Jennifer Pemberton

Public media was made for social distancing. It’s almost cliche to talk about audio storytelling as the most intimate form of storytelling, but there is something about how much like a conversation it feels — one voice speaking directly into one pair of ears. Even as we move more and more of our operations online, we bring the tradition of that storytelling with us. We write our web stories with that same one-to-one ratio in mind. And as a public media station, you can be assured that we are doing all of this for you.

Thank you for continuing to depend on us for local news and for supporting our efforts when you can. We take our public mission seriously and instead of scaling back during these uncertain times, we are ramping up.

Here are just a few of our commitments to you from the KTOO newsroom as we all experience the events of the coming weeks together:

• The news team is checking in with the hospital, the schools, state health officials, lawmakers, tribal government leaders, city leaders and visitor industry representatives every day and bringing you their updates as quickly as we can.
• Reporters have moved schedules around so we can bring you late-breaking news, early morning updates and weekend coverage. (And also to keep the numbers of people down in our building.)
• You will hear from health experts and community leaders. But also from people whose expertise is going through the same thing you are going through. You’ll hear from your neighbors and fellow Alaskans who are making sense of the same strange changes happening around them. We always strive to balance breaking news and information with in-depth coverage and storytelling.
• We will keep you — our audience — in mind when we decide to prioritize national news over local news or to leave national news for local news. We are making these decisions sometimes several times a day.
• We will offer reprieve from coronavirus coverage by chasing other stories that are important to Alaska — the recall campaign, the impact of low oil prices on Alaska’s economy, legislation being debated in the Capitol, the barriers to this year’s cruise season. We’ll also bring you unexpected stories from our community and sleuth out answers to questions you submit for our Curious Juneau program.

You might start to notice more phone interviews as we keep our reporters at their desks more often than we usually like to. This is for their safety and for the health and wellness of our whole community.

Also know that our Arts and Culture team is working on several things to make sure you stay connected to the community at this time, including new call-in segments on Juneau Afternoon and the ability to hear the live voices of your favorite DJs on KRNN and KXLL, even while we have suspended our volunteer program to keep the volume of our building’s visitors low.

360 North and Gavel Alaska are providing a huge service to you while the state Capitol is closed to visitors. We’re carrying regular legislative coverage as well as special news conferences and appearances from state and local leaders. This video coverage can be found at KTOO.org as well as on TV.

The best place to look for news updates is KTOO.org. We haven’t expanded our local newscasts yet, but we will consider carving out more time for local news on our airwaves if the volume of updates demands it. Right now you can catch our freshest news throughout Morning Edition and during the 4:00 p.m. hour of All Things Considered. Highlights from the day from throughout the state will be on Alaska News Nightly at 6:00 p.m..

Send us tips and story ideas, corrections and kudos, and all your questions to news@ktoo.org.

We’re here to listen.

Most sincerely,

Jennifer Pemberton
Managing Editor, KTOO

Add one more thing to the stockpile list while life grinds to a halt for coronavirus: books.

Following Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s announcement of statewide school closures, the City and Borough of Juneau has closed public facilities, too, until the end of the month, including Juneau’s public libraries.

But on the last day before the closure, things seemed pretty normal at Juneau’s downtown branch. It seemed a little busier than you might expect on a sunny Sunday afternoon, but a lot of people were there to stock up on books for while they’re potentially stuck at home due to workplace and school closures taking effect Monday morning.

But a few things were already different. There’s usually a pile of giant stuffed animals in the story time corner.

Librarian Kathy Ward said they had to put them all away.

“Because they’re very difficult to clean, and they got a lot of use. When this all dies down, they’ll be back out for people to play with,” she said.

“I’m going to miss the snake,” she adds. “The snake’s been my pal for 20 years.”

Ward says that everyone can hang on to their books until the library reopens on March 31 — regardless of due dates — and there are no fines while they’re closed.

Also, they won’t cancel anyone’s holds that were placed before the closure. Patrons can pick those up when the library opens again. And library staff will still be working during the closure. So you can still call or email a librarian and get a thoughtfully researched answer.

It was the adults that made the library feel busy on Sunday. For instance, all of the library’s public computers were being used.

But for the kids, it felt like business as usual.

Seven-year-old Zoe Bliss was starting to read a few pages from her very tall stack of books. Her mom, Taryn Bliss, works in public health and is happy to roll with the punches while things slow down in Juneau.

