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Juneau residents interested in building mother-in-law apartments can now get even larger grants from the city to help with construction costs. They’ll just have to wait a few more years until they can list them as short-term rentals.
At a meeting Monday night, the Juneau Assembly voted to update a grant program that helps residents build accessory apartments on their property. The previous version, which offered $6,000 grants, expired in June. The new grants will be $13,500.
The previous version of the program required that grant recipients wait three years before renting the unit as a short-term rental. Reading from the resolution, Deputy Mayor Maria Gladziszewski suggested that increasing the wait to five years could help prioritize new housing for Juneau residents.
“That’s the purpose of this,” she said. “It’s not to create short-term rentals.”
Assembly member Michelle Hale worried that further restrictions would dissuade people from participating in the program.
“Communities that have a lot of rules and have a lot of restrictions in place are much less successful overall at building housing,” she said. “I think we need to accelerate housing building, rather than put requirements in place.”
The amendment passed in a 5-2 vote, with Hale and Wade Bryson voting against increasing the short-term rental limit. Assembly members Christine Woll and ‘Wáahlaal Gíidaak were absent from Monday’s meeting.
Once amended, the resolution passed unanimously.
At least two children needed medical attention this week after someone sprayed bear spray on a slide in Juneau’s Twin Lakes Park.
George Schaaf, the city’s parks and recreation director, said the first report came in on Tuesday afternoon.
“Their child had encountered some kind of irritant in one of the slides at the playground,” he said. “When we sent a crew out there to take a look at it, it was pretty apparent that it was bear spray.”
The crew found a can of bear spray nearby. They closed the playground and started cleaning.
“They tried everything we could think of – Dawn dish soap and pressure washing and scrubbing, and thought we got it pretty good and pretty clean,” Schaaf said.
The playground reopened on Thursday. But another report of a hurt child came in later that day, so the city closed both slides indefinitely.
Schaaf said they might need to be replaced.
“We basically tried three times now to clean the slides, and I think probably the best thing we can do right now is let them air out a little bit and see if it’ll dissipate that way,” he said. “But if we’re unable to get it safe for folks to use, we’ll end up having to replace them.”
The playground doesn’t have cameras in it. Schaaf said Juneau residents discussed whether it was feasible to install them when the playground was rebuilt after it burned down in 2017.
“Because of the way the playground is designed, it would require an incredible number of cameras to try to cover all of the areas – especially the area where the slides are,” Schaaf said. “It’s inside a tower, and there’s a ton of nooks and crannies inside that tower. It’s not realistic to install cameras in a structure like that.”
The city is asking anyone with information about the incident to contact the Juneau Police Department.
There will be no ferry service between Juneau, Haines and Skagway this weekend due to repair work on the M/V Hubbard.
Alaska Marine Highway System spokesperson Sam Dapcevich said one of the ferry’s generators began shutting down intermittently on Wednesday after delivering U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Lisa Murkowski to Haines. Instead of continuing on to Skagway, the Hubbard went straight back to Juneau.
“We have a technician on the way here, we have parts ready to go, and tomorrow they’re expecting to make the repair,” Dapcevich said on Friday.
Dapcevich said if repairs on the Hubbard go smoothly on Saturday, they may still make the 7 a.m. trip to Haines on Sunday. Passengers can keep an eye out for service notices online.
“If, by chance, they’re able to quickly make the repair and get it re-inspected by the coast guard, they would try to make that Sunday sailing if they can,” he said.
For now, though, the Hubbard is out of service through Sunday.
Passengers who had trips between Juneau, Haines and Skagway reserved this weekend can either get refunds or rebooked on later sailings. Another ferry, the Columbia, is scheduled to leave Juneau for Haines at 6:15 a.m. on Monday.
On his last day in Alaska, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg took the state’s newest ferry from Juneau to Haines. But after Buttigieg, Sen. Lisa Murkowski and their staff got off the MV Hubbard, the ferry stopped running. One of its generators had been shutting down intermittently.
