Katie Anastas

The Juneau Assembly approved a local disaster declaration Monday night after this weekend’s record flooding in the Mendenhall Valley. 

The declaration requests funding from the state and, if needed, the federal government. It also allows the city to pay for services related to the cleanup without following the city’s purchasing code, which prioritizes getting the best price possible.

“A local emergency declaration allows us to procure goods and services faster if necessary,” said Deputy City Manager Robert Barr.

The city has condemned eight buildings, displacing about 20 households. It’s not clear yet how many are permanently displaced and how many might be able to return home.

On Tuesday, Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced on Twitter that he had approved a state disaster declaration in response to the flooding, saying that would “give those affected by the flooding greater access to resources.”

While most of the damage was to private property, some city property is also in need of repair. Three of the city’s lift stations were totally submerged, which stopped sewer service to nearby homes. All three are back up and running, though one still needs additional repairs. Vacuum trucks have been removing silt from storm drains.

In an interview, Barr said the state or federal government can either give public assistance – which refunds the city’s costs to repair things like water treatment systems and roads – or individual assistance, which would go directly to homeowners.

He said homeowners should take photos and save their receipts as they begin repair and cleanup work, just in case they become eligible for individual assistance. 

The city is also letting property owners shore up their land without getting a permit first, though they ask that homeowners notify the Community Development Department as soon as possible. Homeowners will still need to apply for permits within a month after starting the work.

And city officials said Monday night that property owners whose homes were damaged or lost may be eligible for a property reassessment, which could result in a lower tax bill for this year. Homeowners can contact the assessor’s office at (907) 586-5215 ext. 4906 or Assessor.Office@juneau.gov to begin that process.

Homeowners and volunteers have been picking up building material, furniture and other debris.  Katie Koester, the city’s director of engineering and public works, said city officials are still working to improve waste disposal options. The landfill is only open to residents from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays, but Koester said the city is working with Waste Management to try to extend the hours.

“One of the challenges that they have, of course, is staffing,” she said. “They also want to make sure that there’s no hazardous waste in the materials.”

Koester said the Coast Guard has been looking for oil sheens from lost fuel tanks and other debris. She said “homeowners have done a great job in reporting directly” to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation if they see a spill or loose fuel tank. That hotline number is 1-800-478-9300.

Koester said the Salvation Army has food boxes ready for affected families. Residents who’ve been displaced because of the flooding can contact floodresponse@juneau.gov about shelter and other resources.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that the governor has now issued a state disaster declaration.

The City and Borough of Juneau plans to request state and federal assistance after this weekend’s record flooding of the Mendenhall River. 

The Juneau Assembly has scheduled a special meeting Monday night to pass a local emergency declaration. 

A glacial outburst flood over the weekend damaged public and private property in the Mendenhall Valley, “including two structures completely lost to the Mendenhall River, three lift stations submerged, multiple fuel tanks swept away, and several other residential and public properties with water damage and severe structural damages,” according to the draft resolution.

The city has condemned eight buildings, meaning they’re not safe for habitation. Deputy City Manager Robert Barr estimates that includes about 20 homes. Two of the condemned buildings are completely destroyed, and one is partially destroyed.

As of Monday morning, Barr said, the city was aware of about two dozen total properties that have had some kind of property damage, ranging from flooding to foundation damage to tree strikes.

The city has not yet placed a dollar amount on the damage from the flood.

If approved, a copy of the resolution will go to the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. 

“The City and Borough requests that the Governor of Alaska provide such State assistance as may be available to request additional assistance from Federal agencies where State capability is not adequate,” the resolution reads.

The special meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday night. Juneau residents can attend the meeting in person at City Hall or on Zoom. Mayor Beth Weldon will determine at the meeting whether or not to take public comment on the emergency declaration.

Meanwhile, the Mendenhall River Bridge on Back Loop Road and the pedestrian bridge between Dimond Park and the Kaxdigoowu Héen Dei trail have both reopened. Capital Transit buses have also resumed stops between Auke Bay and Mendenhall River School.

