Clarise Larson

Police arrested a Juneau man Thursday on 10 charges after a downtown standoff that lasted about three hours and closed four city blocks.

Kenneth Kitka, 65, faces nine felony charges related to weapons and illegal drugs and one misdemeanor charge for violating conditions of release. 

According to police, the search was connected to a more than year-long investigation into the distribution of illegal drugs. Kitka is now at Lemon Creek Correctional Center. 

The standoff between Kitka and officers with the Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs task force began Thursday morning when officers tried to serve a search warrant for a home on North Franklin Street and its occupants. More than a dozen officers wearing tactical gear were at the scene, along with JPD’s armored truck. 

Police said two people left the home early on in the search, and they have not been arrested or charged. But Kitka remained in the house and refused to leave. 

For three hours, police spoke over a loudspeaker and fired less-than-lethal rounds into the house. Later, officers threw pepper spray into the home. Officers then entered and walked Kitka outside, where they handcuffed him and took him away in a police car. 

According to charging documents, police discovered more than 4,000 suspected fentanyl pills, heroin, meth, cocaine, LSD and $100,000 in cash during their search. They also found one pistol under a bed and two in his truck.

Kitka made his first court appearance Friday morning. His bail was set at $200,000. State prosecutor Katholyn Runnels said Kitka is a significant danger to the community as well as a flight risk.

“In this case, when they went to serve the search warrant, he didn’t comply with officer’s command for approximately three hours,” she said. “They had to use irritants to get him out of the house.”

Kitka has a preliminary hearing on Feb. 26, 2024.

Juneau’s Eaglecrest Ski Area finally opened for the winter on Wednesday morning after getting a much-needed 9-inch dump of snow the night before. 

The Ptarmigan Chair was the only lift running on Wednesday, but by Thursday the Hooter Chair was open, too. Eaglecrest manager Dave Scanlan said they hope to have the Porcupine Chair running by the weekend.

“We’re just happy as can be that we have the season underway and looking forward to no interruptions and a good season ahead of us,” he said. 

Scanlan said the Eaglecrest parking lot on Wednesday was nearly full, and a steady flow of users came to the mountain throughout the day. 

The season opener was delayed for weeks by heavy rain and warm temperatures. Despite the cooler temperatures allowing for more snowmaking, Scanlan said the snowpack on the mountain is still very low. He encouraged users to practice caution when hitting the slopes. 

“We really want to always remind people this time of year to keep eyes out for unmarked hazards, little rocks, little trees poking through the snow,” he said. 

Eaglecrest is set to remain open daily now, besides the Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays.

Police detained a man as part of a drug investigation Thursday after a standoff in downtown Juneau that lasted nearly three hours and closed four city blocks.

Juneau Police spokesperson and interim police chief Krag Campbell said the man had not been arrested or charged.

“The investigation is still ongoing. We need to determine what criminal charges are appropriate,” he said during an interview at the scene.

The standoff began after officers with the Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs task force arrived to execute a search warrant at a home on North Franklin Street a little after 10 a.m. Thursday. More than a dozen officers wearing tactical gear stood behind JPD’s armored truck and surrounded the residence on Fifth Street. Multiple people stood nearby to watch the scene.

Campbell said a judge granted police a warrant to search the home and its occupants a few days before officers arrived at the scene. He said that two people exited the home early on in the search and have not been arrested or charged.

For most of the standoff, police spoke over a loudspeaker and fired several of what they described as less-than-lethal rounds into the house, breaking windows. They repeatedly asked the person to exit the building with their hands up. Later, officers threw pepper spray into the home, which billowed from the door and windows.

After using a ladder to look through the top window of the house, officers entered its front door at around 1:30 p.m. They soon walked the man out and put him in handcuffs. Campbell said the man did not physically resist.

“There was no violence on his part or anything like that,” he said.

