Clarise Larson

Juneau residents will soon see improvements to the lighting and visibility near Mendenhall River Community School. That comes after a woman and two young children were hit by a truck on Back Loop Road last month. 

Officials with the state, city and school district met Thursday to discuss the incident. Juneau School Board Vice President Emil Mackey said that improving safety near the school is not just a district problem. 

“This is also a community problem because we have playgrounds that are used year-round, whether schools are in or out of session — it’s essentially a park,” he said.  

Greg Lockwood, with the state’s Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, said some short-term fixes are already underway, like reflective flagging on signs and high-performance LED lights at the school’s entrance. 

The lights should get shipped to Juneau next week. District Superintendent Frank Hauser said installing them will be a priority for the district. 

“As soon as they come in, we will get the team to get them installed as quickly as possible so they’re in place,” he said. 

Denise Koch, the city’s director of Engineering and Public Works, said another short-term measure is the city’s plan to move its Capital Transit bus stop across the street from the school’s entrance, to a spot that sees less traffic. She says that change is planned for early February. 

School Board President Deedie Sorensen, who taught at the school for over two decades, said she thinks it’s a miracle that only now has a serious accident happened there. 

“Over the years, the district has done everything they could to discourage people in that neighborhood from walking to school,” she said. “While we can offer all sorts of inducements to people, that does not necessarily change their behavior.”

Sorensen said she hopes the DOT can find ways to slow down drivers in the area.

Lockwood said the DOT is also planning a highway safety improvement project in the area. He says one of the first steps will be a pedestrian crossing study. That will help show how many people are crossing in the area, and what measures might protect them.

Finding housing in Juneau is hard. Finding housing downtown is nearly impossible. Still, a historic, multi-story building in the heart of downtown has sat empty for years.

The Bergmann Hotel is one of Alaska’s oldest residential buildings — the brainchild of a German immigrant who built it to house local miners. Today, the three-story, 46-room hotel’s windows are boarded up. Green moss covers its tan siding, and the inside is largely gutted.

Shannon Crossley, a local historic preservationist, said when the Bergmann opened in 1913, it was considered one of Juneau’s finest hotels.

“It was the epitome of style and class, and it had all of these attributes that you wanted in a place to forget that you were in the middle of the wilderness,” she said.

In 1977 the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Four decades later, the city condemned it for health and safety reasons after a series of police raids and the arrest of the hotel’s former manager. That displaced about 50 tenants, many struggling with mental illness and substance abuse.

Now a developer says he wants to breathe new life into the old building. Dave D’Amato, who bought the Bergmann in 2019 with his brother, said he’s not worried about the building’s reputation.

“When it reopens as something new, it will stand on its own at that point, and hopefully, will be a feather in Juneau’s cap,” he said.

D’Amato said he wants to restore the building and turn it into low and middle-income housing. The plan is to renovate it to hold 18 apartments on its top two floors — 16 one-bedroom units and two efficiency units — all while maintaining its historic qualities. He said the building’s ground level will be open for a restaurant to move in. 

“We will begin work this year. I would say that that building is going to be functioning in three years,” he said. 

The cost of the renovations is expected to be $2.8 million. Last August, D’Amato applied to the city’s affordable housing fund, asking for a $900,000 loan. He had applied the year before, too. 

With that funding, he said the project would have begun construction late last year. But the project wasn’t selected. 

Assembly member Alicia Hughes-Skandijs is the chair of the city’s Lands, Housing and Economic Development committee. She said that each year, the fund gets far more requests than it can fund, meaning some projects don’t get selected right away.  

“I was really pleased to see it back on the list, because it tells me that they’re making progress. I would love to see something come to fruition,” she said. 

D’Amato says the company has about $500,000 available now to do some preliminary work in February. He says they plan to apply to the city’s fund again next year, and other grant applications are pending.

Crossley, who is on the city’s Historic Resources Advisory Committee, said preserving Juneau’s architectural history is important not only for Juneau’s history — but also for the state of Alaska.

