Recent News

The Juneau Airport’s two-and-a-half-year terminal renovation project is coming to a close – a year later than expected and more than a million dollars over the original price tag.

Airport Architect Catherine Fritz says all that’s left to do is to go through the final punch list and pay McGraw Custom Construction the final 90-thousand dollars of its contract.

The work ended up costing just under 11.2-million dollars, up from the original estimate of 10.1-million. Fritz says unforeseen conditions exposed during construction and design errors contributed to the increase. But the airport also requested additional work not included in the original plans. For example, renovation of the departure lounge.

“Because of the timeliness and the integral nature of other work in the departure lounge that was in the contract, we were able to use existing contractor and subcontractors to accomplish work that wasn’t originally in the scope,” says Fritz.

She says McGraw was able to utilize surplus materials, saving money on the departure lounge work.

Renovations began in May 2009 and included adding about 10-thousand square feet to the terminal building, modernizing the baggage claim area, and a new down escalator for passengers arriving at the airport. Fritz says a geothermal heat pump system installed during construction has already reduced operating costs.

“The energy efficiency improvements were significant, but we also modernized a lot of our facility for the convenience and expectation of travelers,” she says.

The City and Borough of Juneau owns the airport, so about half of the project was paid for with local sales tax revenue. The rest came from state and federal grants.

Prosecutors have filed their response motions in a case centering on three Arksansas teenagers accused of murdering a young Juneau man, but it’s unclear when the judge will consider the motions or next hold a hearing in the case.

16-year old Timothy Tyler Norwood, 16-year old Clinton Lavon Ross, and 17-year old Richard Shelby Whybark have each been charged with second degree murder. They’re accused of beating 19-year old Kevin Thornton to death in July in the Malvern area.

Attorneys for the boys say the cases should be split up and proceedings should either continue in juvenile court or be dismissed.

In series of responses filed late Monday, deputy Hot Spring County prosecuting attorney Richard Garrett argued against severing the cases between the three remaining defendants. He points to Arkansas state rules governing severance, such as whether there are conflicting defenses or antagonistic defendants, or whether the evidence favors one defendent more than another. A new standard is whether the judge or jury may be unable to distinquish the evidence between each offense and defendant. Garrett believes that the case does not meet those rules.

In another set of duplicated response motions, Garrett also argued against dismissal or transfer of the teenagers to juvenile court and maintained that their prosecution is still constitutional under Arkansas law. In part, he argues that prosecution of the three teenagers as adults is still valid because of the seriousness of the alleged crime, its aggressive or violent nature against a person, and the culpability of the defendant.

Hot Spring County court officials say the next hearing in the case has not been scheduled yet.

There was a fourth boy, a 14-year old, initially reported as allegedly involved in the encounter, but prosecutors have dropped charges against him.

Over the next two weeks, City and Borough of Juneau Engineering Director Rorie Watt will hold a series of informational meetings on the AJ Mine.

Starting tomorrow (Thursday), four sessions will be held to talk about the history of the old mine and the city’s current consideration of reopening it. Then, a week from tomorrow (October 20th), Watt will host the first of two sessions described as an open discussion about the city’s water system study. The AJ ore body is located in Last Chance Basin, Juneau’s main source of drinking water.

On Monday, Watt told the CBJ Assembly Committee of the Whole that the meetings are designed to bring the public up to speed before the drinking water study gets underway.

“The intention is, if they’re new they can come to an introductory session and then come to a water session, or if they’ve been following it all along, come to a water session,” says Watt. “But just trying to open the doors and get as much input as possible.”

The city and borough owns two-thirds of the old AJ Mine and Alaska Electric Light and Power owns the rest.

Earlier this year, a committee appointed by Mayor Bruce Botelho produced a report that attempted to define under what circumstances, if any, the city should promote development of the mine. In August, the assembly created a 250-thousand dollar AJ Mine Capital Project Fund to pay for the water study and other work surrounding the effort.

All of the upcoming meetings will be held in the CBJ Engineering Conference Room on the 3rd floor of the Marine View Building. See the full schedule below:

Introduction to the AJ Mine:
October 13th – 12:00 noon
October 13th – 5:00 p.m.
October 19th – 12:00 noon
October 19th – 5:00 p.m.

AJ Mine Related Water Study:
October 20th – 5:00 p.m.
October 26th – 12:00 noon

 

Former Alaska Supreme Court Chief Justice and retired federal appeals judge Robert Boochever has died in Southern California.

A spokesman for the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says Boochever died in his Pasadena home Sunday of natural causes at the age of 94.

Boochever was born in New York, graduated from Cornell University in 1939, and obtained his law degree from Cornell University Law School in 1941. His resume lists being honorably discharged at the rank of Captain from the U.S. Army in 1945. He almost immediately began working as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Juneau, and then entered into private practice in the firm of Faulker, Banfield, Boochever & Doogan for 25 years before being installed as associate justice on the Alaska Supreme Court in 1972.

Boochever’s community activities while in Juneau included as chairman, president, or director of various community and civic groups ranging from the Juneau Chamber of Commerce, Juneau Planning Commission, Alaska and Juneau Bar Associations, Alaska Judicial Council, Territory of Alaska Development Board, two local banks, Boy Scout Council, Salvation Army, Red Cross, and St. Ann’s Hospital Board.

Boochever had actually applied to be one of the first justices of the fledgling Alaska Supreme Court in 1959. But he wasn’t named to the bench until picked by Governor Bill Egan in December 1971. Boochever served on the Alaska Supreme Court — including a stint as chief justice — until President Jimmy Carter appointed him to the San Francisco-based federal appeals court in 1980.

Boochever semi-retired in 1986 and began hearing a reduced case load. He did not hear any cases in recent years.

Boochever’s wife died in 1999. He is survived by four children and 11 grandchildren, including Olympic silver-medalist skier Hilary Lindh.

Alaska Supreme Court Justice Craig Stowers talks with KTOO about his experience working as a law clerk for Judge Robert Boochever

No one was reported hurt and no explosives were found after a threatening note was found on a postal box at the entrance to the Forest Edge condominums, near Lawson Creek on Douglas Island.

Juneau Police Sargeant Scott Erickson says a condo resident discovered the note on the postal box drop slot when they got home Monday afternoon. Erickson says the note will be processed as evidence.

Prior to opening the box, Erickson says it was also x-rayed to determine if there was anything was inside.

Douglas Highway was briefly closed to traffic as the Juneau Police Department’s fully-suited Explosive Ordnance Technician accessed the postal box. The condomonium complex driveway — Forest Edge Access Road — remained closed during the entire incident.

Firefighters were also dispatched to the scene as a precaution.

Erickson says they were called out before four o’clock Monday afternoon and the all-clear was issued shortly after 6:30 p.m.

The trial of a Hoonah man accused of shooting and killing two police officers has been officially moved until the end of January.

The judge in the case earlier wanted another opinion on whether John Marvin, Jr. is competent to stand trial, and he had already signaled his intention to postpone trial in case. It was previously scheduled to start next Monday, October 17.

After a hearing last month, Sitka Superior Court Judge David George said he wanted an additional opinion on Marvin’s competency. But his selected psychologist won’t be able to do an evaluation until later this month at the earliest.

A new competency hearing has been set for January 6, just a few weeks before the start of trial on January 30, 2012.

Marvin, now 46-years old, is being charged with murder and weapons misconduct in connection with the shooting of Hoonah officers Tony Wallace and Matt Tokuoka. The incident on August 28th of last year allegedly included Marvin holding officers at bay and refusing to surrender until a day after the shooting.