Campbell said the search follows a more than year-long investigation into the distribution of illegal drugs and that police have seen “a huge increase in fentanyl coming to Juneau” over the last three years.

“So part of this investigation is because we believe that this person who’s the subject of the residence is associated with some of those actions,” he said.

Campbell said police were reopening the roads, and the department planned to share more information with an information release to the public on Thursday evening.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

The Eaglecrest Ski Area gondola will need more parts and cost more than expected to put up. That’s according to the area’s manager, who says it will need more towers, wheels and haul rope.

“We were aware we were going to need additional towers for the midway station,” Dave Scanlan said. “We didn’t anticipate as many.”

When the city bought the used gondola from an Austrian ski resort in 2022, it cost about $2 million, plus $1.1 million to ship it to Juneau. During an update on the project at an Assembly committee meeting Monday night, Scanlan told members that another $1.86 million is needed.

He said the extra parts are needed because the gondola will be configured differently at Eaglecrest than it was in Austria, but they won’t require additional funding from the city. He said he’s “very confident” that the gondola can still be fully installed with the $6.5 million the project has left over, largely from a $10 million revenue-sharing agreement with Goldbelt, Inc.

Assembly member Alicia Hughes-Skandijs wasn’t so sure. 

“When I see the number $6.5 million I think, ‘How on earth are you going to set it up for $6.5 million?’” she said. 

Hughes-Skandijs said she has a “real fear” that the cost will go over that, and more city dollars will be needed to get the project over the finish line. 

Assembly member Wade Bryson praised the purchase and its increase in value — Scanlan told members that the gondola had nearly doubled in value since it was purchased.

“We got a $4 million-plus dollar asset for $2 million bucks because we bought it before everybody appreciated what inflation was going to do,” he said. “We’ve scored on this one.”

Scanlan said Eaglecrest hopes to have the gondola ready by the winter of 2025. The goal is to have it fully operational by the following summer tourism season. 

In this newscast:

• The Juneau Assembly asked city administration to look for places the city could rent office space,
• Gov. Mike Dunleavy shared ideas for Alaska’s energy needs in his budget,
• Ketchikan was offered $4.5 million to build affordable housing units,
• “Landless” legislation passed a new milestone last week after winning approval of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee.

Months after Juneau voters shot down a proposal to build a new city hall – for the second year in a row – city officials are beginning to reckon with the need to find new office space.

City Manager Katie Koester said finding a place to rent that would consolidate all city functions would likely help both city staff and the public. 

“If there’s a way that we can consolidate those public-facing departments to make it a little bit less of a rabbit trail for the public to try to pay their bills and get their permits and get their pool pass, that’s the focus that we will be having,” she said.

City Hall holds fewer than half of the city’s employees. This fall, the city unsuccessfully sought approval from voters to fund a new city hall through a $27 million bond. That building would have housed all city employees. 

At a committee meeting Monday night, the Juneau Assembly directed city staff to find out what spaces the city could rent to house the 60% of its staff that cannot fit in City Hall. Right now, those employees work in four rented office spaces in buildings downtown – the Marine View building, Municipal Way building, Sealaska Plaza and the Seadrome building. It costs about $823,000 each year to rent those facilities. 

The Municipal Way building lease ends in June 2028 following its purchase by the Sealaska Heritage Institute. The lease for the Marine View building is set to expire this summer. The city could renew it, but Koester said the space has problems. 

“It’s just — it’s been a challenging lease, and we’ve had some violations because of the water issues and just substandard space for employees,” she said. 

The city is looking at three scenarios for renting space. The first would be a space large enough to fit all city employees, along with a space for the Assembly chambers. The second would be to find a space to consolidate all employees who can’t fit in City Hall now. The last option would be to find enough space for only the employees in the Marine View Building.

Koester said staff will share the results of the search with the Assembly in the coming months. She said it will also likely inform how the city should invest in the current city hall, which is estimated to require upwards of $14 million in repairs and maintenance to continue operating.