1 Sections

The location of the Alaska Commercial Fishermen’s Memorial has been laid to rest by the Juneau Assembly.

The panel Monday determined the memorial should stay where it is on Juneau’s working waterfront, even though a floating cruise ship berth will be built in front of it in the next couple of years.

The memorial board has asked that the granite wall with names of deceased fishermen be moved to Marine Park. Board members have said the Blessing of the Fleet won’t be the same because fishing boats won’t be able to get close enough to the memorial and people on shore.

The question has gone before the Docks and Harbors Board and the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee. While they recommended the memorial stay where it is, they said Marine Park should be an option because the park will be redesigned over the next year.

The Assembly was to make the final decision on the memorial. Mayor Bruce Botelho made it clear a decision needs to be made.

“It’s important that we bring some finality to this,” Botelho said.

Port Engineer Gary Gillette said fishing vessels will be able to pass in front of the memorial at its present location. He told the Assembly the closest boats can get now during the ceremony is 75 to 80 feet.

Though the actual cost of a move isn’t known, the city has set aside $2 million for the relocation. Botelho said that money can be better spent.

“There are going to be ways of celebrating even with the new configuration,” Botelho said. “Twenty, 30, 40 years from now (this issue) will not seem like it’s a big deal. There will be ways to truly be able to integrate the memorial with the new waterfront.”

Deputy mayor Merrill Sanford said the Assembly shouldn’t go against the memorial board’s wishes.

“Right now the memorial committee itself has delved into this in great depth and this is their preferred site if we’re building 16-B. So I would have to vote no on this proposal,” Sanford said.

The Assembly last year approved construction of the floating berth system, called Concept 16-B.

Since then, the Docks and Harbors Department has identified several sites for relocating the memorial as well as the no-move option. The memorial board dismissed all but Marine Park, mainly based on the needs of the annual ceremony.

On a vote of six to three the Assembly said the fishermen’s memorial will stay where it is. Those voting for the motion were Mayor Botelho, Mary Becker, Karen Crane, Johan Dybdahl, Malcolm Menzies, and David Stone. Sanford, Ruth Danner, and Peter Freer voted against.

Casey Kelly fills in for Matt Miller. Stories include, Juneau man indicted on 2nd degree murder charges for June automobile crash that killed his 19-year-old friend; CBJ Assembly says Alaska Commercial Fishermen’s Memorial should stay put; longshoremen protest cruise industry; A permanent rabbi moves to Juneau; and is predator control taking a toll on grizzly bear populations in Alaska?

Members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 200 picketed at Marine Park in Juneau today (Monday) while the cruise ship Westerdam was anchored in Gastineau Channel.

Union members say cruise lines have repeatedly broken the law by not calling a contract stevedoring company to perform dock work – such as tying up tender boats and loading cargo – when vessels are anchored offshore. Tender boats are used to ferry passengers to and from shore and to load cargo when cruise ships anchor in port rather than tie up to the docks.

Dennis Young is president of ILWU Local 200 Unit 16 in Juneau. He says the cruise lines have been using crew members from the ships – some of whom aren’t US citizens – to perform the long shore work. Young says the union is working with US Customs and Border Protection and Alaska’s Congressional delegation to end the practice.

“They can continue to stall spit and sputter, but we will be taking this as far as we have to to protect our U.S. long shore workers’ rights,” Young says.

Alaska Cruise Association President John Binkley says the cruise lines are complying with federal law by using U.S. citizens to perform the work.

“I’m certainly not an attorney, but I don’t know of any federal law that requires you to use a specific union to do work,” Binkley says.

He says the longshoremen don’t have a right to the work under their contract.

“My understanding is that through the collective bargaining process, they’ve agreed not to do the work on the tenders and the smaller vessels and that was bargained away for other wages or benefits over the years,” says Binkley. “And now I think they want to go outside the collective bargaining system to try and take over that work.”

Young says that’s simply not true.

“They’re picking and choosing how to follow the contract when they hire a stevedoring company to perform U.S. long shore work, and they’re picking and choosing how they’re going to follow immigration act law,” Young says.

The longshoremen picketed at Marine Park until the Westerdam left Juneau. They plan a similar protest in Sitka tomorrow (Tuesday) and Ketchikan at some point in the future. They were joined this afternoon by nurses at Bartlett Regional Hospital – who are also represented by the ILWU – as well as members of other unions, including state employee unions and the Inland Boatmen’s Union.

The captain of the Westerdam notified passengers of the protest by letter. Most ignored the picketers, who did not try to engage them.