“You know, we all have our responsibility to our community and to our high-risk populations and our health care system to do what we can,” she said. “And sometimes that means just pressing pause.”

Eight-year-old Leo checked out a multi-disk set of audio Dr. Seuss books. And his bag was full of Lego books, which you might assume are prep for school being closed.

“We’re homeschooled,” he said. “So we have school everyday.”

Turns out that’s how many books he always checks out. It’s good to know that life feels totally normal to someone.

 

The start of Alaska’s cruise season will be quieter than initially planned. Two companies have announced that they are suspending global operations for the next several weeks.

In a video address posted on Twitter, Princess Cruises President Jan Swartz said the company will cancel all cruises through early May. And some trips that are currently sailing will be cut short.

“This is is perhaps the most difficult decision in our history because we understand the incredible impact it has on countless people,” she said.

Viking Ocean Cruises also announced a suspension of operations through the end of April.

The cruise ship season in Southeast Alaska starts April 23 when a Carnival ship is scheduled to arrive in Skagway.

There are three Princess Cruises scheduled to come to Alaska during the suspension period, starting with the Star Princess scheduled to arrive in Juneau on May 6.

There is one Viking ship scheduled to visit Southeast Alaska before the end of April.

Sarah Leonard, president and CEO of the Alaska Travel Industry Association, said she understands why these companies made these decisions to cancel.

“We want to continue to provide safe experiences in Alaska,” she said. “And I think that that’s what we’re seeing from cruise ship partners and from other tourism businesses.”

It’s hard to know what the impact of these cancellations will be on the state’s summer tourism season, but Leonard calls it a delayed start at least.

“And beyond that, I can’t really project as the situation is really evolving daily, sometimes hourly,” she said.

Both Princess and Viking assured customers they would offer vouchers for a future cruise or a cash refund.

Howard Sherman, an executive from Norwegian Cruise Line, said Thursday that the company has no plans to delay or cancel sailings to Alaska. On Friday, the company announced it would suspend cruise operations from March 13 to April 11. The Norwegian Joy is scheduled to arrive in Ketchikan on April 27 and Juneau the next day.

If more companies cancel, Patti Mackey of the Ketchikan Visitors Bureau said that could mean a lean summer for tourism businesses in Ketchikan.

“We have businesses that are concerned about everything from employees, and, you know, are they going to be able to afford to pay them? Do they suspend or, you know, narrow down their operations?” she said.

Mackey said the Viking and Princess ships that would have come to Ketchikan during the early season would have brought more than 6,000 passengers to the downtown docks.

KTOO’s Adelyn Baxter, KRBD’s Eric Stone in Ketchikan and KHNS’s Claire Stremple in Haines contributed to this story.

This story has been updated.

 

It’s starting to seem inevitable that COVID-19, the coronavirus disease, will turn up in Juneau. What does that mean for us? What will our lives be like when that first case is confirmed?

KTOO News hosted a live, one-hour special on Thursday, March 5, with guests who helped answer the collective questions we have about the virus, the disease it causes and the social impacts it could have on us here in Juneau.

Panelists

• Adam Crum, Alaska Department of Health and Social Services commissioner
• Charlee Gribbon, Bartlett Regional Hospital infectious disease preventionist
• Bridget Weiss, Juneau School District superintendent
• Rorie Watt, Juneau city manager
• Adelyn Baxter, KTOO reporter
• Jeremy Hsieh, KTOO reporter
• Jennifer Pemberton, KTOO managing editor

More information and resources

• KTOO News coverage on coronavirus
• Information on coronavirus from the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services
• Information on COVID-19 from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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Radio broadcast of this program:

In this newscast:

• Juneau’s Foodland store was evacuated for a gas leak
• Warm ocean temperatures are coming faster than scientists thought
• House Republicans have voted to confirm Rep. Tammie Wilson’s replacement
• Alaska’s geoduck clam fishery remains closed during coronavirus outbreak

In this newscast:

• Signature gathering for the campaign to recall Gov. Mike Dunleavy is about to begin.
• The Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center is getting closer to being updated.
• REAL ID’s are a REAL hassle for rural Alaskans.
• Ketchikan’s city council isn’t excited about the state’s plans to replace the Ocean Rangers.