Lisa Phu

Luke Holton doesn’t know 48-year-old Sharon Buis, but he’s helping to organize the volunteer search effort that started Wednesday, less than one week after Alaska State Troopers called off the official search.

“I’m an outdoorsman myself and I understand if I was out here in the cold, I wouldn’t want anyone to give up on me,” he says.

Holton and other volunteers have set up a search table at the bottom of the Mount Roberts Tramway and meet there each morning.

On Wednesday, three teams of three searched Granite Creek Basin and Perseverance Trail, getting off the trail as much as possible when safe to do so.

Thursday afternoon, Holton was on top of Mount Roberts, along with six other volunteers. They hiked to Icy Gulch and are sending skiers there by helicopter Friday.

These areas were covered extensively during the five-day search led by the Alaska State Troopers. But Holton says there’s no reason to give up hope of finding some sort of clue.

“It’s unlikely that we’ll find anything too positive at this point, but for the family’s sake, we want to keep looking no matter what we find,” Holton says.

Holton met with Buis’s brother and sister-in-law who came to Juneau from Ontario, Canada. He says they left Thursday but asked to be kept updated on the search.

One of Buis’s hiking friends said Buis owned a yellow backpack. It’s an unofficial lead, Holton says, but it’s something to look for. He hopes the volunteers can find anything that will restart the official search.

“The best option we would have is to find some of her personal property up here or anything else,” Holton says. “The further we go in, the less tracks you’re going to find in the snow, so once we get past Icy Gulch and you find tracks on the gulch or tracks on the peak of Gastineau, that could potentially also be enough evidence.”

Trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters says a decision to start searching again will be based on what’s found.

“It’s going to be evaluated based on what is located and if we can confirm it belonged to Ms. Buis or not. Certainly if they find something and it is identified as one of her possessions, it gives us a new place to look,” Peters says.

Buis is in the Alaska State Troopers Missing Persons Clearinghouse, a database for law enforcement only. Peters says any missing person in Alaska is entered into the database and stays there until they are found dead or alive.

She says a volunteer search group could help close a missing persons case.

“Troopers can’t always be everywhere. There are a lot of things that we have to go and put our attention to and our resources towards. Certainly with search and rescue cases, we want them to have a positive resolution. And finding somebody even if they’re deceased at that point, at least we can provide some type of closure. We can return them to their families,” Peters says.

When Troopers called off the search and rescue effort May 29, Juneau Police Department took over the case. Spokeswoman Erann Kalwara says detectives started working on it this week.

“The detective has started reaching out to the missing person’s friends and her family, just discussing things that had been going on in her life, talking about where they think she might be, if they have any ideas of any lead that he could investigate, just trying to ensure that if she was hiking and she went missing, that that’s truly what happened,” Kalwara says.

She says they have no reason to believe anything suspicious occurred although they haven’t ruled anything out.

Juneau police are in the process of collecting Buis’s dental and medical information to enter into a database of the National Crime Information Center.

Kalwara also says there’s no information to connect Buis’s case with Sandra Gelber, the 61-year-old woman who died May 4 after being found in the water off Salmon Creek Trail. Both women were physical therapists and both cases are linked to hiking trails.

Buis has been missing since May 24. When she didn’t show up for a planned group hike with the Juneau Alpine Club that morning, a friend reported her missing. Buis was last seen May 23.

The volunteer search effort for Buis continues this weekend. Community members interested in helping should meet at the bottom of Mount Roberts Tramway at 9 a.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And look for Luke Holton’s messages on the Facebook group Juneau Buy ~ Sell ~ Trade.

Previous stories:

Search ends for missing hiker

No new leads as missing hiker’s family arrives in Juneau

Update: U.S Coast Guard takes another look for missing hiker

Scent of missing hiker found on trail but no cell phone trace

Search underway for missing hiker

More than 70 years have passed since the U.S. government forced the people of Atka from their homes to an internment camp on Killisnoo Island in Southeast Alaska.

