Juneau

Firefighters responded to a commercial structure fire near the airport Tuesday morning.

The incident at the Alcan Electrical and Engineering building at 8415 Airport Blvd. was caused by a welder’s torch used on a boat inside the structure.

Assistant Fire Chief Ed Quinto said hot slag from the torch dropped onto combustible material inside a confined space on the boat’s deck.

Quinto said the fire grew too fast for the welder to put it out himself, but he was able to close a large garage door which prevented the fire from spreading to other nearby structures.

Firefighters arrived to find flames and heavy dark smoke inside the building.

Quinto said losses were estimated at $750,000, but the building was insured. No one was reported injured.

“Capital City Fire/Rescue would like to remind people of the importance of having a fire extinguisher, on how to use it, and make sure it’s in working condition,” Quinto said.

Roy Peratrovich Jr. says he never had any intentions of becoming a bridge designer. He just sort of fell into the profession.

“By doing other things that civil engineers don’t do: digging ditches, working in construction, and just doing some miserable jobs,” Peratrovich says. “And I said ‘I don’t want to be doing this all the time.’”

Peratrovich, a designer of the original Brotherhood Bridge that was completed in 1965, was in Juneau for last weekend’s dedication of the new Brotherhood Bridge. It’s the fifth bridge for the Glacier Highway crossing at Mendenhall River and the second bridge honoring the Alaska Native Brotherhood, the organization created in 1912 that advocated for Alaska Native civil rights.

After graduating from the University of Washington in 1957, Peratrovich says he was newly married and needed a job. He was hired by the City of Seattle largely because he got an ‘A’ in a bridge design class.

“At that time, there were no overpasses, no freeway systems, and we got involved in designing one of the first interchanges, separated interchanges,” Peratrovich says. “There’s a lot of firsts that we worked on down there. I found I had a natural leaning toward that. I just loved it. Bridge design became my thing.”

Peratrovich, who says he is the first Alaska Native to be registered as a professional civil engineer, later returned to Alaska shortly after statehood.

Peratrovich gets a lot of recognition for designing the original Brotherhood Bridge, but he credits his boss, chief bridge engineer Charlie Smith, with coming up with the idea.

“He learned of my Tlingit background and I kind of told him – and this is talking to him in 1962 – 50 years ago ANB was formed,” Peratrovich says. “Later on, he came back to me and he said, ‘We need to do something to celebrate that, for the ANB. Maybe we should do something with the bridge.’ At that time, it was called the Mendenhall River Bridge, bridge number 737.”

The Brotherhood Bridge symbolized the bridging of the gap between Native and non-Native Alaskans, and the project allowed Peratrovich to incorporate his first love, art, into his profession.

Peratrovich says he and Smith figured out a way to make the bridge unique and distinctive, and also honor ANB by installing art in the bridge railings.

Peratrovich remembers being inspired by a small medallion that he borrowed.

“Kind of a dollar, a bronze dollar that was made with that medallion picture on it, only a lot cruder,” Peratrovich says.

He enlarged the design so that it was 2 feet in diameter and redid it with the ovoids and other formlines seen in Northwest Coast art. Eagle and Raven, representing Tlingit moieties, face each other and both are standing on a rock that represents ANB.

Peratrovich says bridge superintendent and silversmith artist Tom Paddock carved the design into a plank of yellow cedar. At Seidelhuber Iron & Bronze Works of Seattle, the wood was pressed into oiled sand. Aluminum was poured into the sand to create a master mold for the bronze casting.

Peratrovich remembers the original medallion installation: “I think I used a stainless steel bolt in that thing and left a big enough gap in here so there wouldn’t be any contact between this and the metal. Bronze and steel will react to one another. You’ll end up eating away the bronze. Electrolysis.”

Peratrovich says three additional medallions were made. He gifted the first one to the Sitka ANB camp, where it started. A second medallion was loaned to his dad, and it eventually made its way to the ANB camps in Anchorage and then Ketchikan.

Peratrovich says he eventually got one to keep himself.

Roy Peratrovich Jr. is the son of Alaska Native civil rights leader Elizabeth Peratrovich. Among those attending the dedication of the original Brotherhood Bridge was his dad, Roy Peratrovich Sr. who represented the Alaska office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and his uncle, Frank Peratrovich, a state senator from Klawock.

The 10 medallions from the old bridge were recovered, restored and installed on the upstream pedestrian railing of the new Brotherhood Bridge. Pedestrians can see large concrete replicas of the medallions that have been mounted on the side of the bridge abutments.

The John O’Connell Memorial Bridge in Sitka — considered as the first cable-stayed vehicular bridge in the country — and the West Seattle Bridge were among the other projects that Peratrovich says he worked on.

After leaving state service, Peratrovich and a friend created the consulting and design firm Peratrovich & Nottingham, later called Peratrovich, Nottingham and Drage, and then PND Engineers, Inc.

“It’s been an interesting career,” Peratrovich says. “Then after I retired, I took up art. So, I did a lot of bronze.”

Now 81 years old, Peratrovich creates art in his studio in Gig Harbor, Washington. His 10-foot bronze sculpture, Flight of the Raven, located at Fourth and E streets in Anchorage, was created to honor his parents and tells the story of how Raven brought light to the world. He currently creates bronze sculpture, mostly smaller pieces, with the lost wax casting method.

“Sharing Our Knowledge: A Conference of Tlingit Tribes and Clans” starts Thursday at 8:30 a.m. at Centennial Hall in Juneau. About 400 people are expected to attend.

The clan conference is a gathering of elders and academics, tradition bearers and students. The concept of the event, which started in 1993, came from the late Tlingit scholar Andrew Hope III.

