Lisa Phu

Volunteers and staff from Juneau’s shelter and soup kitchen went to the streets and interviewed 70 homeless people over the course of a few days in September. It’s been three years since the vulnerability index survey was done in the capital city.

The surveys can connect people to services, help The Glory Hole keep track of where people are sleeping, and social service agencies can use the data to guide practices and apply for funding.

It’s around 4:30 on a Wednesday morning. At The Glory Hole, groups of volunteers sip coffee and discuss plans for a second morning of surveys. Each group is assigned to search a different area of Juneau. The goal is to find homeless people who are sleeping outside and interview them.

The morning before, Brad Correia’s group didn’t find anyone in the Mendenhall Valley or out the road.

“We walked on a lot of beaches where they have shelters, like in the summer it would be really nice. We thought people would be sleeping in there, like they have fireplaces. But there was nobody,” Correia said.

The group searched behind Safeway, looked around all the stores in the valley.

“Just everywhere and we didn’t find anybody.”

Correia thought they might find people sleeping in cars out the road.

“‘Cause I thought, if I was homeless and had a car, that’s where I would go to where there wouldn’t be people bothering me, like troopers,” he said.

Correia has been homeless. When he first got to Juneau about a year ago, he didn’t have any money and stayed at The Glory Hole. He remembers another man at the shelter who talked a lot.

“I ignored him. I just acted like I was reading when he would come and talk to me. Just talk and talk and talk,” Correia said.

Days later, that man, Gregory Dockery, was found dead, submerged in water in a ditch near Twin Lakes.

This was last November. Correia is afraid Dockery died thinking nobody cared, “Last time I saw him, he was crying, ‘Nobody likes me, nobody cares about me.’”

This is why Correia is volunteering to do the homeless survey. He thinks there’s a better solution than dying in the cold.

Data from the 2012 survey has been used to apply for funding for Juneau’s Housing First Project.

Clyde Didrickson was part of that survey and was just interviewed again. He was walking to the Glory Hole with his wife when a group of interviewers found him.

“They let us know who they were and what they were up to asked me if I cared to be interviewed,” Didrickson said.

Didrickson felt fine answering personal questions about substance abuse, race, health history, mental health, money, education, how long he’s been homeless. There was one question he found intrusive and didn’t answer: What’s your social security number?

Didrickson won’t say where he and his wife spend their nights for fear of being harassed.

“We found a dry spot,” Didrickson said.

Didrickson is 63, originally from Sitka and a veteran. Didrickson said he’s been homeless since the early 1980s when he was arrested for a felony. His wife is 62. He carries their bedding around in a suitcase – an old tent they use as a tarp and blankets.

“Usually after everybody closes up, basically when people stop moving around, we lay out the tarp to give us something dry to lay on and then we lay our bedding out on top of that and then the excess tarp we put over ourselves,” Didrickson said

The couple wakes up around 5 a.m. They put everything back in the suitcase and begin their day.

“Hardest part for us, especially at our age, is finding a facility to use,” Didrickson said.

Some public bathrooms lock up for good after the tourist season ends. Others don’t open until later in the morning. Didrickson said he sometimes goes to the bathroom in the woods.

At 7 a.m., he walks to The Glory Hole for coffee and warmth. The rest of the day, “Look for some place dry and warm to sit around. A lot of times wait for the library to open,” Didrickson said.

At the moment, he’s sitting with his wife, 27-year-old son, and brother-in-law at a table at The Glory Hole.

Didrickson says he’ll likely be back at the shelter for lunch and dinner before spending another night outside.

A Juneau trapper has lowered the amount of damages he’s seeking in a lawsuit against a hiker who sprang his traps last December. John Forrest sued Kathleen Turley in September. The case will appear in small claims court in Juneau Monday morning at 9.

Forrest originally sued for $5,000 in damages and the cost of attorney fees. On Oct. 1, the damages sought were lowered to $1,000.

Turley says she sprang three traps on two separate days out of concern for the safety of dogs and hikers. She also freed an eagle that was caught in two traps. The eagle was later euthanized.

Alaska Wildlife Troopers cited Turley for tampering with traps that Forrest had legally set, not for freeing the eagle. But at the arraignment, the state dropped the case.