To protect them from Japanese invasion during World War II, they were moved 1,600 miles from the Aleutian Islands to an old whaling and herring village across the water from Angoon on Admiralty Island.

They have not been forgotten. A group of Southeast Alaskans traveled to Killisnoo last weekend to memorialize the Aleut people of Atka.

While digging a hole for a memorial plaque, Martin Stepetin breaks down in tears. His wife, Ann, comforts him with a long embrace before he continues digging. He said he felt like he was digging a grave.

Stepetin is from St. Paul in the Pribolof Islands. His grandparents were evacuated in June 1942 and brought to an internment camp in Funter Bay, about 50 miles north of Killisnoo. His father was born there.

He has come to Killisnoo with about a hundred people on a Friends of Admiralty Island tour. Most are from Juneau, some are past and present Angoon residents.

Though Stepetin’s family wasn’t in Killisnoo, he feels a profound connection to the Atka people interned here.

“They’re Aleuts just like us and we’re related to them and they went through very similar hardships like we did and it changed our entire history,” Stepetin says.

Stepetin heard about the Funter Bay internment camp all his life growing up in St. Paul.

“The things that come to my mind are the stories of the babies that were born there and didn’t have the medical care to live and they were just babies and they died because they couldn’t be taken care of,” he says tearing up.

Stepetin now lives in Juneau and visited Funter Bay for the first time three weeks ago. When he heard about the Friends of Admiralty trip to Killisnoo, he immediately joined.

“Coming here is the closest thing you can do to paying your respects. It’s the ultimate way for me to put closure on it,” Stepetin says.

K.J. Metcalf helped start Friends of Admiralty Island in 1997 to advocate for the island’s cultural, historic and wilderness preservation. He was the first U.S. Forest Service ranger when Admiralty Island was designated a National Monument in 1978. Metcalf and his wife lived in Angoon for 18 years.

Funter Bay was more isolated that Killisnoo. Metcalf says the Atka Aleuts interned in the old Killisnoo herring factory had Tlingit neighbors a few miles north.

“These people were not provided any assistance at all – no medical help, no clean water, no sanitary conditions,” Metcalf says. “And the people of Angoon were incredibly important in their survival because they brought goods over and they helped take care of them.”

Dan Johnson grew up in Angoon hearing stories from his grandparents about the people of Atka and their time at Killisnoo. He says the two communities became close.

“They interacted on a daily basis so our people always talk about remembering the people that were here, and how they worked and helped each other. It wasn’t just our people helping them. It worked back and forth,” Johnson says.

While Johnson says the situation in Killisnoo was deplorable, he was told of lighter times as well.

“The happy moments, I guess, my grandparents used to talk about is that the people that were brought here loved their movies. Whenever they knew there was a new movie in town, they’d come rowing over to Angoon in their dories,” he says.

Few signs of the Killisnoo internment camp remain. The island now has a sport fishing lodge. It’s dotted with private homes, but on the south side is the cemetery where five wooden Russian Orthodox crosses mark the graves of Atka villagers.

The new memorial plaque sits atop a wooden post among the graves. It tells the story of the Atka people in Killisnoo.

When the plaque is in place, Joe Zuboff cries out a Tlingit chant. Zuboff is of the Deisheetan Clan (Raven/Beaver) of Angoon and is caretaker of the Raven House. His chant stems from the story of a crab apple tree during a big storm.

“The tide came really high and it washed this crab apple tree away and all we could do is watch this crab apple tree drift away,” Zuboff says. “And this is how we refer to our loved ones that we lose. There’s nothing we can do but watch them float into the other world.”

A history of the World War II Aleut Relocation Camps in Southeast Alaska by Charles Mobley indicates 83 people from Atka were brought to Killisnoo in 1942. Before returning to Atka three years later, 17 of them died.

Back at the cemetery, Russian Orthodox Bishop David Mahaffey of the Alaska Diocese sprinkles holy water on the memorial plaque and the area around it. He leads a blessing of the graves.

