Recent News

A man was escorted out of the Juneau Assembly meeting on Monday night by police officers due to safety concerns.

KC Kregar was asked to leave the meeting because of his alleged repeated harassment of city officials and Assembly members, said City Attorney Emily Wright. He was previously arrested for trespassing after refusing to leave City Hall on Oct. 16. But on Monday he left willingly with officers and was not arrested. 

“He was trespassed for a pattern of continuous harassment and threats towards staff,” Wright said. 

Kregar originally showed up to the meeting at Centennial Hall in a ski mask and goggles. He took the mask off while speaking to the press, saying he came to the meeting to testify and expose wrongdoings and corruption by the city and Eaglecrest Ski Area.

“They’re trying to bury me,” he said to the press prior to his removal. “They should be put in jail for what they are hiding.”

Kregar said he’s a whistleblower and has information about safety violations related to the ski area. 

The meeting was delayed an hour while police confronted Kregar. He shouted as he left. 

“This is wrong. I committed no crime,” he said. “You’re hiding, you’re non-transparent.”

Kregar said he plans to sue the city. 

Juneau’s cold weather emergency shelter opens Wednesday night. 

It’s the third year the shelter will be located in a warehouse in Thane, about a mile from downtown. It’s funded by the city and operated by staff from St. Vincent de Paul, a local nonprofit that works to help people affected by homelessness. 

Jennifer Skinner is the executive director of Juneau’s St. Vincent de Paul chapter. She said the shelter is critical to keeping people alive during the cold winter months. 

“The most important part of having this option for our unhoused population is that it gives them a safe, dry, warm place to be overnight, where otherwise they would be out in the elements,” she said. 

The shelter accepts anyone who comes in search of a place to sleep, as long as they aren’t disruptive to other patrons. City officials say it’s a stopgap and meant to be a last resort for unhoused people when the weather gets cold. 

Last season, the shelter saw an average of 45 people per night. But, some nights, staff saw up to 70 people in need of shelter. 

This summer, Juneau saw an influx of encampments throughout the borough, particularly near the Glory Hall shelter in the Mendenhall Valley. That’s in part due to the closure of the city-run campground near downtown two years ago. 

The increase in campers this year led the Glory Hall to reduce its services in late August due to what staff say was a deteriorating and unsafe environment in the neighborhood. The Juneau Assembly grappled with several ideas this summer to address the larger issue of homelessness in Juneau. 

Skinner said she expects many campers near the Glory Hall shelter to head to the emergency shelter in Thane as the temperatures in Juneau begin to fall. 

“It kind of just takes that lift and that burden off of our unhoused population, and allows for them to have a little bit of peace of mind for six months out of the year, knowing that there’s always a place open,” she said. 

The shelter will be open every day starting Wednesday from 9 p.m. until the early morning. There will also be free shuttle transportation from the Mendenhall Valley and downtown to the shelter. The shelter will stay open through April of next year. 

Bartlett Regional Hospital is taking over ownership of an independently-owned pediatric clinic in downtown Juneau. 

Glacier Pediatrics has been offering pediatric care in Juneau for more than two decades. But hospital administration says discussions with the practice about its struggles to operate independently have been ongoing over the past month and a half.

The clinic sees children from birth through age 19. Earlier this week, the city-owned hospital’s board of directors voted unanimously to purchase the assets of the practice and bring the clinic under Bartlett’s umbrella of care.

Under the plan approved by the board, the clinic will remain at the same location and its current employees will continue to oversee medical services. Clinic employees will become hospital employees and the clinic will be renamed Bartlett Glacier Pediatrics.

“I think (it’s) very much in the best interest of the hospital to have our dual system, where we still have privately-owned clinics, like Valley Medical, and have the option for corporate hospitals,” said Bartlett Board Member Hal Geiger.

Juneau has continued to see multiple private medical practices consolidate with larger entities, namely the Alaska Native-run Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium. In the past two years, SEARHC has acquired multiple clinics throughout the region. This spring, Bartlett similarly took over Family Practice Physicians in the Mendenhall Valley.

The transition for Glacier Pediatrics is estimated to be complete by the start of next year. On Tuesday, the board approved $200,000 to purchase the assets. The purchase comes as Bartlett’s finances appear more secure following a difficult year.

In 2024, the hospital faced a multimillion-dollar deficit that threatened it with bankruptcy. Its board controversially chose to reduce staffing and shut down multiple programs to keep that from happening.

Dozens of residents attended the Juneau Assembly meeting on Monday night to protest the city’s plans to evict all residents of the historic downtown Telephone Hill neighborhood in less than two weeks.