Forrest is being represented by Fairbanks attorney Zane Wilson. Wilson helped win a high profile case against a wildlife biologist who freed a wolf from a snare in Tok in 1997. On Monday, Wilson will represent Forrest by telephone.

Juneau lawyer Nick Polasky is representing Turley pro bono. Polasky is a former state assistant district attorney. He was the primary prosecutor for fish and game offenses in Ketchikan and Juneau.

Alaska gets close to 2 million visitors a year,and more and more of them are visiting the Arctic Circle and beyond. That’s what a large audience at this week’s Alaska Travel Industry Association convention in Juneau heard during a “Tourism in the Arctic” panel discussion.

Richard Beneville is Nome’s new mayor. He also owns his own tour company, Nome Discovery Tours.

“I’m going into my 24th season,” Beneville said.

He said Nome attracts tourists for many reasons – its sport fishing, hunting, “and birding. Oy gevalt! Birds! A hundred-and-seventy migratory species that come through May 15 to June 15. We just had the cranes go out. You could look out and see 100,000 cranes in different formations. Very exciting.”

Nome usually gets between 8,000 and 9,000 tourists a year, said Beneville. Tourism has remained steady, but there has been a change.

“The first questions used to be about gold and dogs. Now, the questions are about environment, what’s happening with the Bering Strait, how does it look for Nome in the future? So my clients are very aware of what’s going on,” Beneville said.

Next summer, the number of tourists to Nome will go up. The Crystal Serenity will spend 32 days traveling from Seward to New York via the Northwest Passage. The 1,000-passenger ship will make a stop in Nome. The cruise is being advertised as the first luxury ship to travel the Northwest Passage. Fares range from $22,000 to $120,000. It’s fully booked.

The Arctic is hot right now. President and CEO of Explore Fairbanks Deb Hickok said the state has become a prominent player in Arctic discussions, most recently highlighted by President Obama’s visit.

“Alaska, as the only U.S. state included in the Arctic, is now in a special position to leverage opportunities in the Arctic,” Hickok said.

Tandy Wallack, owner of Circumpolar Expeditions, says Arctic communities need more infrastructure to increase tourism and economic development. She cited the relocation of Kaktovic’s runway as an example.

“The present runway is built on the beach so this one is in higher ground, hopefully will help with the fog and more flights will be able to get in and out. Obviously that will allow more visitors to come into the village. But more importantly, additional air service is going to benefit the village,” Wallack said.

Brett Carlson, co-founder of Northern Alaska Tour Company doesn’t necessarily think more infrastructure is needed, especially anything that could turn the Arctic into a Disneyland.

“That’s just not the vision I see for Alaska’s Arctic. I think, generally, the infrastructure is there. The reason you’re going to come to Alaska’s Arctic and the reason Alaska’s Arctic is a continually rare travel experience in the world is it’s so unlike the rest of the world,” Carlson said. “If you wanted all those modern amenities, you could go to thousands of places in the world.”

Carlson said his company commits to honoring traditional culture when bringing tourists to communities like Anaktuvuk Pass, Barrow and Kotzebue.

“If you can put visitors in someone’s home or in front of somebody in an authentic way where they’re not a tour guide, they’re just a person talking about their life, (it’s) a moving experience,” Carlson said.

Although Carlson admits there’s a struggle between tourism and authenticity.

Richard Beneville isn’t worried about tourism changing Nome, a community of 3,700 residents. He says when the Crystal Serenity unloads its 1,000 passengers, likely in a rotation of smaller groups, Nome will be ready.

“Nome is famous for Iditarod and Nome is famous for throwing a big party for so many people and I want to use that community feel for this ship because without it, it’s not going to work as well as it could,” Beneville said.

As tourism and other industry in Alaska’s Arctic grows, Beneville said he expects more people and more traffic to come through Nome. But he’s confident, Nome will remain Nome.

The Juneau teachers’ union and the school district did not reach an agreement Wednesday after a full-day meeting. The teachers’ last contract expired June 30, but its terms remain in effect.

The meeting was devoted to financial issues, such as salaries and health care, which are the final elements to be negotiated.

“We made progress, but we were disappointed that we didn’t finish,” said Ted VanBronkhorst, human resources director for the Juneau School District.

An overtime session is planned for Wednesday, Oct. 14.

