Rosemarie Alexander

Services are pending for former Juneau legislator Elton Engstrom, Jr., who has died at the age of 78.

Engstrom represented Juneau as a Republican in the legislature from 1965 to 1971.

Politics were in his blood, so to speak, as both his mother and father, Thelma and Elton Engstrom, Sr., were elected to the Alaska Territorial Legislature. In the early 1960s, Engstrom, Sr.  served in the new state’s senate.

The younger Engstrom was a lawyer who served from 1965 to 1967 in the Alaska State House, and from 1967 to 1971 in the  State Senate.

The state was just recovering from the 1964 earthquake that struck Southcentral.  Then in 1967, it was the Fairbanks flood. But it was also a heady time with the discovery of oil in Prudhoe Bay.

Engstrom’s daughter Cathy Munoz has followed in her father’s footsteps and represents Juneau in the Alaska State House.  Her office writes that as a youth Engstrom  worked with his father,  a fish buyer at Juneau Cold Storage, then went into the business and bought fish until 1985.

Engstrom also managed property that he owned, collected books and was an avid writer and known for his columns in the Juneau Empire.  He and his son Allan authored Alexander Baranov and a Pacific Empire,  a book about the first governor of the Russian-America Company.

Elton Engstrom, Jr. died Wednesday at his Juneau home on Chicken Ridge.   He is survived by his wife Sally, his brother Allan, sons Elton and Allan, daughter Cathy Engstrom Muñoz, son-in-law Juan Muñoz, and grandchildren Mercedes and Matthew Muñoz and Katya and Aliosha Engstrom.

 

 

At 12:30 p.m. Pacific time, Powder Magazine’s count showed 4,024 votes for Eaglecrest, and 3,894 votes for Mount Washington, B.C.  Voting stopped at midnight.  That means Juneau’s ski area moves on to the Sweet 16 in the Ski Town Throwdown.

Original story:

It’s time for the second round of Ski Town Throwdown.  Juneau’s ski area is paired with British Columbia’s Mount Washington, a ski resort on Vancouver Island.

In the first round of the Powder Magazine competition, Eaglecrest beat Whistler/Blackcomb Ski Resort near Vancouver, B.C.

Second round voting is Thursday only.  If Eaglecrest gets more votes than Mount Washington, it will be entered in the Sweet 16.  The Powder Magazine contest is a bit like March Madness basketball, with U.S. and Canadian ski areas lumped into four regions, battling from Sweet 16 to Elite 8, Final 4 and at the end  the Great White North champion will go against the Big East.

Eaglecrest is in the Great White North region.  Voting ends at 11 p.m. Alaska time.  Vote on the Powder Magazine or Eaglecrest Facebook pages.

 

How much will Juneau water and sewer rates have to increase to cover the costs of replacing old pipes?

That’s the question at the heart of a CBJ rate study, which is also the topic of a series of public meetings getting underway Thursday.

Public Works Director Kirk Duncan says the city has a lot of old infrastructure that’s wearing out and will need to be replaced.

“Lot of things (were) put in the ground in the 80s and they’re coming due.  Some pipes have a hundred years, some pipes have 25 years,” Duncan says.

“The Juneau-Douglas Treatment Plant is in need of a pretty major overhaul as is the Mendenhall Treatment Plant.  And then we still have the water filtration issue that we’re talking about at Salmon Creek.  So there’s just a need for lots of money.”

The CBJ Public Works Department and project consultant will lay out the problem and rate study process at three meetings Wednesday, beginning with the Chamber of Commerce.

The top 50 water and wastewater users have been invited to hear study details from 2 to 4 p.m., followed by a public meeting at 7 p.m., both in Assembly chambers at city hall.

“And the idea here is just why are we doing this and what are we doing? That’s the first set of meetings.  The second set of meetings in December is ‘OK, this is what we estimate we’ll need in the next ten years.’ And then in February, ‘this is how we can structure the rates’ and use passenger fee money, 1percent sales tax, special revenue bonds, and all kinds of different things. So the February meeting is what it’s really going to do the rates.” 

The city reviews its water and sewer rates every ten years, the last one in 2003.  Not surprisingly, that study resulted in a rate increase.  Most residential customers now pay a flat rate for water and sewer of $90.53 per month.

 

Four Juneau teachers and a community program partner have been recognized by the Alaska Association for Career and Technical Education as 2013 Outstanding Teachers.

The awards came at the association’s annual conference in Anchorage on Oct. 30^th , according to Carin Smolin, Career and Technical Education Coordinator for the Juneau School District.

The association’s mission is to strengthen career and technical education and develop an Alaska workforce.