The plaque in memory of the Atka people looks east. It’s Orthodox tradition for altars and memorial graves to face the rising sun.

The Juneau School Board has narrowed the search for the next superintendent to four semifinalists.

They are Daryl Chesley, assistant superintendent of Hanover County Public Schools in Virginia; Angela Lunda, superintendent of Hoonah City Schools here in Southeast; Mark Miller, assistant superintendent of Hayward Unified School District in California; and Rick Williams, director of administrative services in Region 10 Education Service Center in Texas.

Interviews start 8 a.m. Saturday at Thunder Mountain High School. The public is invited to attend and submit written observations of the candidates to the school board.

School district spokesperson Kristin Bartlett says the school board will consider all written comments during deliberations. She says the open interview process allows the community to hear how different candidates answer the same questions.

“While people can get lots of good information in a casual environment like the meet and greet where individuals can talk one on one with candidates, having the interviews open to the public gives people the opportunity to do more of a comparison between candidates,” Bartlett says.

The school board will announce the superintendent finalists Saturday evening and the community can speak with them them at a 3 p.m. meet and greet Sunday at Sandy Beach.

Finalist interviews on Monday are also open to the public.

The school board plans to name the next superintendent for the Juneau School District Monday afternoon and hopes to have that person in place by July 1.

More than 60 people applied for the open position. Current superintendent Glenn Gelbrich is leaving at the end of this month. He joined the district in July 2009, and has said he wants to move closer to family in Oregon.

It’s unclear what changes Juneau bus riders can expect when the city unrolls the new transit plan in a few months.

After the city worked with Nelson/Nygaard Consulting Associates on the plan for a year, the Juneau assembly adopted it, but reduced Capital Transit’s budget.

This means parts of the plan are still in limbo.

It’s just before 8:30 in the morning. Greg Williams is one of about six people waiting for the Express bus at the Juneau Federal Building.

Williams uses Capital Transit every day to get to work at and says he loves it.

“I really do. I came from Homer and there’s absolutely no transit system in Homer and it’s a real pain. And it’s way better, more convenient that having a car. There’s no maintenance, there’s no insurance, there’s no gas. It really works for me,” Williams says.

He says it takes ten minutes to get to Nugget Mall and another minute to cross the street to Valley Lumber where he works. His day ends at 6 p.m. and the bus comes at 6:18.

Williams says he can afford a car, but, “I just like this. It’s really convenient for me.”

When the city starts to implement the new Transit Development Plan, Williams may have to catch the Express Bus from the Downtown Transportation Center instead of the Federal Building.

“It’s just going to take us a while to work out all the details,” says public works director Kirk Duncan. He adds it’s unclear if the Express will stop at the Federal Building once the plan is implemented.

Transit superintendent John Kern retired at the end of May. Duncan is acting superintendent.

“It’s a fluid plan. We’re still trying to make adaptions to the plan working with the consultants, working with the staff to make sure everything will come together,” Duncan says.

What Duncan does know for sure is midday service to North Douglas will end July 1. Riders also will see reductions to the express route and service to Back Loop Road. He says the reductions will make new service on Riverside Drive possible.

“Starting North Riverside going all the way down Riverside. It will provide service to the library, the swimming pool and the high school, so we’re really excited about that,” Duncan says.

The transit plan also calls for bus service to start earlier and end later. When or if this happens is still a question. Duncan says it will depend on how much it impacts the schedules of 38 drivers.

“The current system is very, very effective – drivers working four 10-hour shifts a week,” he says. “Now, adding another hour in the beginning, an hour at the end. What does that mean? Do we start paying more overtime, do we need more drivers?”

Former transit superintendent Kern says the new transit plan is meant to increase reliability by providing drivers more time to get from one stop to another. He says many riders are missing transfers.

“When traffic, construction, passenger loads get really heavy, there’s difficulty in making those connections. When the buses run late, we don’t ask drivers to wait for the other bus more than five minutes and that becomes a missed connection,” Kern says.

