Rosemarie Alexander

Update | June 4 at 12:55 p.m. 

The epicenter apparently was near Rendu Inlet between the east and west arms of Glacier Bay. While there was no tsunami, Tom VandenBerg says 4 a.m. was kind of exciting in the town of Gustavus.

“Everything was shaking a little bit and our houses were rocking back and forth.”

VandenBerg is Supervisory Park Ranger for Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. He says two groups of researchers up the east and west arms of the bay radioed some interesting accounts.

“We had a group of bear researchers up near Russell Island, who are staying on our ranger station, which is a floating raft. And they reported rocks coming down from some of the hillsides, some strange sounds from ice bergs and some rolling bergs and just kind of an eerie experience but no major outward damage,” VandenBerg says.

A backcountry ranger crew is camped near McBride Glacier in the Muir Inlet side of the bay.

“They said the McBride Glacier just started calving, pretty incessantly, apparently for about 15 minutes straight, so lots of ice coming out of that inlet probably over the next couple of days.”

VandenBerg says there were no signs of damage in the park.

Update | June 4 at 7:15 a.m.

The earthquake was about 49 miles west of Haines, and 60 miles west of Skagway.

Haines police reports no calls when it struck, but in Skagway, police dispatcher Willeke Burnham say she received a couple.

Skagway PD is close to the water. Burnham says it felt like she was on a boat.

“The building shook quite a bit and then it felt like I was on the water. And it lasted pretty long too, maybe about a minute, minute and a half,” she says.

Small aftershocks were still being felt in Southeast Alaska two and a half hours after the initial quake, according to the Alaska Earthquake Information Center.

Update | June 4 at 5:39 a.m.

The Alaska Earthquake Center tweeted this update:

 

We have the magnitude of the Southeast Alaska earthquake at 5.7 now. So far we’ve located 10 small aftershocks (all less than M3).

— AK Earthquake Center (@AKearthquake) June 4, 2014

The National Tsunami Warning Center says there is no tsunami danger at this time.

Tsunami Info Stmt: M5.8 050Mi SW Haines, Alaska 0359AKDT Jun 4: Tsunami NOT expected #NTWC — NWS Tsunami Alerts (@NWS_NTWC) June 4, 2014

If you felt the earthquake, you can report your observations to the USGS here.

Original Post | June 4 at 4:43 a.m.

An earthquake shook some Southeast Alaska residents out of bed early Wednesday morning.

The 5.8 preliminary magnitude quake with a depth of about 14 miles hit just before 4 a.m., according to the Alaska Earthquake Information Center. It was centered about 100 miles northwest of Juneau, 66 miles northwest of Gustavus and 48 miles west of Haines. It was felt in the capital city and other Southeast communities.

Several smaller aftershocks were recorded in the region as well.

There were no immediate reports of damage.

This is a developing story. Check back for details.

 

The mystery of a picture found in the attic of the Alaska Governor’s Mansion has been solved, thanks to a Juneau resident.

Terry VanLeuven owns the original black and white picture of the late President John F. Kennedy shaking hands with a smartly dressed little boy.

Gov. Sean Parnell’s office last week asked the public if anyone could identify the child, thinking he was an Alaskan. During the 1960 presidential election, JFK made a campaign stop in Alaska.

When VanLeuven saw the picture in the Juneau Empire last week, he called the governor’s office and KTOO. He met with Parnell on Monday to tell him the story.

VanLeuven’s late wife took the picture when Kennedy was in Oregon, probably during a 1960 campaign stop. The boy in the picture is Brian Kennedy, who was 8 years old at the time and the son of a Myrtle Point, Ore. logging family.

VanLeuven moved from Oregon to Alaska 33 years ago, and brought the picture with him. It still hangs in his home.

In 1986, he gave a framed copy to newly elected Gov. Steve Cowper. He had his 21-year-old daughter Tracy present it to Cowper at the annual Christmas open house at the governor’s mansion.

Parnell spokeswoman Sharon Leighow says the picture will go to the Alaska State Museum and be included in the Cowper collection.

VanLeuven, who will be 76 in August, says he was really happy to hear that during his meeting Monday with Gov. Parnell.

 “Almost made me cry. I have no idea how that picture stayed with me 50 years in all the places I’ve been all over Alaska and some of the stuff I left behind, but I had that picture,” he says. “I guess that picture meant a lot to me or something, because I never lost it, you know.”

VanLeuven says the original picture was taken at the community building in Coquille, Ore.

Kennedy was the 35th U.S. president, elected in November 1960.  He was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas.

All photos by Skip Gray.

All three Juneau legislators will be challenged in the November general election, but not in the August primary.

The candidate filing deadline was 5 p.m. Monday.

George McGuan, 33, filed as a Democrat to run against Republican Rep. Cathy Munoz for House District 34 in November. Munoz currently represents House District 31, which encompasses the Mendenhall Valley and out the road. With redistricting, the number has changed, but not the geography.