“We have one of the most intact historic downtown cores in the state of Alaska,” she said. “ When I say that, I mean, a lot of other communities have had rogue waves take them out. Fires have been a big problem.”

The 2023 assessed value of the building and property is about $480,000. D’Amato declined to share how much he purchased it for in 2019.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to make clearer that Shannon Crossley is not associated with the Bergmann Hotel project.

A winter storm dumped nearly 30 inches of snow over the holiday weekend in Juneau. On Tuesday morning, residents and city officials were just beginning to dig out. 

For some, the aftermath meant spending Tuesday morning shoveling their driveways, or figuring out what to do with their kids on their snow day.

Others, like Robert Jared Lewis, spent the morning outside, waiting for the downtown library to open. He said he’d been waiting since about 7 a.m. after spending the night at the city’s warming shelter.

“For two months I just slept outside because I didn’t want to go over there to the warming shelter,” he said. “But it just started getting too cold.”

Lena Gilbertson was walking her dog, Diya, along the seawalk on a thin path dug through the deep snow. Both wore coats against the wind from the channel. Gilberston says the storm was much larger than she expected. 

“I don’t remember one like this in quite a while,” she said. “I’m on day two of work being canceled.”

A scattering of people were walking downtown Tuesday morning surrounded by the high banks of snow piled along the streets. Many were walking to the Alaska State Capital. Tuesday marked the start of the legislative session. Juneau Sen. Jesse Kiehl said he spent his weekend doing what most people were doing. 

“It was a lot of shoveling — a lot of shoveling,” he said. “ I shoveled off my walks, the neighbors, opened up the alley. You know, push people’s cars up hills and around corners when they got stuck downtown – it happens.”

Down at the harbor, three boats had sunk completely under the weight of the snow. Harbormaster Matt Creswell said three more were saved just in time. No pollution has been detected so far. 

“In my time in Juneau this is the worst I’ve seen it,” he said. 

Creswell said the Douglas harbor was having problems too, and Docks and Harbors staff was working overtime to make sure no more vessels sink.

“We are expending resources that could be used right now to clear parking lots and docks,” he said. “We’re expanding those resources for boats that could have not sunk if people would have shoveled them off in time.”

Capital Transit will run winter route detours until midnight Tuesday, according to its website. There is no service up Cordova Street to Cedar Park on Douglas Island, and on Franklin or 4th Street in Downtown Juneau. Normal service will resume Wednesday. 

School will also resume on Wednesday, according to the Juneau School District. Buses will use snow routes in Douglas, downtown Juneau and Lena Loop. There will be no service to Thane.

Update — Jan. 12, 4:10 p.m.

Juneau police are asking the public for help finding the suspect in a Wednesday night shooting that left an elderly man with a gunshot wound.

Corey B. Coleman of Juneau, 54, is suspected of felony assault with a weapon. He was last seen walking on a trail toward Berner’s Bay cabin, off a dirt road at the end of Glacier Highway. Police said Friday evening that they don’t know if he’s still in the area.

Police described Coleman as a white male who is 5 feet, 11 inches tall and slender. He has light brown hair and green eyes.

Police said he is missing part of a finger and may have other injuries to his left hand from a gunshot. Photos of Coleman are on the JPD Facebook page.

Police are asking anyone with information to call JPD dispatch.

Original story

A suspect is at large north of Juneau after a fight Wednesday night left one man with a “non-life-threatening” gunshot wound. 

The Juneau Police Department is actively searching for a man they say is likely near Berner’s Bay cabin and has a gunshot wound to his hand. No other descriptions of the man have been shared at this time. 

According to a press release, at about 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday police received a call from a woman who said her husband had confronted and fought with a man who was trespassing on his property near 35-mile Glacier Highway. 

When police and Capital City Fire/Rescue arrived, they found the 72-year-old property owner with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to the head. Police say the wound came from the property owner’s handgun, and he was treated at the scene. 

JPD spokesperson and interim Chief Krag Campbell said police believe the risk to public safety is minimal at this time. 

“There’s always some potential due to the nature of this crime,” he said. “We don’t believe that the person is armed anymore, at least with a gun that was used in the shooting.”