The plan being implemented in the fall won’t include routes to Costco or the ferry terminal, two destinations riders have prioritized for years. They’re part of the plan, but as longer-term recommendations. Kern says this in itself is an accomplishment.

“Just getting things into the plan is the first step. The Downtown Transportation Center was in the 1996 transportation plan for the first time. We opened the doors in 2011. So, sometimes good things take a long time,” he says.

It’s a big responsibility to change something many people rely on daily, Kern says:

“We are so much a part of people’s lives that’s so important to them – their ride to work, their ride home, their ride to the store, to school. There are going to some changes that people will have to adjust to.”

Kern says until the buses are actually operating under the new transit plan, it’s impossible to know how well it’ll work.

Full disclosure: Kirk Duncan is a member of the KTOO Board of Directors.

Alaska State Troopers have called off the search for 48-year-old Juneau resident Sharon Buis.

Troopers decided to end the search Thursday afternoon around 4 p.m. because no new leads had been found since discovering Buis’ vehicle on May 24.

Her black Honda Civic was parked at the Mt. Roberts trailhead. Juneau police impounded it on Monday.

Trooper Sgt. Timothy Birt said a missing persons case will remain open until she is located. He said the search could resume if new information is discovered.

Buis has been missing since Saturday. When she didn’t show up for a planned group hike with the Juneau Alpine Club Saturday morning, a friend reported her missing that evening. Buis was last seen the morning of May 23 at Alaska Marine Lines.

The troopers have led the search with assistance from Juneau Mountain Rescue, SEADOGS, Juneau Alpine Club and the U.S. Coast Guard. Ground and aerial search teams scoured the trails, ridgelines and basins of Mt. Roberts and Mt. Juneau for four days. Aside from locating Buis’s car, search and rescue dogs detected her scent on the Mt. Roberts Trail in two different locations. Otherwise, searchers found no leads.

A State Troopers press release says Buis’s family has been contacted on the case status. Her brother and sister-in-law arrived in Juneau Wednesday from Ontario, Canada.

Buis has lived in Juneau for more than ten years. She’s a physical therapist with Juneau Physical Therapy. Besides being an experienced hiker, Buis also plays hockey, kayaks, and runs.

Previous stories:

Update: Troopers call off search for missing Juneau hiker

No new leads as missing hiker’s family arrives in Juneau

Update: U.S Coast Guard takes another look for missing hiker

Scent of missing hiker found on trail but no cell phone trace

Search underway for missing hiker

Delta Airlines gave the Juneau Community Foundation $10,000 for the Augustus Brown Swimming Pool last night. The check presentation coincided with the arrival of Delta’s first flight from Seattle to Juneau.

Delta’s Seattle Vice President Mike Medeiros pledged the amount during a CBJ assembly meeting in April, causing the packed city hall chambers to erupt in cheers. At the time, city manager Kim Kiefer had proposed temporarily closing the downtown pool to save the city money during a tight budget year.

Medeiros says the donation announcement was not planned. His purpose for being at the meeting that night was to introduce himself to the assembly. He had no idea city hall would be packed with pool supporters.

“As I got up and addressed the crowd I thought, ‘You know, this is important for us to demonstrate as a company that we want to be more than an airline that serves Juneau, we want to be a community partner.’ And I thought on the spot that this is a great way to step up and show that we can help contribute to something good in the community of Juneau,” Medeiros says.

The assembly passed the budget earlier this month and decided against closing the downtown pool. Medeiros says he’s communicating with Juneau’s Parks and Recreation Department to make sure the money is spent appropriately.

“The intent was that it would go to something related to the pool and I think that as I talk with that department that’s where our hope is that it will go, but we will count on the Parks and Recreation area to make the best use out of it,” he said.

Juneau Community Foundation Director Amy Skilbred says the money will go to its Aquatics Fund, and the Juneau Parks & Recreation Aquatics Facilities Advisory Board will make recommendations for its use.