“In many ways there was a power imbalance where our stories were being told, our culture was being talked about, our people were being talked about, and the people had very little control over that. They had very little way to exercise their voice and to share who they really are. And so it was the idea that we come together as equals,” Hope’s son, Ishmael Hope, said.

The first clan conference was in Haines and Klukwan and the event continued taking place around Southeast Alaska through 1997. It was revived in 2007 and now takes place every two years.

Hope is looking forward to hearing from the elders.

“Our elders have a vast library of knowledge, things to share, and we still have our elders. Sometimes people talk so much about cultural loss, how much is not there, but I think it’s a gift with the elders that we have, and what they’ll present,” Hope said.

The clan conference includes three days of presentations and seminars. The roughly 40 sessions range in topics from art to ecology. Plenary sessions take place Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings.

“The conference theme – Haa Saax’ú, Haa Latseení, Our Names, Our Strength – that theme will be illuminated by Norma Shorty who’ll be talking about finding our names. Friday morning, Tom Thornton and Harold Martin will be talking about place names. And Saturday morning, there will be an author’s panel,” said linguist Alice Taff, one of the event organizers.

The conference’s all-day events include a weaving exhibit, a Native Arts market, a viewing of photos from the Cyril George collection and a chance to listen to Alaska Native educational stories through “StoryCorps @ your library.”

Beth Weigel with Juneau Public Libraries says the listening booth will feature excerpts from interviews recorded in Juneau, Haines and Klukwan. Clan conference attendees can also record their own stories alone or with a friend or family member.

“It’s a great format for passing down stories through the generations and telling people about experiences that they’ve lived and they want to share and make sure that that voice stays alive, the sound of that voice as well as the stories from that person,” said Weigel.

The clan conference will also feature special events honoring the late Walter Porter, the late Richard Dauenhauer and a reading of indigenous literature at the Governor’s Mansion.

A zoning ordinance that allows growing commercial marijuana in low-density neighborhoods is heading back to the Juneau Assembly for public testimony.

It allows marijuana cultivation in D-1 residential areas, zoned for one house per acre.

Rural reserve areas would be zoned for pot cultivation, manufacturing and retail. That’s basically everything off of the road system, plus parts of North Douglas and out the road.

On Monday, a couple of members from the public weighed in at a worksession meeting. James Barrett, who’s interested in marijuana business, said the more the market is restricted, the less opportunity there is for economic growth.

“So  I feel like maybe there’s some things we can do. Maybe we can take some risks. Maybe we say, ‘Hey, let’s give it a try,’” he said. “Let’s let the cannabis people, the responsible ones, give them a shot. Maybe they can do a little part for our economy.”

Barrett said it was also a way the city could attract young entrepreneurs.

But for Marjorie Menzi the issue hit close to home. Menzi lives on Thane Road in a D1 area. She said she was concerned about the pungent smell and glare from greenhouse grow lights.

“We should not be discriminated against because we have lower density or we’re outside the urban service area. We have people with children living in our areas,” Menzi said.

The state is proposing a 500-foot buffer around schools, day cares and childcare facilities.

Assemblymember Karen Crane agreed with Menzi’s points. She said the idea that the assembly treats neighborhoods differently is accurate, and the problem wasn’t going to go away.

“As we have more and more development outside the urban service area, we are going to come up against this area more and more and I think it’s one we need to take a look at,” Crane said.

Crane attempted to get the ordinance sent back to city planners, but the motion failed. The city is trying to figure out zoning before a moratorium expires at the end of the year. After that, pot entrepreneurs will be able to apply for conditional use permits.

The public will get another to chance testify at the next assembly meeting Nov. 9.

Plans for a whale park were suspended recently after contractor bids came in millions of dollars over budget. Now a new project called the Juneau Ocean Center wants to offer the whale a different home and provide a hub for marine science.

The Juneau Ocean Center could be a space to hear lectures on marine mammals and climate change, relax and eat lunch or take in an IMAX movie on whales.

In the design plans, the glossy 7,000-square-foot building overlooks the Gastineau Channel from Egan Drive.

“The front is two stories of windows looking out at the channel and roof is actually a sod roof, a green roof rather, that’s a park,” said Linda Nicklin. She’s one of the organizers for the $12 million project proposed on Alaska Mental Health Trust land.

The center will be open year-round and geared toward “citizen scientists” and tourists.

“We’re going to have an electric powered boat … (to bring) people in the summer to the cruise ship piers so that we’re reducing congestion and bus traffic in downtown,” she said

Not too far away from Nicklin’s proposed center is the future site of Bridge Park. The park recently hit a development snag. The contractor bids came back way over budget — more than 25 percent over the city engineer’s estimate.

That park, near the Douglas Bridge, is supposed to be the home to a lifesize bronze whale statue. Bids are slated to go back out, but Nicklin says the ocean center might be a better spot for the whale.

“The sculpture and the ocean center are a great pairing. I think that both would benefit for being in the same location,” she said.

Nicklin and other organizers presented the plan to the Juneau Assembly Monday.

Assemblymember Mary Becker asked why the ocean center couldn’t be built at Bridge Park, where the permitting is already complete. Organizer Bob Janes said it comes down to location.

“I’ve looked at that property right on the edge of the water, looked down the channel,” Janes said. “Unfortunately it does not have all the stuff and that’s why we’re not interested in that property. And I think that will be a failure with the whale placed down there as well.”

Organizers hope to fund the ocean center with a national campaign kicking off in the spring, when the humpback whale comes off the endangered species list. Cruise ships passenger fees could supply another source of funding.

As for the whale statue, they say they want to move forward with or without it.