The man involved in the fight fled the area in a smaller-sized silver truck before police arrived. A vehicle similar to the description was later found by police, along with a weapon used in the incident. 

Campbell said more information about the man’s description will likely be released Friday and Alaska State Troopers will join the search.

The release encourages anyone with information to call JPD dispatch at 907-586-0600 or submit an anonymous tip through Juneau Crimeline.

This story has been updated with additional comment from the Juneau Police Department. 

Juneau’s three state lawmakers are asking locals to weigh in on what issues matter most to them ahead of this year’s fast-approaching legislative session. 

At a town hall meeting on Wednesday, public education dominated the discussion. The conversation follows the recent news that the Juneau School District faces a projected $9.5 million budget deficit.

Sen. Jesse Kiehl said the city and district need to find out what happened that led to the deficit, and to work together to get out of the red — a task that he said won’t be easy.

“The news about the school district — it is shocking. And we have a lot of work to do,” he said. “There is a very limited amount that the state can do, that we as state legislators can do.”

Juneau’s deficit was caused in part by accounting errors and declining enrollment. But Rep. Andi Story said that across Alaska, districts are facing strained finances after years of flat funding from the state — funding per student hasn’t increased significantly since 2017, despite rising inflation. 

Story, who represents the Mendenhall Valley, Haines, Skagway and Gustavus, said public education funding continues to be a priority for her.   

“We have been flat-funded in education for eight years now, so it is something that’s got everyone’s attention — not just in Juneau but across the state,” she said. 

Heading into the session, she said there are bills currently sitting in both the House and Senate that would increase Alaska’s per-student funding. The Senate bill also seeks to fund stronger internet access in public schools. 

Story filed two pre-session bills that were released earlier this week. One seeks to provide additional state funding to students with reading deficiencies and another bill seeks to allow youth to pre-register to vote before they turn 18. 

All three of Juneau’s legislators are Democrats. Last spring, lawmakers passed a one-time funding boost of $680 per student, but Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy later vetoed half of it.

Representative Sara Hannan represents downtown Juneau and Douglas. During the town hall, she criticized Dunleavy’s veto and said the Juneau delegation still want to override it. 

“We’ve been working on that goal, we are united in that goal, we want to see that veto of the BSA allocation overridden,” she said. 

A legislative override must take place in the first five days of the session and requires a two-thirds vote by both chambers. If the override does occur – which many lawmakers have expressed doubt will happen – that would mean an extra $2.8 million for the Juneau School District.

Another round of pre-filed bills is scheduled to be released on Friday. This year’s legislative session starts next Tuesday, Jan. 16.

Juneau’s Augustus Brown Pool could reopen as soon as March after a multi-million dollar renovation over the past year. 

City Aquatics Manager Terra Patterson said the downtown pool means a lot to the thousands of patrons who have used it over the decades. 

“It’s not just a swimming pool, it’s not just a place where people go and swim laps — it’s actually a spot where community gathers,” she said. 

The project, which began last April, is the first major renovation in decades for the more than 50-year-old pool. Juneau Parks and Recreation Director George Schaaf said the city aims to re-open it by early March — but that could shift depending on staffing.

“We’re running a little bit behind schedule because of some supply chain issues and delays that we had along the way, but nothing too bad considering how big of a project it was,” he said. 

Schaaf said contractors have spent the past 10 months on upgrades that most pool users won’t actually see — like new boilers, electric plumbing and ventilation. The cost is about $8 million, funded from a ballot proposition passed in 2017 and an Assembly appropriation in 2021. 

Patterson said many of the pool’s users have been swimming at the Dimond Park Aquatic Center in the Mendenhall Valley in the meantime. 

“They’ve been patient to a point but we can tell they’re very ready to have the second pool reopened,” she said. “I think this has been a really good exercise in showing why Juneau needs two pools.”

Patterson said the city will soon begin hiring lifeguards, aquatic attendants and swim instructors. She said the city needs to rebuild about 80% of its past staffing to reopen the pool. 

Contractors are expected to complete the project by mid-February.