenhall Valley to Juneau Animal Rescue to serve as the site of a larger facility for rescued animals. 

Rick Driscoll, the shelter’s executive director, said the approval is a major milestone for making the new shelter a reality.  

“This was kind of the big step,” he said. “We couldn’t really launch a capital campaign without having land that we can say we’re going to build it on. Everything has led up to this point.”

The nonprofit organization has been fundraising to construct a newer, updated facility for the last few years. The current shelter off Glacier Highway was built in 1984 and needs extensive repairs. The shelter also often finds itself at or near capacity for housing dogs and cats. 

Driscoll said the Assembly’s approval means the animal rescue can begin narrowing in on a design for the facility and figure out how much they need to fundraise to make it happen. 

The proposed new facility would have a better ventilation system to help prevent the spread of diseases, and more space for cats, dogs, and smaller animals like rodents and reptiles. The shelter is also interested in creating walking trails in the surrounding area for dogs.  

Driscoll said a long-term goal is to make the site a campus for all things animals by collaborating with other organizations in Juneau.

“Whether that’s working with the Capital City Kennel Club, or working with Parks and Recreation on a dog park, or working with Trail Mix to perhaps do some kind of cool trails out there — the sky’s the limit,” he said. 

Under the approved lease agreement, the shelter will pay $10 a year for the 35-year lease. The annual market value for the land is $3,000 a month. Driscoll said the organization will share more about the design and fundraising needs for the new shelter as soon as possible. 

An Alaska Airlines flight headed from Juneau to Sitka on Monday morning was struck by lightning just before landing. 

Passenger Kathy Fitzgerald was on board the 27-minute flight. She said the plane was briefly engulfed in a bright orange and gold flash.

“It was like a giant flashbulb going off throughout the whole plane, coming from outside,” she said. “There was this huge, bright light — there was no loud sound, there was no shimmying or shuddering of the plane.” 

In her time flying through Alaska weather, she said she had never experienced anything like it. 

Fitzgerald was originally traveling from Anchorage, where flight 62 originated, back home to Ketchikan with her family. The leg between Juneau and Sitka was part of the milk run, and was supposed to continue to Ketchikan and Seattle.

According to a spokesperson for the airline, lightning strikes are not unusual.

“Our aircraft are designed to dissipate the electrical energy of the lightning bolt without damaging the aircraft systems,” the spokesperson said. 

The plane landed safely in Sitka, and the spokesperson said maintenance technicians were inspecting the aircraft as a precaution. 

The airline eventually cancelled the flight.

Eaglecrest Ski Area’s gondola cabins are headed to Colorado next month for repairs and a paint job. Cost for the work and shipping is expected to be around $450,000. The cost to bring other gondola parts to Juneau is expected to be even higher with tariffs. 

It’s been more than three years since the city bought the used gondola system from Austria. The plan is to have it up and running by the summer of 2028, but the ski area continues to face timeline delays and financial hurdles.

Craig Dahl is a special projects manager for the city. He gave an update about the city-owned ski area’s ongoing gondola project during an Eaglecrest board of directors meeting last week.

He said the gondola cabins were inspected in 2022 when the ski area purchased them and were deemed to be in good condition. But, he said the refurbishment in Colorado will make the nearly 20-year-old cabins into like-new condition. 

“We’re talking powder coating all the moving parts, replacing any parts that need repair or replace, new glass, new paint, new floors, new seats,” he said. 

The cabins are slated to be shipped out of Juneau in mid-January and Dahl said they won’t return until early 2027. The cost of the contract to refurbish the cabins is $414,000. But that doesn’t include the cost to barge and truck the cabins to Colorado to get the work done, which is an additional $37,000 cost. 

And the recent Trump Administration’s tariffs on imports could raise costs even more. Parts of the gondola still remain in Austria, most of which are made of steel. At the meeting, Dahl said estimates to ship them to Juneau are still very much up in the air, but he anticipates they will tack on a significant amount to the project’s overall cost. 

“I don’t know the amount — we’re probably going to be spending somewhere between $600,000 to $700,000 if we’re not able to eliminate the tariff.”

The ski area’s financial future is heavily riding on the gondola. In the coming years, the ski area is slated to run into a multimillion-dollar deficit to repair some broken and aging infrastructure while boosting pay to employees and preparing to operate year-round. 

A local Alaska Native corporation, Goldbelt Incorporated, invested $10 million in the gondola in 2022 in exchange for a revenue-sharing agreement, but the project’s overall cost is expected to exceed that. In that contract, it stipulates that the gondola must be up and running by the summer of 2028 or Goldbelt could reclaim its investment. 

Eaglecrest opened at a limited capacity this past weekend after an influx of snow. This year marks its 50th season as a ski area. 

Juneau Animal Rescue might soon have a location in the Mendenhall Valley for its proposed new animal shelter.

The Juneau Assembly is slated to vote Monday night on whether to lease a parcel of city property to the rescue for less than fair market value.

The nonprofit organization has been fundraising to construct a newer, updated facility for the last few years. The current shelter was built back in 1984 and needs extensive repairs. A 2021 inspection showed it didn’t meet national standards. 

The proposed new facility would have a better ventilation system to help prevent the spread of diseases, and more space for cats, dogs, and smaller animals like rodents and reptiles. Right now, the shelter repeatedly struggles with hitting its capacity for housing cats. 

The proposed lease location is in the Mendenhall Valley and the animal shelter would share it with the Southeast Alaska Food Bank. Juneau Animal Rescue leadership says the timeline to construct the facility depends on fundraising. 

Also on the Assembly’s agenda Monday night is the approval of amending portions of the Title 49 Land Use Code and amending the city’s comprehensive plan by adopting the Downtown Douglas and West Juneau Area Plan. 

Juneau residents have the chance to testify on the ordinances – as well as on non-agenda items – in person or online before the Assembly votes on Monday. People who want to testify online must notify the city clerk by 4 p.m. before the meeting. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. on Monday at Centennial Hall.