Matt Miller

Stories include a proposal to expand dormitory facilities at the Kensington Mine and Bill Thomas of Haines already preparing for next year’s elections.

Stories include a date and time set for services for Juneau miner Joe Tagaban.

The tenth anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks was remembered in Juneau on Sunday. Vehicles from Capital City Fire and Rescue, including a ladder track with a large American Flag hung from the end of an extended ladder, and local Harley Davidson owners lined one side of Riverside Drive as firefighters, police officers, and others congregated at Riverside Rotary Park. That’s the site of a flag pole memorial, in the shape of a pentagon, that’s meant to commemorate the victims of the attacks in New York, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania.

Here are some of the sounds of Sunday’s service, conducted during the times that the twin towers of the World Trade Center fell ten years ago.

Participants of the service included Capital City and Fire Rescue Chaplin Sam Dalin, singer Siara Kelly, Brent Fischer of the Civil Air Patrol who recounted the significance of the memorial and how it was created, Officer Chris Gifford of the Juneau Police Department, firefighter Charlie Blattner, Juneau Rotarian Carl Ferlauto, and a single piper from Stroller White Pipes and Drums.

Louis Menendez is the newest Superior Court Judge for Juneau.

Menendez took the oath on Friday afternoon as administered by Alaska Supreme Court Chief Justice Walter Carpeneti by videoconference from Anchorage.

Menendez was one of five people who originally applied for the seat being vacated by retiring Superior Court Judge Patricia Collins. Menendez was eventually selected by Governor Sean Parnell last May and he starts work on the bench on September 12.

According to information provided by the Juneau court system, roughly 30-percent of the cases handled by Menendez will likely be felony criminal cases, about 25-percent are divorces and dissolutions, and child support and custody cases. The rest is a mix of probate, general civil, child in need of aid (CINA), and delinquency cases.

Since 1995, Menendez has made his mark as a private defense attorney, sometimes taking on high profile cases. His application to the bench also notes spending each summer in the Naknek area defending fishermen ticketed during the Bristol Bay red salmon fishery. Menendez earned his law degree from University of California’s Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco with graduate work at New York University. The start of his law career includes working as a federal public defender in Texas, in civil law in Juneau, and as a state prosecutor in various Alaska communities — interspersed with stints caring for family in Monterey, California and attending New York University Film School.

A public swearing-in ceremony is scheduled for September 30.

Stories include an update on Wednesday’s fatal accident at Kensington Mine.

A pair of Vancouver-based mining companies in a joint venture to explore the Herbert Glacier area say they’ve found high-grade concentrations of gold.

Assays of test drilling showed gold concentrations averaging 1.08 ounces per ton. Some samples came back as high as 4.14 to 6.63 ounces per ton. Initial assays were announced last month with updated results released on Tuesday.

Ian Klassen, President and Director of Grande Portage Resources Incorporated, says they did some modest drilling last year with fourteen holes down to over 900 feet. Twenty-two holes have been drilled so far this summer. Klassen says they’ve identified what he calls multi-ounce intersects in at least two of the five vein systems in the area.

“We’re very pleased with some of the results we’ve been getting,” said Klassen.

Herbert Glacier, 18-miles north of downtown Juneau, is in the middle of the historic Juneau mining district, with Kensington Mine currently operating 25-miles to the north and Greens Creek Mine about 12-miles to the west.

Klassen says they plan to meet with their field geologists this weekend to determine future plans – such as further exploration. He says it’s way too early to come up with a reliable resource estimate.

In late 2007, Vancouver-based Quaterra Resources acquired the 1700 acre property with 84 federal mining claims either staked or leased from three local prospectors. There are at least four to five significant veins that strike east-to-west and dip sharply to the north. One of the veins was described as being discovered in the 1980’s when glacial ice receded. Information provided by Quaterra showed varying amounts of gold found during exploratory drilling by Tenneco Minerals and Echo Bay Mines in the late eighties.

Quaterra President and CEO Thomas Patton is currently unavailable for comment. But his firm partnered with Grande Portage in June, 2010 for exploration and development of Herbert Glacier. Grande Portage’s Ian Klassen says they’ve committed to spending $1.25 million in exploration costs before June, 2012 in exchange for a 65 percent interest in the project.

“It just was the right place, right time and an opportunity for us when we were looking for an added portfolio to work with that we struck a deal to go forward,” said Klassen. “We’re pleased we’ve done so.”

Grande Portage is also developing the Merry Widow Group on Vancouver Island and the Pass Property in British Columbia. Quaterra either owns or is a partner in nine other mining projects from Montana to central Mexico.