The recent rezoning of a parcel of land at the corner of Atlin Drive and Mendenhall Loop Road is illegal, according to Juneau’s city attorney.

Earlier this month the Juneau Assembly changed the two-plus acres from residential to light commercial — against the recommendation of area neighbors, CBJ Community Development staff and the Planning Commission. And when Assemblyman Peter Freer brought up the zone change for reconsideration last week, it failed.

City Attorney John Hartle was out of town when the issue first came before the Assembly. He has since analyzed the arguments pro and con.

“Continuing with that rezoning would likely result in litigation. And a safer course would be to undo it and try again,” Hartle says.

He says he was persuaded the rezoning needed more study when he read a letter from neighborhood resident Chuck Cohen who argued the city’s own zoning laws made the change illegal.

“Chuck Cohen, happens to be a lawyer, made a legal argument that the proposed rezoning would violate CBJ 49.75.120 which is entitled Restrictions on Rezonings,” says Hartle.

Cohen argued that zoning has an importance beyond the individual landowner and gives predictability to the community, the developers and the neighbors.

The land is owned by Developer Richard Harris of RH Development.

Harris applied to change the area from residential to light commercial in January. Since then Atlin Drive and Teslin Street residents have put a lot of time into fighting it, concerned because Harris has never developed a plan for the property.

And there still is none, says consultant Murray Walsh.

“As we have said steadfastly throughout, there is no plan,” Walsh says.

A former CBJ Community Development Director, Walsh helps developers through the government morass.

“Typically you look at a piece of land for what you think might be the best thing for it and if the zoning is right then you go out and solicit development ideas,” Walsh says. “But if you think the zoning is wrong, then you fix the zoning before you spend money trying to generate or solicit development ideas.”

Assembly members voting for the zone change agreed with Walsh that Harris should have a lot of flexibility in determining what’s appropriate for the parcel – 40 percent of which is unusable due to a stream and wetlands.

But now they will have to come up with another plan, says city attorney Hartle.

The Assembly holds a special meeting tonight (Monday) to introduce an ordinance repealing the Atlin Drive zone change. The ordinance will come up for a vote at a September Assembly meeting.

The Juneau Assembly will meet tonight (Monday) as Committee of the Whole, as members try to decide what to do with the Alaska Commercial Fishermen’s Memorial, now that a floating cruise ship dock is to be built in front of it.

The assembly asked the city’s Docks and Harbors Board to work with the memorial’s board of directors to, if necessary, come up with a mutually acceptable plan for relocating the monument. But Docks and Harbors was unable to come up with a recommendation at its meeting last week. The CBJ Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee previously recommended that the memorial not be moved to Marine Park until there’s a plan in place.

The memorial board prefers to have it stay where it is – on the south waterfront near Taku Smokeries – but not with a dock in front of it. Marine Park is its second choice, and a third option is moving it to the recently completed seawalk south of the current location.

The memorial board’s is concerned with how the dock will affect the annual Blessing of the Fleet. Port Engineer Gary Gillette explained at last week’s Docks and Harbors meeting that boats would still be able to pass in front of the memorial with a dock there, but it might be a tight fit.

“It’s not meant to say that in all conditions or all boats in a series might be able to make this particular route,” Gillette said. “We’re just showing that a boat could physically go through there, which is important to us for maneuvering to our facility, as well as the potential to go in front of the memorial for the blessing.”

Gillette will present the three options for what to do with memorial at tonight’s Committee of the Whole meeting. The committee may choose to make a recommendation to staff or to the full assembly for action at a regular meeting.

Also on the agenda for tonight’s meeting is a presentation by the Association for the Education of Young Children on childcare – an assembly priority; and ongoing discussion of the AJ Mine. The meeting gets underway at 6 p.m. in City Hall Assembly Chambers.

Are Juneau shoppers willing to pay 15 cents for each plastic shopping bag they carry home from the store?

Voters will have a chance to answer that question in the October municipal election.

Grocery, hardware, sundry and liquor stores with total annual sales of at least 15-million dollars over the last five years would collect the tax for city coffers as a way to reduce the use of the bags.

The citizens’ initiative will be on the ballot as well as renewal of the CBJ temporary 3 percent sales tax, two school bond issues, and an ordinance exempting municipal officials from the state’s financial disclosure law.

Three assembly seats and two school board seats are also up for election.

The sample ballot is now on the city’s website at juneau.org/clerk/elections.

Sunday September 4th is the last day to register to vote in the CBJ municipal election, which is October 4th.

Voter registration forms are available at the city clerk’s office, all state elections offices, Juneau public libraries, and online at elections.alaska.gov.