The topic wasn’t on the Assembly agenda, but more than 20 residents testified at the meeting and held disapproving signs in the audience. Many people were also there to criticize the Juneau Assembly’s general spending in recent years. 

Mendenhall Valley resident Dawn Hammond called the city’s redevelopment plan for the neighborhood unacceptable. 

“I think this is a ridiculous proposal,” she said. “I think it’s offensive. I think it’s a terrible thing to do to people that have lived in this community for a very long time.”

All the people living on Telephone Hill are renters, and have been since the state took ownership of the neighborhood in the 1980s. It was originally intended to be redeveloped to build a new Capitol complex there. That didn’t pan out. 

The state transferred the land to the city in 2023. In 2024, the Assembly voted to redevelop the neighborhood and add more than 100 new housing units there in response to Juneau’s ongoing housing crunch. 

This June, the Assembly approved spending roughly $5.5 million in city dollars — pulled from a few different sources — to fund the first phase of demolition and site preparation for the area.

The total project cost is estimated at $9 million. They gave residents living there an Oct. 1 deadline to move out. That’s despite the city not having secured a developer to construct new housing there. Telephone Hill resident Paul Burke said there’s still time for the Assembly to reverse course. 

“It’s just a shame that people don’t listen to what the people have to say — the history in this town is just precious,” he said. 

The Assembly could have chosen to rescind the eviction notices sent to residents at the meeting. It requires a two-thirds vote of approval. But Assembly members did not do that. Instead, multiple members like Alicia Hughes-Skandijs shared why they stand behind their decision to evict Telephone Hill residents. 

“I love that neighborhood too, but I truly believe in my heart that to take a property that has a smaller number of houses on it and trade that for more dense housing is a right move for us, for where we are in our housing crisis,” she said.

Demolition is slated to begin in December. City officials say they hope that a developer will begin construction as soon as next summer. 

It’s officially autumn, and with the season comes more stormy weather. The National Weather Service issued a high wind warning and flood watch for Juneau Monday.

Meteorologists say wind gusts could reach 60 miles per hour. Gales are forecast to peak between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and then subside around 4 p.m. The National Weather Service advises residents to secure vessels and loose objects that could be blown around or damaged by the wind. 

Forecasters expect one to three inches of rainfall in Juneau Monday. That could cause minor flooding in low-lying areas near creeks and rivers following heavy rain over the weekend. The flood watch will last overnight, until 4 a.m. Tuesday.

Andrew Park, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Juneau, said people should pay attention to the weather and plan accordingly. 

“The weather today will impact your life, especially if you’re trying to get on the water,” he said. “We’re starting to see 50 to 60 mile an hour gusts.”

Park also explained how the air flows into the steep terrain to create persistent rainfall.

“You have this moist southwest flow, and that just continues to feed against the mountains,” he said. “So the mountains act as a source of like a lifting mechanism, and just drives showers.”

On Saturday, the City & Borough of Juneau closed Auke Lake Trail. The city reported that heavy rainfall triggered landslides in the area. City staff urge residents to stay off the trail and out of the lake until it reopens. 

Ryan O’Shaughnessy is the city’s emergency program manager. He encourages those living in landslide-prone areas to be mindful of the weather forecast. 

“If anyone who lives on a steep slope does observe any downslope movement of soils or trees — definitely the best thing to do is to get out of the area — then, once you’re safe, to call 911.”

The National Weather Service will issue updates on its website. If there is a weather-related emergency, O’Shaughnessy said the city will send text notifications through its voluntary alert system. 

Ballots are on their way from Washington state to registered voters in Juneau today for this year’s local election. Residents have until Oct. 7 to vote. 

It marks the start of the City and Borough of Juneau’s municipal election this year, which features three ballot propositions, four candidates running for three open seats on the Assembly and four candidates running for three seats on the school board.  

The city clerk’s office says residents should start receiving their ballots in their mailboxes this weekend. 

Voters will have a few ways to return their ballots once they are filled out. The city has ballot drop boxes in locations throughout the borough. Voters can also mail ballots back or go to one of the two vote centers in town.

Ballots sent in by mail need to be postmarked on or before Election Day and a first-class stamp is required. 

The five available ballot drop boxes will open Friday. They are located at City Hall, the Alaska Electric Light and Power Company office in Lemon Creek, Douglas Library, the Mendenhall Valley Public Library and the Statter Harbor Boat Launch parking area. 

The two vote centers will open on Monday. They are at City Hall and the Valley Library. 

Election Day is Tuesday, Oct. 7, but final results won’t be certified until Oct. 21.

Find the latest local election coverage at ktoo.org/elections.