“What we all agreed was let’s go back to our teams and come back together and see if a couple more hours can get us there, so we all view the possibility is there,” said Sara Hannan, a teacher at Juneau-Douglas High School and the bargaining representative for the Juneau Education Association.

If the teachers’ union and the school district reach a tentative agreement next week, a written version will go to the teachers. They have two weeks to review it before a vote to finalize it.

It then needs to be approved by the Juneau School Board. VanBronkhorst expects the contract will likely be on the November agenda.

The union, representing 365 school district employees, started the bargaining process with the school district in February.

The last bargaining process was contentious with teachers picketing and threatening to strike. This time around, the school district and the teachers’ union are using a new approach called interest-based bargaining, which is more collaborative.

First responders rescued a man from the water after he fell from the dock near Marine Park on Tuesday night.

Bystander Cate Ross and a friend were sitting on the deck outside The Hangar on the Wharf when she heard a splash.

“So we ran out from the Hangar and looked down in the water and yelled down to see if we could hear anybody and somebody kind of grunted back at us and we shined lights down and we saw somebody hanging on to one of the pilings,” Ross said.

Ross called 911 and talked to the man as they waited for help to arrive. Ross said she had walked by him on the way to the Hangar and it seemed like he was sleeping.

Noah Jenkins was captain on duty with Capital City Fire/Rescue when the emergency call came in around 7:30 p.m.

“We arrived on scene, got directed by bystanders where the patient was, went down the ramp to the lightering dock and found the patient. The bystander was up above and pointed to us where the patient was. I was able to swim over there with a rope attached and my driver, Brady Fink, then pulled us both back once I got to him,” Jenkins said.

He said the rescue took minutes. Another CCFR staffer says the rescued man was hypothermic and responsive.

Jenkins was shivering Tuesday night after the rescue.

“It’s pretty chilly. The dry suit has a zipper to be able to relieve yourself and that zipper was open I failed to notice, so it wasn’t a very dry dry suit,” Jenkins said.

The rescued man was transported to Bartlett Regional Hospital. His name was not released Tuesday night. Jenkins said he expects him to recover.

First responders searched the shoreline for a possible second person, but didn’t find anyone.

Jason Hart and Jeff Redmond lost their bids for Juneau School Board to incumbent Andi Story, and newcomers Josh Keaton and Emil Mackey in Tuesday’s election.

Story, leading the school board race with 2,730 votes in unofficial results, will begin her 13th year on the board. She was at Election Central on Tuesday night watching the results come in with her husband and campaign manager.

“I want to say thank you and gunalchéesh to everyone out there because it takes a community. We have a lot of issues, a wide variety of needs with our children and we are a town that really stands by our schools,” Story said.

As the board works on issues like curriculum, the Summit STEM School and the teachers’ contract, Story said it also needs to work on trust.

“We have to build trust between not only families because we’re given their most precious person in school, but also that the staff feels that everyone is working towards the same direction,” Story said.

On Tuesday night, Keaton had almost 2,200 votes. He was at home putting his two kids to bed.

As a new school board member, Keaton said he wants to make the public feel more comfortable testifying. Keaton has gone before the board many times as a parent and was often met with silence.

“I want to change that wall of silence. I want to ask them questions and for more clarification and make them feel that their testimony is wanted and needed for us to make those decisions,” Keaton said.

Keaton also plans to focus on class sizes.

“As we move into the budget process, I’m definitely going to be focusing on trying to keep those k-2 class sizes as small as we can,” Keaton said.

Mackey got 2,006 votes in preliminary totals. He was at home following election results with a small group of friends. Mackey said he’s happy to be elected, but knows he has a big job in front of him.

“Because of both the known and the unknown – we know cuts are coming, we just don’t know big they’re going to be – I feel kind of like a bull rider. I’m on the back of the bull but who’s in charge – me or the bull? And we’re going to find out,” Mackey said.

Mackey’s said his number one job is learning the role of a board member, but he also wants to take a fresh look at middle school travel.

“We probably need to revisit this because regardless of the decision, I don’t think that, politically, it’s been accepted by a lot of people in the community and we have to put that to bed, because until we put it to bed, it’s just going to sit there and fester,” Mackey said.

The new school board meets for a regular meeting Oct. 20.