“In most of the ferry fleet, what we’re worrying about is its age,” Buttigieg said. “Having a new vessel is not all there is to the story. We need to make sure that we’re creating a framework where operations, maintenance and capital planning can go well.”
Buttigieg spent three days in Alaska. He traveled to Kotzebue, Anchorage and Haines, learning about the state’s transportation needs and highlighting projects made possible by federal infrastructure funding.
His last stop was at the Juneau International Airport, which got nearly $3.5 million in funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Standing on the tarmac at the Alaska Seaplanes terminal, Buttigieg spoke mostly about the ferry system.
The bill allocated more than $285 million to the Alaska Marine Highway System. That funding will go toward several projects that include modernizing four vessels, replacing the MV Tustumena, upgrading rural dock infrastructure and providing service to rural communities.
Those projects require a funding match from the state of about $105 million. The state says it’s matching those funds using a few different sources.
“States that put forward a healthy level of skin in the game on their side are often able to unlock that much more federal support on our side,” Buttigieg said.
But Murkowski said staffing remains a challenge for the ferry system. Its reservations center reduced hours this month due to staff shortages, and they’re only taking reservations on the Kennicott through Feb. 2024 because of a crew shortage.
“You can’t operate a ferry – whether it’s in good running condition or whether it’s a 54-year-old ship – you can’t operate it without the men and women,” Murkowski said.
The ferry system could have even more sources of federal funding. Earlier in the afternoon, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that 6,500 miles of navigable waterways in southwestern and northern Alaska would be added to the United States Marine Highway Program.
“When you enter into the marine highway program, you’re part of a national designation that can mean greater access to grant funding and policy attention,” Buttigieg said.
While the designation doesn’t add ferry service to coastal and river ports in those regions, the Transportation Department says it could open up funding for future projects in southwest and northern Alaska.
Correction: A previous version of the story said Buttigieg traveled to Skagway. He took the Hubbard from Juneau to Haines and did not stop in Skagway. Also, a previous version of this story said the ferry system was only taking reservations through February. That’s true for the Kennicott. Reservations on other ferries can still be booked after February.
Juneau residents whose homes were lost or damaged during the record glacial outburst flooding can apply for state assistance in person next week.
The state’s emergency management division, the city and volunteer groups will open a disaster assistance center at the Mendenhall Valley Library from Aug. 21-23.
Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management spokesperson Jeremy Zidek said the state has received 60 applications for individual assistance so far.
“We think that that’s a good number of the people that have had damages,” he said. “Our DAC will give those who haven’t registered an opportunity to sit down face-to-face and register that way.”
He said those who’ve already applied can still go to the library to talk about their applications.
State assistance can help homeowners cover property damage, cleanup work and other costs.
Zidek said renters can also apply for assistance if they’ve lost “critical and essential items,” like clothing, furniture and kitchenware.
Those who were displaced may also be eligible for help paying for temporary housing. Renters can get up to three months of housing assistance and homeowners up to 18 months.
Those interested in applying for assistance at the library should bring documentation of damages or losses — which could include photos, videos or written records — along with proof of occupancy and home ownership, insurance information and an ID.
Zidek said state assistance is for people whose primary residence was lost or damaged.
“If it was a vacation home or some type of second home, then they may not be eligible for our state’s individual assistance program,” he said. “One of the items that we ask for is proof of occupancy — this can be a utility bill.”
Deputy City Manager Robert Barr said that if homeowners have already started repair work, documenting that is important. It will help with the permitting process and ensure good record-keeping for state assistance applications.
“It is a good idea to document with pictures and with narrative about what the state of whatever the repair work was before, during and after,” he said. “How many loads of rock were laid, or what have you.”
City staff will be at the library to answer questions about immediate needs, and volunteers from other organizations will help identify long-term assistance.
The disaster assistance center will be open from noon to 7 p.m. on Monday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesday.
Homeowners can also apply for state assistance online until Oct. 9.
