Recent News

A new state office building will NOT be built in Juneau any time soon.

The Parnell Administration has changed course. Instead of building a new 140-thousand square foot office building, Administration Commissioner Becky Hultberg says the Douglas Island Office Building will be renovated.

The administration was expected to announce the location of the proposed facility that would house about 500 employees from the departments of Labor, Public Safety, and some Fish and Game and Corrections employees.

But Hultberg says an analysis made possible by a $2-million legislative appropriation has led to a different conclusion.

“It enabled us to have a better understanding of the condition of the existing buildings we have,” Hultberg says. “Prior to this there were some assumptions made, some very limited work done, but really the appropriation enabled us to do the detailed work that has led us to this conclusion.”

Hultberg says an engineer’s study shows the old Douglas building is structurally sound and can be renovated for $15 to 20-million.

It does not resolve the question of the old Public Safety building, which has been considered a temporary home for the department since the 1970s. The lease for the so-called Plywood Palace, which houses the Department of Labor, expires next year. The poorly constructed building has long been a pain to the administration. Hultberg says the administration is negotiating with the building’s owner.

She says the administration will have to move public safety employees, but it’s not clear where.

Once the new Libraries, Archives and Museum complex is built – several years from now — space will be available in the State Office Building, Hultberg says.

A new capital city office complex was first proposed in 2009 at the old subport, owned by the Mental Health Trust Authority. Legislation allowing the Authority to develop office space and lease it to the state did not survive that session, but planning and design funds were granted last year.

Juneau State Representatives Cathy Munoz and Beth Kerttula carried the legislation on the first proposal.

Both say they’re disappointed, but say it’s good that a state facility will remain in downtown Douglas.

Munoz says it’s important the administration is still planning to invest in Juneau.

“Going back two or three years when we were working on the Mental Health Trust project that was a great opportunity. It’s unfortunate it didn’t get through the process then, but obviously there are new considerations today that we weren’t looking at two or three years ago,” Munoz says.

Kerttula says Juneau legislators are committed to working with the administration on a new office building.

This story will be updated with more details.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is warning local waterfowl hunters to be safe after a report of someone firing shots toward the runway at the Juneau Airport.

Area Management Biologist Ryan Scott says the hunters were allegedly not on the nearby Mendenhall Wetlands State Game Refuge.

“A couple things there,” says Scott. “One, it’s obviously not very safe to be shooting that direction. Two, during the waterfowl season, waterfowl hunters can use a shotgun to hunt ducks and geese on the refuge, but you’ve got to be on the refuge.”

Scott says the incident is under investigation. He’s not aware of any pending charges at this point.

The waterfowl hunting season stretches from mid-September to the end of the year. Since 2003, Scott says the department has required a permit to hunt on the Mendenhall refuge.

“The purpose of that permit was so that we could have some time with the hunter, explain some of the issues and concerns out there, and then provide them with the information to make sure folks make good decisions out there,” Scott says. “I would say 99.9 percent of the waterfowl hunters utilizing the refuge use very good, safe hunting practices. But it could just take a couple things and it could really reflect negatively on everybody.”

Scott says about 300 people apply for permits every year, making it one of the most popular hunts in Juneau.

Sealaska Regional Native Corporation owns about 25-thousand acres of subsurface mining rights in an area being contested by the City and Borough of Juneau and Petersburg.

The area includes Hobart Bay, where Juneau’s Native Corporation Goldbelt owns 30-thousand surface acres.

Sealaska Vice President Rick Harris says the company will follow Goldbelt’s lead in commenting on the dispute.

“We’ll support them in whatever way is necessary to achieve a result that’s best for Goldbelt’s shareholders and also our shareholders,” says Harris.

Juneau plans to file a competing petition to Petersburg’s proposed borough boundaries, which includes land previously slated for annexation to the CBJ.

So far, Goldbelt hasn’t expressed a preference for which borough, if any, the corporation’s land should be in. Earlier this month, Goldbelt Vice President Derek Duncan sent a letter to the state’s Local Boundary Commission saying it would make a statement in the near future.