The city is asking Juneau residents to contact the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation Spill Prevention and Response if they see a loose fuel tank or hazmat container. The hotline number is 1-800-478-9300.

Juneau residents affected by the flooding who need shelter or other resources should email floodresponse@juneau.gov.

This story has been updated to include comment from Deputy City Manager Robert Barr.

In this newscast:

• Juneau’s director of engineering and public works has been named the new city manager
• Hundreds gathered to watch Juneau Drag’s first-ever appearance at the Southeast Alaska State Fair
• Alaska’s Congressional delegation has reintroduced legislation to add five Southeast communities to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act
• Audubon Alaska, the U.S. Forest Service and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game have created a virtual birdwatching guide

The Juneau Assembly has named Katie Koester, the city’s public works director, as the new city manager.

“I am deeply humbled and honored to be chosen to serve in this role for my community,” she said. “It’s really quite an honor.”

Koester succeeds Rorie Watt, who announced his retirement in April after 30 years working for the city. During his seven years as city manager, Juneau experienced rapid growth in tourism, weathered the pandemic and began its economic recovery.

Koester was named Juneau’s director of engineering and public works in 2019. Before that, she’d been the city manager of Homer, her hometown, since 2015. 

She holds a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Alaska Southeast and a master’s in political science from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.

Assembly member Christine Woll said candidates from around the country applied. She said the most qualified applicants interviewed with the full Assembly and met with senior city officials.

“It became quite clear at the end that we had an amazing candidate in Ms. Koester,” Woll said. “We’re super fortunate to have someone who had been a city manager in Alaska before, someone who had led a major department with the CBJ and had regularly demonstrated her commitment to our community of Juneau.”

Koester said she likes to think of the engineering department as the “doing department.” She thinks her experience there will serve her well in the city manager role.

“Engineering and public works keeps the streets plowed, gets people to school, gets people to work, provides somewhere to recycle our junk,” she said. “I think having that perspective of managing an operational department that does day-to-day work will be important.”

Koester’s salary will be $210,000. She’ll assume the role in September alongside Watt during his last month on the job.

Bartlett Regional Hospital CEO David Keith and CFO Sam Muse have resigned.

Hospital board president Kenny Solomon-Gross told Bartlett employees about Keith’s resignation in an email Tuesday. He said the board will “begin the process of ensuring a smooth transition for this position.”

City manager Rorie Watt said he hadn’t spoken to Keith about reasons for his departure.

“Obviously, things have been a little rough lately, but there could be lots of reasons,” Watt said.

The resignations come a week after hospital board member and doctor Lindy Jones told the board that staffing and management problems were leading to inadequate care of behavioral health patients. In a letter to the board, first reported by the Juneau Empire, Jones said there haven’t been enough qualified doctors and nurses to properly care for them.

“In the 30 years I have worked at the hospital, I have never been in a situation where I have been asked to care for mental health patients with no psychiatric call backup,” Jones wrote.

Without enough staff to evaluate and care for patients, he wrote, behavioral health patients are being held in the emergency room or admitted to the general medical floor. There, they’ve become “acutely agitated and expressed violent outbursts in front of other patients in both the ER and on the medical unit,” he said.

Jones blamed hospital leadership for the staffing problems. He described “an inordinately high rate of attrition” in psychiatry, clinical IT and human resources due to a “lack of supportive, consistent and nurturing leadership, threats of retaliation for perceived performance shortfalls and placement of unrealistic demands on employees.”

The Juneau Empire reported that at Tuesday’s board meeting, Keith defended his management practices and said he does not directly negotiate employees’ contracts. He also said limits on the use of temporary employees were overly restrictive.

In his email to Bartlett employees, Solomon-Gross said that “despite the differences expressed in the recent board meeting, we all share the same goal – to deliver safe, quality patient care.”

“Over the last six months, the board has tasked leadership with making tough decisions to address the hospital’s finances, a situation they inherited, and has asked leadership to put the hospital on a path to sustainability,” he wrote. “This has required everyone to make changes – more in a relatively short time than I believe this organization has done in years.”

