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(JUNEAU, ALASKA) The fast ferry Fairweather will be out of service until early September.

The ship has been tied up in Juneau since a small oil leak was discovered Thursday evening in one of its four water jets, which power the ship.

Officials hoped to weld a temporary patch and return to service by Thursday. Further repairs would have taken place during a scheduled October overhaul.

But Captain Mike Neussl, who runs the ferry system, says that won’t work.

“Now the plan is to do the ultimate plan, which is to take the vessel to Ketchikan, drydock it, remove the water jet and repair it outside the vessel with a factory-approved permanent repair. That does involve welding and grinding back to original specifications, not just welding a plate over the pinhole that is in there,” he says.

Neussl says the Juneau-based Fairweather will be out until September 3rd. Ferry staff are

looking at alternatives for Sitka, which gets five sailings a week. One option would add staff to the ferry LeConte, so it could run a longer schedule.

They’re also considering options for its two weekly Petersburg sailings, which have attracted less traffic.

The Fairweather will sail to Ketchikan’s Alaska Ship and Drydock under its own power. Neussl says it can operate on three engines.

“Obviously, we can’t be leaking oil all the way down there. If there’s oil in the system and it’s pressurized it’s going to leak. So basically we’ve got to vacate all the oil out of the system and not operate that No. 4 engine on the way down to Ketchikan to get it to the drydock,” he says.

He says about five quarts of oil leaked last week before the hole was discovered. It was cleaned up.

Neussl says the leak is not connected to ongoing engine problems that threaten to sideline the Fairweather and its sister ship, the Chenega.

Those problems are the subject of a lawsuit against the engine manufacturer and ship builder.

The fast ferries each carry up to 250 passengers and 36 vehicles.

The Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears left another football team scoreless this weekend.

In the first Railbelt Conference game of the season, the Crimson Bears varsity toppled the North Pole Patriots by a score of 57-0. The Juneau-Douglas junior varsity also beat the North Pole JV by 38-6.

The games were played in North Pole and heard in Juneau on KJNO radio and the KATH-TV website.

Quarterback Phillip Fenumiai says the varsity offensive and defensive lines really did “their thing” and the entire team was “clicking on all cylinders.”

Fenumiai had 290 yards passing, most of that in the first half. He threw three touchdown passes. The 6-foot 2-inch junior explains the plays:

“Two touchdown passes were to Sean Niumataevalu. One was on a post route. That’s where you just go up seven yards and just aim for a spot 45 degrees down field,” Fenumiai says. “The second one was on a drag. He just came across the middle of the field from slot and he made a play after he caught the ball and ran 70 yards.”

Fenumiai’s third touchdown pass was to first-year player Alec Calloway, in what he calls a go route.

“Straight down the field,” Fenumiai explains. “I threw it up to him and led him in strides so he didn’t have to stop for the ball, and he scored a touchdown.”

Senior Fullback Lah Fifita also scored a touchdown on a 1-yard run in the second quarter. Kohl Jaeger and Gary Speck each had 6-yard touchdown runs in the fourth quarter.

The Patriots were missing several key players, due to illness, injury and violating a team rule.

Fenumiai says the Bears knew that going into the game, but they still expected more because they had scrimmaged the Patriots in football camp this summer.

“I didn’t think we were going to go by them with such ease this game, but defense did their thing, actually got us the ball back when we wanted it,” he says. “Offense, we were just clicking on all cylinders. I don’t think North Pole knew what hit them.”

The Crimson Bears sacked the Patriots’ quarterback Moo Rogers twice and limited him to 97 yards passing and rushing.

The varsity Bears amassed 125 points in their first two games of the season. Last week they beat the Thunder Mountain Falcons 68-0.

Photos by Gail Fenumiai

Mendenhall Lake and Mendenhall River are now at minor flood stage.

The National Weather Service has issued a flood advisory for both areas.

Mendenhall Lake was nearly at 9.7 feet last hour. The river was over 11.8 feet.

Hydrometeorological technician Geri Swanson says they expect water levels to continue rising a bit.

