Zoe Grueskin, KTOO

Around two dozen Juneau residents, many in rubber boots and ice cleats, turned out last weekend for Blueprint Downtown’s second public walking tour. A collaboration between the City and Borough of Juneau’s Community Development Department, MRV Architects, Lucid Reverie, and Sheinberg Associates, Blueprint’s goal is to create a “community vision” for downtown Juneau.

The walking tours build off a public survey and community meetings last fall to gauge what’s working well downtown, and what could be improved.

Leading the way was Paul Voelckers, president of MRV Architects and vice chairman of the Juneau Planning Commission. This tour was meant to focus on vehicles, parking and pedestrians. But along with some talk of confusing crosswalks, Voelckers let the conversation return to a touchier subject broached the week before: what he called “the reality and the perception of vagrancy and risk.”

The group stopped at the intersection of South Franklin Street and Admiral Way, an unofficial border between year-round businesses and shops that cater to tourists in the warmer months and stay shuttered through the winter.

Juneau police officer Ken Colón was along for the tour. He said that part of town is considered unsafe by some, in part due to the homeless population that tends to gather there.

Colón said many downtown shop owners do their part to be good neighbors — when they’re around. The problem, as he sees it, is the lack of business outside tourist season.

“We do have owners who will sometimes go out of their way and work with those individuals, knowing they’re down on their luck. So if that existed, that 12-month period existed where you had every establishment functioning as it ought to be, we wouldn’t have that problem or eyesore that I hear (about) on a habitual basis,” said Colón.

M.J. Grande has lived in Juneau since 1983 and works downtown, along the route of the walking tour. She called for compassion.

“These people that we’re afraid of are our neighbors,” Grande said. “They are deserving of respect, of recognition, of interaction. Hiding away or spreading the little, ‘Ooh it’s scary, it’s scary,’ serves no benefit to our community in any aspect.”

The group continued on its way, and so will the conversation.

Blueprint Downtown will hold one more walking tour on Saturday, Jan. 19, meeting at the Juneau Arts & Culture Center at 1 p.m. The theme is cultural identity, sustainability and the environment.

• Tuesday is the first day of the 2019 Alaska legislative session, and the House of Representatives still doesn’t have a majority.
• All three of Juneau’s state lawmakers are new to the job and say they’re ready to get to work.
• A two-year audit of the state’s gasline corporation found the corporation’s spending has generally followed the law, but there are a few issues.
• Nicolas Petit defended his title in the Copper Basin 300 Sled Dog Race.
• A 5.0 magnitude earthquake rattled residents in the Anchorage area, another aftershock of Nov. 30’s 7.0 magnitude quake.

At its first meeting of the new year, the Juneau School District Board of Education voted unanimously to appoint Bridget Weiss as permanent superintendent of the Juneau School District.

Before the vote, members of the board and the public voiced their support of Weiss.

“It’s clear this is more than just a job for you,” said board member Steve Whitney.

Whitney described the school board’s choice to appoint Weiss as the will of the people: “We got so many letters, and they all said the same thing from so many different sources. It just kind of drives it home in a big way.”

He says he’s hopeful about the direction the district is headed in, although challenges will remain.

“It’s gonna be hard just because money is so short. So many things are just barely being held together by shoestrings,” Whitney said. “Given that, I’m thankful that she’s here right now at this point in time.”

Laura Mulgrew is president of the Juneau Education Association, the teachers’ union. She spoke in support of Weiss before the vote and was happy with how it turned out.

“As a union, we’ve had a very positive working relationship [with Weiss],” she said. “Even through difficult times and conversations, we still manage to end on such a positive note on a regular basis. And we are achieving that needed to get done that have not been addressed.”

Mulgrew also noted Weiss’ commitment, noting she’s frequently seen in the schools and at events, even serving as a substitute teacher when needed.

Weiss called the support “overwhelming.” She has served as interim superintendent since August, when her predecessor left to take a job in California after four years in the position. Much of the feedback the school board received throughout the selection process called for a local leader.

Weiss is a graduate of Juneau-Douglas High School.

“I feel so grateful to be in a position where I can serve this place, my home of homes,” she said.

Becoming superintendent of Juneau School District “was not on my original chart,” said Weiss. “I would not have even known to hope for this.”

The appointment of Weiss earned the night’s second standing ovation. The first, minutes earlier, was in response to the school board’s acceptance of the gift of a Tlingit name, Yadaa.at Kalé, for Juneau-Douglas High School.

Note: This story was expanded to include more information on Jan. 9, 2019.

Police arrested a student at Juneau-Douglas High School who brought a BB gun with her to school Tuesday. The school went into “stay put” mode while officers investigated.

JPD received a report Tuesday afternoon after the 16-year-old student posted a photo on social media of what appeared to be a handgun. Officers contacted the student at school and confirmed she was in possession of a BB gun, which appeared to be the weapon in the photo.

The student was arrested “for terroristic threatening in the 2nd degree, a class C felony, and taken to the Johnson Youth Center,” according to a JPD press release. No one was injured.

JPD stated in its release there does not appear to be any continuing danger to the community.

The chief of staff for the Juneau School District reported that the “stay put” was lifted at the high school, with normal operations resuming about an hour before the end of the school day.

In the back of Super Bear, there’s a stockroom nearly as big as the supermarket itself. Heavy shelves of nonperishables line the walls. Produce sits in cardboard by the doors, ready to be brought out to brightly-lit aisles bustling with holiday shoppers.

In the back, it’s just as busy. Or at least it was on the Wednesday before Juneau schools let out for winter break. That afternoon, the backroom became headquarters for Project Three Squares, a program to make sure kids get enough to eat during school breaks.

IGA, which owns both Super Bear and Foodland, has run the program in Juneau since 2016. This year, employees from both stores packed up 478 bags of food.

On Thursday those bags were delivered to each of Juneau’s schools, where staff distributed them to students who might need a little extra help over the holidays.

One of the people overseeing the operation was Super Bear store director Tony deMelo. He said the bags were filled with breakfast and lunch in mind. Each bag contained hot cocoa, a can of fruit, a box of cereal, a few packets of ramen noodles, canned tuna and granola bars.

John Ouderkerk, better known as JP, is the assistant store director at Super Bear. He did the ordering for Project Three Squares, most of which happened back in July. He was especially pleased to include the cocoa in this winter’s bags. That’s a first, he said.

“I figured since it’s such a cold, chilly winter, we put some of that in there this time so they have a nice treat on their break,” Ouderkerk said.

Project Three Squares takes place twice a year, before winter and spring breaks. This time around, about 30 employees of both Super Bear and Foodland volunteered to pack bags and deliver them to the schools. Ouderkerk’s own kids also pitched in.

The program is partially funded by the sale of reusable tote bags, designed by local artist MK MacNaughton and sold at both stores. All together, Foodland store director Rick Wilson estimated that IGA spends about $20,000 on the project in Juneau each year.