Bartlett CFO Sam Muse is resigning, too. He joined Bartlett as the controller in August 2022, became interim CFO that November and became CFO in January.

“At the end of the day, I hold my responsibility to my family above all else and so I made a personal decision based on what I felt best for us,” Muse wrote in a statement announcing his departure. “I am proud of my time at Bartlett. I am proud of my coworkers at Bartlett. I will continue to be a strong advocate for the hospital.”

Keith’s and Muse’s resignations are the latest in a string of leadership changes over the last few years. 

In September 2021, CEO Rose Lawhorne resigned and then was fired by the board after having an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate. She’d been on the job for six months.

Chief Behavioral Health Officer Bradley Grigg resigned the same week. Almost a year later, he was arrested for allegedly stealing $108,000 from the hospital. And CFO Kevin Benson and COO Vlad Toca both left in January 2022.

Juneau’s planning commission has approved a conditional use permit for a new cruise ship dock at the subport. With future phases of the project up for discussion next week, Juneau city leaders hope to get more public input about the proposed parking and retail space nearby.

The commission approved one part of the Huna Totem Corporation’s conditional use permit application on July 11 – the part related to the dock. But few members of the public were there to share their thoughts on the project.

“Several of the commissioners as well as myself were shocked by how few members of the public were at the planning commission meeting about this topic that I know many people feel deeply about,” Assembly member Christine Woll said at a meeting Monday night.

Just three members of the public spoke at the July 11 meeting, including one person speaking on behalf of the Juneau Chamber of Commerce and another on behalf of Sealaska Heritage Institute. All three supported the project. Cruise Line International Association also shared their support in a March letter.

Norwegian Cruise Lines purchased the waterfront property in 2019 and proposed building a new dock there. In March 2022, the Juneau Assembly amended the city’s Long Range Waterfront Plan to allow a fifth cruise ship dock. Then, in August 2022, Norwegian gave the property to Huna Totem, an Alaska Native village corporation. 

Huna Totem has proposed a dock, underground bus and car parking, retail space and a welcome center. They’ve named the project Aak’w Landing.

“Aak’w Landing adds to the Seawalk, it reduces congestion downtown, it fits within the five ship limit, it accommodates shoreside power and is designed for year-round operation,” Fred Parady, Huna Totem’s chief operating officer, told the commission.

But several commissioners, like Mandy Cole, wanted more details on the proposed amenities before making a decision on that part of the permit.

“I have a lot of faith in the developers and the designers that they will come back with a finished product that will balance the needs of this community and the needs of Huna Totem,” Cole said. “I just don’t think that’s what we have in front of us quite yet.”

Architect Corey Wall acknowledged that there’s still a lot of design work to be done.

“We know that we’re nowhere near ready to get a building permit,” he told the commission. “We think we have probably a 12 or 18 month design process in front of us.”

The commission spent much of the meeting talking about whether housing should be a required part of the project, as the housing shortage hampers businesses’ ability to hire workers.

“I don’t know how to ask this without assuming Huna Totem solves all of Juneau’s problems all at once with one project, but have you considered that housing is actually a critical piece of building out further tourism infrastructure?” Cole asked.

But Parady said the property may not be the best place to build it.

“It’s difficult to directly address housing on this three-acre spot when it’s, essentially, a city-wide question,” he said.

Jill Maclean, the city’s director of community development, said housing at Aak’w Landing would likely not meet Juneau’s need for affordable options.

“While I know housing is a crisis and we desperately need it, this likely is not to be workforce or affordable housing in this location,” she said. “It will likely be high-end waterfront property.”

If the commission approves the conditional use permits, it will be up to the Juneau Assembly whether to lease the tidelands to Huna Totem. On Monday, city manager Rorie Watt called it a “pivotal decision” that will provide more opportunities for public comment.

The planning commission will vote whether to permit uplands development – which could include the proposed welcome center, parking and retail space – on Aug. 8 at 7 p.m. Members of the public can speak at the meeting in person after filling out the sign-in sheet. The commission also accepts written comments before noon on Friday, Aug. 4.