Peter Dukowitz, 44, plans to run in November as a Republican against Democrat Sam Kito III for House District 33 (now HD 32). Kito was appointed in February to fill out the term of Beth Kerttula, who resigned her seat in January to take a fellowship at Stanford University. Kito’s new House district will include Juneau, Haines, Skagway and Gustavus.

Juneau Sen. Dennis Egan, a Democrat, will be challenged by Republican Tom Williams. Egan’s Senate District P will change to district Q in November, also encompassing Haines, Skagway, Gustavus and Juneau.

The primary is August 19. With no primary contest, the candidates can concentrate on the general election campaign.

Juneau and Ketchikan police are investigating sexual abuse of a young girl that went on for two years before anyone reported it.

Forty-three year old Jonathan Hayward is being held on $200,000 bond at Ketchikan Correctional Center, charged with five counts of first degree sexual abuse and four counts of exploitation of a minor, as well as ten counts of possessing child pornography. All are felonies.

Hayward was arrested early Friday morning in Ketchikan after an investigation that stemmed from the spontaneous disclosure by the child to her baby sitter’s medical provider. The complaint was taken to the state Office of Children’s Services and law enforcement.

Juneau Police Lt. Kris Sell says during the investigation, the girl said she had told another adult about the abuse, but that person did not take action and it continued. The girl is now 7 years old. She says the girl’s family moved back and forth between Juneau and Ketchikan.

Sell says the police department is bringing the case to the public’s attention because it’s important that people who hear about child abuse know what to do.

“You don’t want to react with shock or negativity towards the child, because then you’ve told them it’s not ok to tell,” she says.

Sell says most people wonder what to do and if the abuse is really happening.

“We’re here to tell people yes, it is happening. It’s happening all over Juneau, it’s happening in households we don’t even know about, and if a child is disclosing to a stranger they’re trusting that somebody at some point is going to help them,” she says.

Sell says it’s very important the abuse be immediately reported to law enforcement or OCS.

The statewide Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force is involved in the investigation. Headquartered in Anchorage, the agency is analyzing multiple electronic devices picked up in the case. A Juneau police detective regularly works with the task force on child pornography cases.

Sell says the Internet group often brings cases to Juneau’s attention.

“We have a lot of Internet traffic in Juneau. We have a lot pornography that’s going back and forth that Anchorage is finding, you know they’re giving us hits,” she says. “They’re working with us on cases like this one where there’s a lot of electronics to be analyzed and also there’s child porn that was trafficked that we’re finding in different cases.”

Lt. Sell says additional charges against Hayward are anticipated as the Internet search continues.

Most of Alaska’s Territorial Court records will not be transferred to the National Archives in Seattle, but will stay in Alaska.

The National Archives and Records Administration says it will transfer 92 percent of Territorial Court as well as Alaska Railroad historical records to the Alaska State Archives in Juneau. Both account for about 25 percent of the records now housed in the National Archives office in Anchorage. The Anchorage facility will be closed this summer and the remaining documents will be transferred to the Seattle NARA office.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski was notified of the decision on Friday. In a letter to Murkowski, U.S. Archivist David Ferriero said most of the Territorial Court records don’t require permanent preservation in the National Archives. They include court proceedings; birth, death and marriage records; mining and other property records that pre-date statehood as well as case files, dockets, and records of civil and criminal proceedings in the Alaska court system through 1959.

The territorial and railroad records will be housed in the new State Library Archives and Museum building under construction in downtown Juneau.

Update: June 2, 2014

Juneau’s water supply is just about back to normal.

Salmon Creek reservoir is again part of the system. Over the weekend, the Salmon Creek water storage tank was filled and is now pushing water out to Mendenhall Valley reservoirs.

Salmon Creek was off line the last three weeks, due to sediment in the water. Valley reservoirs have been low, prompting the city to ask residents to conserve water.

The city and borough lifted that request Monday morning, with the reminder to monitor consumption. Don’t allow faucets to run if water is not being used.

Original story: May 30, 2014

Juneau residents should continue to conserve water this weekend.

But by next week, things should be back to normal, says CBJ Public Works Director Kirk Duncan.

Turbidity in Salmon Creek has dropped and the reservoir will soon be part of the city water system again.  Duncan says the water division started filling the the 2.3-million gallon Salmon Creek storage tank on Friday.

“It’ll take over the weekend to fill that up and that will start pushing more water out to the other valley reservoirs, so we anticipate Monday we should be in pretty good shape,” he says.

In the meantime, Duncan says, the reservoirs that feed the Mendenhall Valley are still lower than he likes. He hopes residents will continue to voluntarily conserve water until Salmon Creek is pumping water into the system.

Duncan admits there’s no crisis, but says a major event, such as a fire in the valley, could create one.