Yvonne Krumrey

Juneau is getting a new public-use cabin, this time built by a local trail maintenance nonprofit. The cabin will be owned and maintained by the city but constructed by Trail Mix Inc., which builds and maintains trails around Juneau.

Meghan Tabacek, who leads Trial Mix, said this will be the organization’s first time building a cabin. 

“Not only are we going to build a beautiful cabin that generations of Juneau people can use for years and years to come,” she said. “But we’re also setting up trail workers who hopefully can keep those skills in the Juneau community, or wherever they take off to afterwards.”

The Juneau Assembly approved a grant to the nonprofit last month to take on the project. The money was approved by voters in 2022 in a bond package. 

The cabin will be at Amalga Meadows Park, about a mile out the road from the Shrine of St. Therese. The new cabin will be a short hike beyond the existing Amalga cabin. 

Tabacek said Trail Mix staff will build the trail to the new cabin this summer. Next summer, they’ll build the cabin itself, under the guidance of an experienced foreman who has built public-use cabins before. 

Tabacek said the new cabin will look similar to the first one, with a few improvements.

“We’re getting a longer roof over the deck — which, you know, necessary for Juneau,” she said. “Now you can actually hang out on the deck, even if it’s rainy.”

This will be the second city-owned cabin in the Juneau area. There are about a dozen Forest Service and state-owned cabins.  

Joe Mishler has been an emergency responder for more than 40 years, about half of which he spent in Juneau. He’s retiring at the end of the month to take care of an aging family member. 

Mishler has spearheaded a team of mobile response units called Community Assistance Response and Emergency Services, or CARES, that address needs that can fall through the cracks. Things like follow-up medical care, housing support or substance use treatment. He says the program evolved out of in-home care during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The teams can meet people where they are — at home, at a shelter, or on the street. 

KTOO’s Yvonne Krumrey met him at his office at the fire station to ask about what he learned, and what mobile response units do for the community.

The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Joe Michler: Basically, I oversee all of — it’s kind of like the non-emergency portion of the fire department. 

And basically we call it MIH, the Mobile Integrated Healthcare program, developed out of that. I think part of the reason it’s accepted and been as successful as it has is because it’s basically needs driven.

We identify needs. We identify from case management, from the hospital and from the clients. We talk to our patients and we determine what it is that they need, versus saying, “Hey, we have a program and we’re going to put this out onto the community.” It’s basically grown from the community.

Yvonne Krumrey: And I think one thing that really stands out about these this program is that it’s essentially kind of, I think, filled a lot of the gaps that sometimes city services can have with a little bit more as you say that it’s both medical care, social work and emergency response kind of in the same moment. And I feel like there’s not a lot of services that can often provide exactly that for somebody. And I’m wondering, how has the response been?

Joe Mishler: The response has been tremendous. Been very well received by the community.

We have some clients that we see that there’s really no other service for them, but we’re continuously getting referrals. 

We look at why they’re using the emergency services, and then try to try to help them solve their problem and make them self sufficient, so that we’re not continuously being their resource. 

So anyhow, there’s a lot of the times the resources are already here. People just don’t know about them. 

And you know, the biggest thing is, we think that we as paramedics save lives, and really, if we would approach—that’s where burnout comes from—because so much of what we do on the ambulance Isn’t life saving, but what we really do is we help people. 

Every crisis is different. But that’s what’s neat about this program, is so often in the ambulance, we simply pick them up, you’re not dying, shuffle you to the ER, there you go, go back out and do it again. Do it again and do it again. And here we actually get to try to figure out what’s going on and stop the cycle. We actually try to help people resolve things, you know?

Yvonne Krumrey: You know, do you get to see a lot of that, like resolutions for folks? 

Joe Mishler: Yeah, yeah. It’s very rewarding work. Since we’ve started, we’ve had very, very little turnover. The people really like the job they’re doing: meeting the people and developing relationships.  And a lot of the people we’re taking care of are very seriously ill. Many of them are at the end of life. And so we’ve had many of our clients over the years, over the last few years that have passed, and that’s that’s difficult. 

Yvonne Krumrey: Are there any moments you’ve had over the last 40 or so years that really stood out to you, like why this work matters so much? That really reinforced why you do what you do? 

