Lisa Phu

Heritage Coffee Roasting Co. plans to close two downtown locations – one on South Franklin Street and one on Second Street – to open a larger café on the corner of Front and Seward. The space, owned by Goldstein Improvement Co., was last occupied by Peer Amid Beads.

Heritage founder Grady Saunders says the 3,000 square foot space will allow the company to stretch out and expand.

“We’re going to be doing a slow bar. We’ll be doing individually brewed coffees. We’ll have an express lane for drinks only as well as a food lane. We’re adding a bakery into our space. We’ll have space for community events and tastings and private meetings,” Saunders says.

The bakery will provide fresh baked products to all other Heritage locations.

“We’re going to do some really unique things with the bakery, too. We’ve got some great stuff lined out and some new products that no one in town is doing really. We’ll also have sandwiches and various things, sort of like what we do at the Mendenhall Mall,” Saunders says.

The new location won’t open until late October, but a new grab-and-go espresso bar is opening this summer in the Marine View Center on the corner of Ferry Way and Franklin Street.

Heritage opened a café inside Foodland IGA last week, across the street from its roasting plant, which was remodeled last year.

The coffee company has 48 employees in the winter and 55 in the summer. During the tourist season, revenue goes up about 40 percent, Saunders says.

Heritage celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.

For the first time in years, the carnival is back in Juneau. It’s located outside the Nugget Mall and starts Thursday at 2 p.m.

Golden Wheel Amusements out of Chugiak begins its summer season early by bringing the carnival to Southeast Alaska.

Golden Wheel Amusements owner Jacqueline Leavitt expects long lines at the Zipper.

“It is definitely one of the teen favorites. It spins them around and if you’re not kind of used to that, it could get you sick,” Leavitt says laughing.

The Zipper gives a rider three ways to flip over.

“I love that the office is right next to it because people scream on that ride so hard and that is just music to my ears. I love listening to them just scream and scream,” Leavitt says.

The fair offers rides for big and small kids, games and food.

“Footlong corn dogs and funnel cake and cotton candy and candy and caramel apples,” Leavitt says.

Leavitt has been in the carnival business for most of her life. Her mother Claire Morton started Golden Wheel Amusements in 1967. The company’s first event was at Fur Rendezvous, Anchorage’s winter festival, which is still an annual gig for Golden Wheel. Leavitt and her husband started buying the company in 2000.

She says running a traveling carnival is a family affair that includes their three children.

“It’s kind of like ranching and farming. It’s great. You just come to work with your family and I think it’s a very good way to live,” Leavitt says.

It’s been 30 years since Golden Wheel Amusements brought a carnival to Juneau. Leavitt says it’s difficult to plan carnival dates around a ferry schedule. Plus it’s expensive to transport rides, equipment and 50 workers. She says traveling to Southeast by ferry with stops in Juneau, Sitka, and Ketchikan costs about $120,000.

“But we just felt like it was time to come to Southeast and that it was a good thing and that the public and the kids would just really enjoy it,” Leavitt says.

Leavitt’s son Chase Eckert says it’s a novel experience to be in a location that isn’t used to a carnival.

“We’ve had a constant parade of cars around the lot. Everyone’s stopping, taking pictures. Whole families, like vans full of people, come by and you can just see that they’re so excited. We haven’t been here since 1984 and these people don’t even know what a carnival looks like,” Eckert says.

Juneau gets two weekends to enjoy the carnival before it packs up and leaves on the ferry May 11.

The search for the Juneau School District’s new superintendent has begun. The job opening was posted nationally last week and candidates have until May 21 to apply.

The district contracted Iowa-based search firm Ray and Associates, Inc. for $16,000.

Steve Rasmussen, who’s leading the search, collected input from the community last month and says community members want someone with a collaborative leadership style who puts students first.

“Someone that can built trust in the community. Someone that’s visible. Someone that can work with staff, can work with parents, can be and work with legislators, and work with civic leaders,” Rasmussen says.

Rasmussen expects between 30 and 50 applicants for the job.

The advertised salary is $162,000. The current superintendent’s salary is $155,000 a year. Rasmussen and the school board set the amount after comparing what other superintendents make in Alaska.

He says that figure is negotiable.

“It’s the amount that will attract people to take a look at it. We want quality applicants and it’s also compared with those of the lower 48 states, Rasmussen says.

Ray and Associates will present up to 12 candidates to the school board June 2. The board will pick semi-finalists and conduct in-person interviews June 7. Rasmussen anticipates a community meet and greet with the superintendent finalists June 8.

The cost of bringing candidates to Juneau for interviews is outside the search contract.

Superintendent Glenn Gelbrich is leaving the district at the end of June. He cited personal and private reasons when announcing his resignation in March. Gelbrich joined the Juneau school district in 2009.

A bill requiring school districts to implement sexual abuse education seemed poised to become law during the recent Alaska Legislature. Gov. Sean Parnell supported Erin’s Law, the Senate passed it, and the House version had 21 co-sponsors.

But House Bill 233 got stuck in committee.
House Finance Committee co-chair Bill Stoltze says he’s not sure why Erin’s Law didn’t get heard in his committee. He calls it “a casualty of a hectic session.”

“I guess I’ll call it falling through the cracks because it wasn’t one that I had any animus toward or any interest– I was dealing with so many crime bills and I don’t know how that one slipped through. I can’t even tell you much of the content of it because I didn’t really look at it,” Stoltze says.

HB 233 unanimously passed the House Education committee at the end of March and went on to House Finance. House Speaker Mike Chenault says he doesn’t recall why he referred it there since the bill had no fiscal note.