Harris says sand rock and gravel are quite prevalent in Hobart Bay, and that some precious metals are nearby.

“We don’t believe that it’s on our property,” Harris says. “We think that if there’s any precious metals, they’re actually to the north of our property.”

October 26th is the deadline to submit competing petitions and opposing briefs to the state’s Local Boundary Commission on Petersburg’s proposed borough.

The CBJ Assembly plans to introduce an ordinance Monday to make its petition official.

About 5,500 Permanent Fund Dividends are being recalled.

The PFDs were sent out in error. Approximately 3,600 were deposited directly into bank accounts and 1,900 were sent out as paper checks.

PFD Division Director Deborah Bitney says employees didn’t match correct records in a new software program and dividends were paid to applicants instead of creditors.

The software is called “eGarns” and it’s being used for the first time this year.

“This affects only debts that are basically court ordered, like restitution, judgments for debts that are unpaid, things like that,” Bitney says.

It does not affect garnishments for child support, she says.

The division has requested that direct deposits be reversed and also has issued stop payment orders on the checks. Bitney says the error was discovered late Monday afternoon. While the total amount of the error isn’t available, it’s expected to be nearly $7 million.

Bitney says it’s important to get the word out about the error.

“You know, 99 percent of the dividends that went out are just fine,” she says. “This affects a very small subset of the population. We really are trying to help those people and we would like them to contact us as quickly as possible once they find out they are involved in this.”

Bitney says safeguards have been programmed into “eGarns” to prevent similar errors.

Nearly every Alaskan received $1,174 in this year’s PFD.

The Alaska Marine Highway System says the engines being used in their two fast ferries are defective and builders of the ships knew it when they delivered the ships only six years ago. But the ferries’ builders say it’s not their fault, and they shouldn’t be obligated to replace the engines when the warranty doesn’t cover it.

Judge Philip Pallenberg enters the courtroom lugging a stack of files and documents easily a foot high. He’s about to get handed a few more accordian folders that will extend that by several more inches.

“I think the state fired the opening salvo in this naval battle,” said Pallenberg. “So, I think the state should go first.”

October 7th’s skirmish in Juneau Superior Court was over the engines installed in the state’s fast ferries Fairweather and Chenega, relatively new ships with diesel-powered jet drives that push the catamarans at a nice 32-knot clip. That’s about twice the speed of the ferry system’s standard mono hulls.

State attorney Dana Burke is leading the attack for the ferry system. But he runs out of time during oral arguments to carefully cite excerpts of contract documents and internal memos. Burke says manufacturers of the fast ferries knew the engines were defective, almost as soon as they were installed. He said they breached warranties that called for repairs and – if necessary – replacement of the engines. For both ships, all eight engines have been valued at $20 million.

“And we cannot wait,” said Burke. He said both the Fairweather and Chenega are in danger of being decertified from passenger service in the very near future.

Burke wants the ship and engine builders’ liability extended to the engines’ defects, especially when they admitted to using the wrong kind of coolant (that accelerated corrosion in the engines).

Burke said that MTU instructed the state to stop using Power Cool 3000 because it might degrade a layer of molybdenum in the crank case cylinder bores.

David McMahon representing Robert Derecktor Incorporated said the state was not entitled to any more rights after expiration of a standard year-and-a-half warranty.

“These two vessels have been operated on an uninterrupted basis since they went into operation,” said Burke.

But Derecktor Shipyard is only one of the parties in the state’s lawsuit. The state’s real target is MTU Friedrichshafen and MTU Detroit Diesel, the German company that built the engines and the American company that did the subsequent repairs.

Jon Dawson, who has already been prepared for a response, said they already have a potential repair of an interstitial ring that they’ve been trying to install.

“Scare mongering and hyperbole aside, the principle issue in this case involves only one component of these engines: the engine block,” said Dawson.