Joe Mishler: One of the things that kind of stands out in my mind is over the years that I found out that little things that I’ve done, they really were, in my mind, no big thing. But someone else, it was huge. And I’ve had people thank me for things, or come back or or even talk about things, but a lot of times it’s the little things and just being nice, nice to people and helping them take care of them when they’re having a really, really, really bad day, that probably does as much in helping people as all of the medical training and everything else that we do.

June is Pride month and Juneau’s LGBTQ+ Pride month calendar is packed this year — more so than in recent memory. One organizer says she wants to create chances for people to connect with their community amid attacks by the Trump administration.

Summer Christiansen leads SEAGLA, Juneau’s LGBTQ+ nonprofit. She says, unless otherwise noted, all events are open to LGBTQ+ identifying people and allies. 

“My hope is that if we can have events like these, you know, and we can all come together as one,” she said. “We’ll see how important that community is, and we can use that energy to do bigger and better things.”

President Trump signed multiple executive orders targeting transgender people at the beginning of his second term. Many LGBTQ+ Alaskans say they are afraid of what limits on gender-affirming care will mean for them and their loved ones. 

This month’s events include things like weekly crafting opportunities, dog park parties, and outdoor gatherings.

Christiansen says she wants these events to offer a chance for Juneau’s queer community to have fun and spend time away from the news cycle.

“That way, we as a queer community can feel the sense of belonging, the sense that we’re safe in Juneau,” she said. SEAGLA’s event calendar for June has something scheduled almost every day. The calendar also includes events put on by other Juneau mental health and community nonprofits, like an ocean dip, and the annual Juneau drag performance showcase GLITZ.

This is Lingít Word of the Week. Each week, we feature a Lingít word voiced by master speakers. Lingít has been spoken throughout present-day Southeast Alaska and parts of Canada for over 10,000 years.

Gunalchéesh to X̱’unei Lance Twitchell, Goldbelt Heritage Foundation and the University of Alaska Southeast for sharing the recorded audio for this series.

This week’s word is shaa, or mountain. Listen to the audio below to learn how to say shaa.

The following transcript is meant to help illustrate the words and sentences. 

Keihéenák’w John Martin: Shaa. 

That means mountain.

Here are some sentences:

Keihéenák’w John Martin: Ḵúnáx̱ átx̱ sitee yá Lingít yá óoxjaa noowx̱ sitee yá shaa.

Itʼs really something, for the Lingít, the mountains are a wind fortress.

Keiyishí Bessie Cooley: Shaa kaadé na.átch dzískw, tlákw táakw.

The moose always walk up the mountains every winter.

Kooshdáakʼu Bill Fawcett: Shaayadaadé gax̱too.aat.

Letʼs go up around the upper part of the mountain.

Ḵaakal.áat Florence Marks Sheakley: Lingít aaní shayadihéin shaa.

There are many mountains on Lingít land.

Kaxwaan Éesh George Davis: Dleit a shakée daak wusitán wé shaa.

It snowed on top of the mountain.

You can hear each installment of Lingít Word of the Week on the radio throughout the week. 

Additional language resources:

Find biographies for the master speakers included in this lesson here.

Learn more about why we use Lingít instead of Tlingit here.

Watch a video introducing Lingít sounds here.

After multiple meetings and extended debate, the school board has agreed to fund more of a Lingít language immersion program in the upcoming school year – even amid statewide school budgeting concerns. 

The program in question is Át Koowaháa: Expanding the Tlingit Culture, Language, and Literacy Program — or TCLL. The school district and the nonprofit arm of a regional Native corporation have historically roughly split the cost. 

The school board signed a memorandum of agreement Wednesday with Sealaska Heritage Institute to increase its investment in the TCLL.

But school board members brought up questions about whether the district should pay for more of the TCLL program amidst widespread concerns about funding. 

Board member Elizabeth Siddon said the school board supports TCLL, but it has to balance that with the needs of the entire district. 

“But we support it amongst how we support all of our 4,000 students,” she said. “So I’m trying to keep in mind that these 119 are not the only students we’re responsible for.”

The school board initially approved the change during its budget process. They were then under the impression that the grant SHI used for the program was ending, according to the school board president. But SHI was later approved for an extension of the grant. 

The program isn’t growing, but now JSD will fund eight of its 11 positions. The change requires an additional $233,802 from the school district’s budget. 

SHI Education Director Kristy Ford said the program is intended to increase the number of Lingít language speakers. 

“We have less than 10 fluent speakers left,” she said. “So the need and the urgency to put an intensive amount of support and instruction into the TCLL program was asked of us.”