JDHS Health Sciences Teacher Kari Monagle is the Outstanding Health Services Teacher of the Year.

Monagle is a Juneau Douglas High School graduate and has been teaching science there for about 20 years.  Smolin says Monagle helped develop the health sciences curriculum.

“We have alignment with the university so students can earn dual credit with high school and university credits.  We know that health sciences is a high demand occupation in our state along with the country. And she’s been very dedicated and passionate about her work and her teaching, and students just love her as well,” Smolin says.

Colin Dukes has been teaching at JDHS for six years and has earned the Outstanding Industrial/Technology Teacher of the Year award for his classes in wood, construction, house building, and CAD, or computer-aided design.

Smolin calls Dukes’ classes a model of applied learning that incorporate literacy, math, and science skills in meaningful projects.

She reads from a letter supporting Dukes for the award:

“He customizes classroom learning to meet student needs and teams of colleagues to create classroom projects and build student engagement in meaningful learning.”

One of the most popular classes at Thunder Mountain High School is taught by Patrick Roach.  He’s received the Outstanding New CTE Teacher of the Year award for preparing and cooking food, otherwise known as culinary arts.

He’s also been teaching less than three years, an important part of the category for the new CTE teacher award.

Smolin says this is not the first award Roach has received in the short time he’s been teaching.

“This past spring he also was recognized by the state and he won the Alaska 2013 Teacher of the Year by the National Restaurant Association Education Foundation, and he won the Alaska Educators’ Excellence award,” she says.

The Community Contribution award has gone to Justin Fantasia,  a SAGA employee who is construction manager for the JDHS House Build Program.

Fantasia has been working with the program for five years.  Smolin says his award recognizes the connection between a school and a workplace.

“He has been a mentor for students and helps them transition  into the construction field following high school and he engages in class as well as on site with the work,” she says. “He’s truly dedicated to our students.”

The JDHS House Build program currently has a house for sale in the Lemon Creek area and is building another.

The Juneau teachers who won the awards competed with other career and technical education instructors from across the state.  Smolin says the applications are accompanied by letters of support, many from students and former students, and all are reviewed by an impartial committee of business leaders and the association.

 

 

Bartlett Regional Hospital interim CEO says the hospital will easily keep moving forward while the board looks for a permanent head.

Jeff Egbert has been in Juneau just a week and told the Assembly Monday night  he’s still in “learning mode.”

He was hired late last month after CEO Chris Harff suddenly resigned, following allegations of a hostile work environment created by senior management. The hospital personnel director also resigned, and CBJ human resources director Mila Cosgrove stepped in.

Egbert comes from Arizona, where he has been CEO of mid-size and larger hospitals, including others that have been in turmoil.

 When I interviewed with Mila and the board the discussion was to come, keep the hospital moving forward while they find a permanent CEO. And I think that will be an easy task,  because the hospital isn’t standing still, it is moving forward and progressing very nicely.  Just with the right direction and help in some key areas I think you’ve got a lot you can be proud of currently in that hospital.

The city-owned hospital has been going through change for at least three years, when some personnel started voicing concern about a “culture of fear.”  Then long-time manager Quorum Health Resources was replaced with a CEO hired by the board of directors.  Harff was in the  job for only 13 months, and now Egbert is interim CEO.

Egbert says he understands the issues and is comfortable in working in what he calls “turn-around hospitals.”

It’s not the toughest hospital I’ve come to from a culture or a financial perspective.  The good news is the hospital is operating profitably currently.  You just have some challengers with leadership and employee relations.

Egbert describes Bartlett as wanting for leadership, wanting for trust and more open communication.

Board president Linda Thomas has said the board would like to hire a permanent CEO within six months.

 

A memorial service will be held Wednesday for long-time Juneau resident Beverly Ward, who died suddenly last week.  She was 67.

Ward came to Alaska in 1968, when she accepted a teaching job in Ketchikan.  Like many transplants, she planned to stay for a year and wound up making Alaska her home.

Over the years, Ward taught school, worked for Alyeska Pipeline Service, and ARCO Alaska as government affairs representative in Juneau.  While traveling the state for the pipeline company, she met and married Robert Ward, who became  lieutenant governor under Terry Miller, and later state transportation commissioner. Bob Ward died in 1997.

Beverly Ward remarried Brian Reeve in 2011.

She was involved in several organizations, including Juneau Rotary, Capital City Republican Women, the Glory Hole, and Catholic Community Services.

She is survived by her husband, a brother, stepchildren and grandchildren in Arizona, Oregon, and Juneau.

Services will be held Wednesday at Chapel by the Lake at 1:30 p.m.