“Right now with the continued rainfall, we’re looking for the crest hopefully within the next six to twelve hours,” said Swanson. “And then (we’ll be) seeing a gradual decrease though the night and tomorrow.”

Swanson says water has come up to the lower part of the Mendenhall Lake Campground and a yard of a house on View Drive. Part of the road to Skater’s Cabin is closed.

But the Swanson doesn’t expect water levels to get as high as this summer’s glacial outburst. Rainfall has already started tapering off.

Official observations at the Juneau Airport recorded 2.17 inches for the weekend’s rainfall. Swanson says it’s almost 2.75 inches including today’s rainfall.

Other areas in Juneau may have more or less. For instance, a rain gauge in the downtown Juneau area recorded a total of 4.18 inches from Friday until Monday morning.

The Taku River crested at just over 39 feet over the weekend, four feet short of flood stage.

Montana Creek also briefly flooded Saturday, but water levels have already trended down. Swanson says that stream is more susceptible to sudden heavy downpours instead of steady constant rainfall.

Stories include a preview of the competitive process to be used for selection of a management firm for Bartlett Regional Hospital and the latest on a guacamole recall.

For the first time in 14 years, the board of directors for Juneau’s Bartlett Regional Hospital is using a competitive bid process to select a management company.

The board tonight (Monday) will hear presentations from three firms that responded to a June request for proposals. Tennessee-based Quorum Health Resources has managed the city-owned hospital since 1997, and is seeking a new contract. It’s joined by Kentucky-based Alliant Management Services and PeaceHealth, headquartered in the Seattle area.

Last year, Quorum came under fire from some Bartlett employees, who said the local management team fostered “a culture of fear” at the hospital. But Bartlett Board Chair Kristen Bomengen says the criticism wasn’t the driving force behind the decision to use a competitive bid process.

“Once you’ve worked with one company for so many years, it’s only appropriate to go out and re-bid. And so, in any case we would have been going out to receive more statements of interest,” Bomengen says.

All the bidders have decades of health care experience. Quorum is the largest hospital management company in the country, and operates the Sitka Community Hospital in addition to Bartlett. Alliant’s hospitals are clustered in Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky. And PeaceHealth has six hospitals in the Pacific Northwest, including Ketchikan Medical Center.

Under its current contract, Quorum is paid between 350-thousand and 400-thousand dollars a year. The amount is tied to the Consumer Price Index. But Bomengen says the board won’t just look at cost when deciding on a management company.

“We want to make certain that we have management advice from people who are tracking what changes we’re going to be looking at in the health care industry. We would like to see an understanding of Juneau’s circumstances,” says Bomengen. “We’re interested in the kind of expertise that they’ll be able to deliver. One of the things we do through our management services contract is a lot of our purchasing and we try to get the best value for medical equipment and ongoing medical supplies.”

All three companies have representatives in Juneau for today’s meeting, which starts at 3:30 p.m. in the hospital boardroom. Bomengen says an hour and 15 minutes has been set aside for each presentation, which will be open to the public. The board may go into executive session to discuss financial aspects of the bids. An offer is tentatively scheduled to be made to one of the companies at the end of the meeting.

The body of a Juneau woman was found in a ditch Friday morning near the intersection of Valley Boulevard and Mendenhall Loop Road.

Juneau police have identified her as 48-year-old Marilyn Williams, born on February 26, 1963.

A witness on his way to a bus stop saw the body and called police. Capital City Fire and Rescue also responded. A medical team pronounced her dead at the scene, according to police spokeswoman Cindee Brown-Mills.

“It doesn’t appear to be foul play at this point,” Brown-Mills said. “They’ve requested an autopsy.”

The body will be sent to the state medical examiner’s office in Anchorage for the autopsy.

During the investigation, police closed off Valley Boulevard at Diane Street and Kiowa Drive for about an hour, as well as the outbound lane of Loop Road between Floyd Dryden Middle School and Valley.

Brown-Mills said Williams was found face down in the ditch just before Kiowa. She was dressed in a jacket, jeans, shoes and a hat.

Williams lived close by. Her family members have been notified.

The case remains under investigation.