Some school board members raised the concern that the program only serves a small percentage of Juneau students, but Ford said the scope is intentional. It is intense and immersive so that there is a group of dedicated speakers to make sure the Lingít language doesn’t go extinct.

Correction: This story has been updated to include a more accurate cost estimate for the two teaching positions. 

At a recent Juneau Assembly meeting, Juneau property and business owners testified that interactions with unhoused people camping near the airport have been escalating. 

“We get attacked,” said Tiffany Koeneman, an employee at Alaska Glacier Seafoods. She told Assembly members that she and her coworkers were recently threatened by a man with a knife.

“So we had to call JPD,” she said. “We have people out there loading vans, but that’s not the worst of it. I mean, the safety part of it, somebody’s going to get hurt.”

Scott Jenkins owns property near Teal Street Center, which is home to many services for Juneau’s vulnerable communities. He told the Assembly he worries about safety and public health and listed some hazards. 

“Blocking the sideways leaving trash everywhere, shooting up drugs outside people’s windows, needles in the ditches and in our vehicles, piles of human crap in and around the creek area on our property,” he said.

He said the encampments have begun to affect the way he views the neighborhood. 

“People camping is one thing, but should they be able to claim ground anywhere they wish, as long as it’s not private property?” Jenkins said.

The answer to his question is “not really.” Juneau city policy allows for dispersed camping only on unimproved public land. A 2024 Supreme Court decision gave cities even more latitude to suppress homeless encampments when it said cities may ban people from camping in public places. 

Now some Juneau residents are asking that the city crack down on encampments. But city officials say increased policing won’t necessarily help. 

Instead, the city has given guidelines to the police for how and when law enforcement should intervene — like after an encampment has caused problems for the surrounding community. 

“The police isn’t going to solve homelessness,” said Juneau Police Deputy Chief Krag Campbell. “But if we can help them, you know, do some basic needs that might help out other members in the community.”

Campbell said JPD offers help with disposing of trash at the encampments—but he said it’s hard for police to respond to calls where a resident reports illegal activity at an encampment. Often the only evidence is what that caller said.

“Those are really hard ones to handle as police because by the time you get there, they’re probably still not engaged in that behavior,” he said.

And he said that when people call in, they have to testify and sometimes press charges in order for a case to be prosecuted. He said sometimes, callers don’t want to get involved beyond the initial call. 

“They want that person gone,” Campbell said. “They want that person arrested, but they don’t want to be the mechanism to make it happen”

Deputy City Manager Robert Barr said the Supreme Court case means Juneau police can enforce city limitations on camping that have been in CBJ code for years. 

“We utilize that carefully, and I would say both compassionately and firmly, when we need to utilize it,” he said.

Barr said JPD generally begins to get involved when an encampment continually creates problems, whether that be trash build up or open drug use. He said the city focuses on individual people or camps that repeatedly impact other people using the area, instead of widespread clearing of encampments.

“The code says what it says,” Barr said. “And at the same time, people have to be somewhere.”

Juneau used to have a city-run campground near downtown that unhoused people could live in in the summer months. Last spring, after considering moving the campground, the city closed it, and instructed people to dispersed camp — to sleep on public land. 

Barr said data on the number of unhoused people living in Juneau is very limited, but it shows there are more people living outside now than in the past. And he said that’s true nationwide, as affordable housing becomes more scarce.

“Which is unfortunate,” he said. “And of course, something we don’t control at the local level, but that is a reality that we have to deal with at the local level.”

Kaia Quinto directs the Glory Hall homeless shelter in Juneau. City officials say encampments tend to cluster around the shelter because it offers services and Quinto agrees.

“I think the Glory Hall staff as a whole, you know, we’re feeling very uncomfortable,” she said.

Quinto said just last week, two staff members were assaulted. She said JPD has been stepping in to help police the area around the shelter, and it’s helped her and her staff feel safer. But she said the calls for increased policing of the area don’t really make sense to her.

“JPD is doing all they can, so I think, like, I really don’t know what else they could do,” Quinto said. “It’s very clear to me, at least, that they’re doing everything they can.”

Quinto said some unhoused people using the Glory Hall’s services have told her that they feel like they have nowhere to go. They’ve been asked to move over and over again. 

“It’s very obvious that we have more people who are unhoused than we have shelter beds,” she said.

And until that changes, she said she doesn’t know of any realistic solutions to the increased encampments and threats her staff face.