Chenault was the last of 21 representatives to sign on to co-sponsor the bill. He doesn’t know why it was held up.

“Sometimes it’s inner turmoil. Sometimes it’s just not the right time. Sometimes it’s somebody doesn’t like it. If it ever got to the floor, it probably would’ve passed,” Chenault says.

Of the roughly 380 bills introduced on the House side, Chenault says only 68 House Bills passed this year.

“People were concentrating on the big issues that affected the state versus other issues that didn’t quite get to the top of the pot,” he says.

Democratic Rep. Geran Tarr, who introduced Erin’s Law, says teaching kids to speak up when someone touches them inappropriately is a big issue for the state.

“This is a transformational legacy type of legislation where 10, 20 years down the line you’ve made a difference in the lives of thousands of Alaskans and we should’ve done it this year,” Tarr says.

She says she was shocked and embarrassed the bill died.

“We could’ve done the right thing and given kids a voice on a very important issue. That effort will be delayed by at least a year now. We’ll come back and we’ll be ready to work on it again next year. The sad news is there are kids that need the information now,” Tarr says.

Erin’s Law is named after 29-year-old Erin Merryn from Illinois, who was sexually abused as a child. Merryn travels around the country advocating for sexual abuse education in schools.

She spent a week in Alaska in March. She talked to lawmakers, testified on the bill, and participated in the governor’s annual Choose Respect rally.

Merryn wonders why the bill died, especially since it had support from both sides of the aisle. While the House version of the bill was sponsored by a Democrat, the Senate’s version was carried by Republican Senator Lesil McGuire.

“It’s a bipartisan issue. I’m not sitting here arguing abortion or death penalty. I’m arguing protecting kids. And the only ones who should be against this bill are the ones that have something to hide, the perpetrators themselves,” Merryn says.

Erin’s Law has passed in 12 states. Most recently, Merryn testified in Rhode Island, and will soon take her campaign to Canada, then to Australia.

But she says she’s not done in Alaska.

“I’m not going away. You can vote this down all you want. I’m going to continue to come back and pound on your doors and get others to support this bill until you pass it,” Merryn says.

The Alaska Legislature declared April Sexual Assault Awareness Month. According to the resolution, one in four girls and one in six boys will report being victims of sexual assault. Speaking out against sexual assault is an important first step toward eliminating the crime.

Nobel Peace Prize nominee the Rev. John Dear is in Juneau as part of a national tour for his most recent book, “The Nonviolent Life.”

Dear has written over 30 books and devotes his life to giving lectures and organizing demonstrations.

He has two masters in theology from Graduate Theological Union in California and says nonviolence is at the heart of all world religions.

“You cannot claim to be a Christian or a person of any religion and support violence or war. Period. In other words, to be a Christian and to be Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist is to be a person of nonviolence,” Dear says.

Dear has worked with Mother Teresa to stop capital punishment and was mentored by anti-war activist brothers David and Philip Berrigan. Dear was nominated in 2008 for a Nobel Peace Prize by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

“But most of all I know thousands and thousands of ordinary American activists who are working to change our country and our cities and move it from militarism and corporate greed toward greater equality and more peaceful attitude toward the world. And it’s those ordinary people who give me the most hope,” Dear says.

Dear wants to reach more ordinary people during his time in Juneau.

Tonight he’ll speak on “Peace Making, Civil Disobedience and Truth Telling in a World of Permanent War.” He’ll talk about how he got involved in the peace and justice movement, his experience in war zones, and spending time in jail.

On Saturday, Dear gives an all day workshop on “Living a Nonviolent Life.”

“How can we become like Gandhi and Dr. King? How can we help Alaska become more nonviolent and the whole country and the whole world become more nonviolent? That’s our only hope and it’s the most crucial question of our time,” he says.

Tonight’s talk is at 7 p.m. @360 and Saturday’s workshop is from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Northern Light United Church.

For more information, go to johndear.org.

Cruise ship season starts early in Juneau with the Volendam making an unexpected port of call Saturday.

According to Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska, the Holland America Line ship departed from Japan and was supposed to stop in Kodiak, but had to divert due to bad weather in the Gulf of Alaska. The Volendam is carrying 1,200 passengers.

Juneau’s first scheduled cruise ship is the Carnival Miracle on May 1.

Elizabeth Arnett is tourism marketing manager for the Juneau Convention and Visitors Bureau. She says the last minute port of call is catching the retail industry off guard.

“For the businesses downtown that are open year-round, it’s going to be a little extra boom for them that they weren’t expecting. But I imagine some of the retail merchants downtown that weren’t prepared to be open until next week may or may not be open,” Arnett says.

The Volendam will dock at the Alaska Steamship Wharf, near the downtown public library, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday. Arnett says the visitor’s center kiosk will be open.

Ellen Lynch, director of shore excursions for Holland America Line, says many Juneau tour operators will be able to provide services on Saturday.

“I believe Era is operating, Wings up to Taku, and the glacier flightseeing that they do. Allen Marine is operating the whale tours. Some of the bus tours will go. The biking tour will go. Those are the only ones I know about. I’m sure there’s many more,” Lynch says.

The Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center is closed for the month of April, but director John Neary says a few staff members will be available on the ground to answer questions.

The Mt. Roberts Tramway will run Saturday, but won’t officially open until May 1.

After Juneau, the Volendam will continue onto scheduled stops in Glacier Bay, Ketchikan and Vancouver.

(Editor’s note: A previous version of this story stated the Mt. Roberts Tramway will run Saturday for cruise passengers. The story has been updated to reflect the Mt. Roberts Tramway will be open for the general public.)