Tripp J Crouse, KTOO

The owners of the former Gastineau Apartments will pay $1.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the City and Borough of Juneau.

The city took the owners to court to recover demolition costs after razing the blighted buildings at 127 South Franklin Street.

“The real benefit of this has been our work with the city at every turn has yielded progress for the city of Juneau,” said David D’Amato, who acts as a representative of owner Kathleen Barrett. “We’ve managed incrementally to clean up a substantial portion of downtown Juneau with the view of both resolving sort of these issues with the buildings and with the property but also issues with the community.” 

A fire severely damaged them in 2012, and again in 2015.

The property was deemed a public nuisance and torn down in January 2016. The city filed the lawsuit against the Barretts in March 2016 to recover costs.

City Manager Rorie Watt said in a news release that the city is glad to put this issue behind it.

“It’s been difficult,” Watt said Thursday. “I mean, it was a hard to take local funds and demolish a piece of problem, private property. It’s not something that we want to do very often. I’m glad the litigation is over and everybody can move on and worry about other things.”

Court documents show that Barrett admitted fault and will make scheduled payments through Dec. 31, 2020.

Any proceeds from the sale of her other Juneau properties — including the former Bergmann Hotel — would be held in trust until the payments are complete.

The court settlement also addressed a downtown house that’s been the center of neighborhood complaints. Ms. Barrett jointly owns a Harris Street house with her son James and pledged to continue efforts to evict him from the property and forfeit his interest.

A 20-year-old woman was medevaced after her vehicle overturned into the Breakwater Inn parking lot this weekend.

Juneau Police Department received a call about 2:19 a.m. Sunday that a white 1999 Chevy Silverado was upside-down, Juneau Police Lieutenant Krag Campbell said.

“Based on the skid marks in the area it looks like it was heading outbound, crossing the median at one point, then came back and finally went until it entered the parking lot, so probably lost control.”

When officers arrived, Capital City Fire/Rescue was already treating the woman, who broke her pelvis and collar bone.

She was taken to Bartlett Regional Hospital and was medevaced to Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage at 4:25 p.m. on Sunday according to Bartlett Community Relations Director Katie Bausler.

Her vehicle was considered totaled. A 1980 Ford van was also likely totaled in the incident after it received damage to its front end. A street sign was also damaged.

Campbell said alcohol and drugs were likely factors in the crash.

The woman was not arrested, so her name was not released, but police are investigating the crash.

Norwegian Cruise Line banned plastic straws aboard its ships, but offers alternatives for people requesting a straw. Another cruise line, Carnival says staff members only supply straws upon request for soda or cocktails.

Alaska’s Last Straw wants to eliminate single-use plastics. Organization president Stacy Katasse said cruise lines trying to reduce plastic straw waste is good news.

“Certainly the tourism industry has a big impact with the more people in town (then) the more people eating at our restaurants, so straws are potentially used,” Katasse said. “Businesses that we’ve talked to want to do their part. They just don’t know where to start. They don’t know how to start.”

Juneau-based Amalga Distillery uses paper straws mostly because it was the cool thing to do. But now several cruise lines are also taking steps to reduce plastic waste.

Katasse said local residents have been receptive to reducing straw waste. And businesses want to help while keeping their costs low.

“Our first suggestion to businesses is start to the policy of not giving everyone a straw and making them ask for a straw,” she said. “Then at least you’re giving out less straws. What businesses who have adopted this model have found is less people do ask for that straw.”

Katasse said Southeast Alaska has a vested interest in the environment.

“We are very close to our food chain here. And being close to the, physically close to the fish that we eat and we’re also physically close  to that ocean and it’s very easy for our trash to end up in that ocean.”

She said everyone can make a difference – one straw at a time.

Emergency personnel rescued someone who fell into Gastineau Channel near Marine Park early Friday morning.

Capital City Fire/Rescue received a call about 2 a.m. that a 49-year-old man had fallen into the water, hit his head on a large pipe and was unconscious, Assistant Fire Chief Ed Quinto said.

“Two of his friends had attempted to go into the water to save him and another bystander went into the water. The three other people were told to come out of the water since it was unsafe.”

Quinto said two Fire/Rescue crew members went into the water wearing dry suits and life jackets — and brought the man to shore.

He was taken by ambulance to Bartlett Regional Hospital, where he was reportedly conscious. His two friends also were treated for hypothermia.

Alcohol was a factor.

No injuries were reported in a an early morning fire that destroyed a mobile home in Kodzoff Acres.

When Capital City Fire/Rescue arrived about 12:10 a.m. Friday at Kodzoff Acres 1, Assistant Fire Chief Ed Quinto said the single-wide trailer was half involved with the fire.

“Fire crews quickly knocked down the fire within 10 minutes, and neither the firefighters nor the occupant was injured,” he said.

Quinto said smoke detectors woke up the occupant, who moved his truck away from fire. The mobile home is a total loss.

Fire Marshals are investigating the cause of the fire.

Stores include an update in the plane crash on Prince of Wales Island, the Chinese delegation visiting Kodiak and Kikkan Randall’s cancer announcement.