Dawson said there are clear factual issues at what caused the faster-than-expected deteroriation; instead of the coolant – perhaps the Alaska environment, improper maintanence by ferry crews, even excessive vibration caused by a misaligned installation by the shipyard.

“You can’t wave a wand and resolve this wear issue when you don’t know what’s causing it,” said Dawson.

Dawson also says the engine warranty was assigned to Derecktor – the general contractor, not the final buyer of the vessels, or in this case, the state ferry system. And it did not include replacement of the entire engine, beyond the engine block.

But the plantiffs always have the last word in any courtroom argument.

“Something’s wrong with these engines. They’re lemons,” said Burke. “These were defective beyond delivery and someone is responsible.”

October 7th’s hour-and-twenty minute oral arguments focused not on any factual disputes, but primarily arcane and esoteric interpretations of liability and warranty law. It will be sometime before Judge Philip Pallenberg issues an opinion.

Dr. Janice Sheufelt had no idea she could win an ultra-cycling event. After years of competing in short bike races, she just started long distance training in the last year.

“I figured, well, I’m doing all this training, it would be a good year to do an ultra – ultra meaning extra-long distance bike race,” says Sheufelt.

She found the Furnace Creek 508 on the Internet. Despite its name, the course is actually 509 miles. It starts just outside Los Angeles, and stretches through Death Valley and the Mojave Desert, before curving back to the finish line near Joshua Tree National Park. It crosses ten mountain passes and has a total elevation gain of over 35-thousand feet.

To prepare Sheufelt biked around Juneau – a lot.

“To the end of the road, and then up Eaglecrest, out Thane, out North Douglas, and then to the end of the road and back,” she says.

By the end of the summer, she figured she’d been up to Eaglecrest 56 times this year. She also did a couple 24-hour rides in Washington, where the roads aren’t as hard to come by and the weather isn’t so wet.

“I did one 16-hour overnight training ride in Juneau, but the second eight hours it just poured rain the whole time – this was in July. And that was just miserable,” says Sheufelt.

Instead of a bib number, contestants in the Furnace Creek race pick a totem, or animal, to represent them. As they go through each checkpoint, riders shout out their animal’s name, and that’s how race officials keep track of everyone. Sheufelt, who’s half-Tlingit, chose “wooshkeetaan” as her animal.

“Of course, no one knew what wooshkeetaan was, but by the end of the race everyone was just calling me the Alaska shark,” she says.

Sheufelt had no idea she was doing well in the race until the second to last checkpoint. That’s when her support team, which consisted of husband Jim, daughter Megan, and friend Peter Apathy from Sitka, told her she was in second place in the women’s field and tenth overall.

“And I was like, ‘Oh come on, really?’” she says.

Really. And at the last checkpoint, Sheufelt’s team found out she was only 15 minutes behind leader Seana Hogan, a well-known ultra-cyclist and six time winner of the Race Across America.

“They didn’t tell me that, because they wanted me to just keep riding my own race and not change anything,” she says.

Going up a hill during that last leg, Sheufelt she caught a glimpse of a rider she didn’t recognize.

“It turns out it was her [Hogan],” Sheufelt says. “And she was stopped momentarily and her crew was tightening some bolts on her bike or something. And, I rode by her and she did a big double take and yelled something at her crew, and then I knew the race was on.”

Hogan would give chase, but finish 12 minutes behind Sheufelt, who was the only solo female racer who had never competed in the Furnace Creek 508 before.

“My goal was just to finish, so I was completely shocked to win the race,” Sheufelt says.

Beating out world class competition in her first ultramarathon hasn’t gone to her head. The win qualifies Sheufelt for the Race Across America, but she says, “I definitely know I am not doing that. Because that takes a minimum of nine days, and that’s a bit much.”

The 45-year-old – who’s administrator of the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium’s Ethel Lund Medical Center – says she may do another race similar to Furnace Creek, though, including the Fireweed 400 in Southcentral Alaska.