Juneau

The Juneau RollerGirls are training a coed junior league this fall. Roller derby is characterized by fast-paced bouts, slick moves and cheeky alter egos. Helmets are essential. But the raucous sport can be adapted for kids.

At the Zach Gordon Youth Center, Kim Champney is skating backwards. She holds the hands of a young skater to help with the girl’s balance and demonstrates the utility of a wrist guard.

“I can slam my hand down and it doesn’t hurt at all,” she says.

On Juneau’s adult roller derby team, Champney is what you call a jammer.

“My derby name is Kimbustible.”

During bouts, she tries to lap the opposing team’s blockers. A blocker’s job is to stop the jammer from getting through.

“And you can do this by knocking them over, getting in front of them or physically moving people around the track,” Champney said.

The 12 to 17  year-old coed league will start out a little differently. There won’t be any physical contact to begin with. Players will have to work their way up to that. However, Champney admits roller derby may have an image to overcome.

“Back in the 70s, it was like the World Wrestling Federation or whatever. It was very staged and dramatic,” she said. “People were knocking people over. Even the movie Whip It that’s been part of the resurgence — overemphasized the violent part in it.”

Initially, she says kids will learn the basics: how to skate, how to stop and how to go backwards. By the time they’re doing more advanced moves, like blocking, they’ll have a strong foundation.

“I’ve played for five years and I’ve never had a critical injury. My daughter is going to be a part of roller derby, and I feel like there’s been a big safety aspect,” Champney said.

Just a few weeks ago, an international derby association announced it was trying to unite junior leagues. Adult teams have already cropped up in nearly every Southeast community and Champney thinks more kids’ leagues are to follow.

The Juneau roller girls were inspired last spring after watching kids from Seattle play. They were leaps and bounds ahead of the adults, and Champney says she’s lucky she’s playing now.

“Because when there’s established junior programs, we won’t be able to compete.”

Stephanie Kruse rolls around on skates with a toddler on her hip. Her derby name is Titan Young.

“And Luke’s roller derby name is Sling Shot. His mom is Catapult Kim. So he’s Sling Shot,” she said.

Kruse says she’s excited to teach. Derby is the first organized sport she’s played and it’s taught her a lot. One of the takeaways she thinks could be valuable for kids is body confidence.

“It doesn’t matter how tall you are, short you are, big you are. Everyone has a secret roller derby super power and figuring it out and unlocking it,” Kruse said.

As the recruiting begins, Kim Champney says the kids can put their own spin on things–coming up with derby names and a fierce team logo.

“We want to make it kid led. So any youth who’s interested in getting in on the ground floor can really help us shape that,” she said.

Petersburg’s Rok’n Blockers might have some new competition.

Alaska jazz composer and trumpet player Yngvil Vatn Guttu kicks off the Alaska Original concert series Thursday @360. She’ll be joined by the Rob Cohen Trio, which includes Juneau’s Rob Cohen on piano, Alexei Painter on bass and Clay Good on drums. Guttu says she is excited to play with the guys.

“We agreed that we’re going to really go for it. We’re going to be fearless but not stupid, as in the sense we’ll just want to play together,” Guttu said.

Guttu was born in Oslo, Norway, but has lived in New York, London and Toronto, and now calls Homer and Anchorage home. She says her jazz has been affected by all of these places. Drummer Clay Good says collaborating with Guttu and her eclectic style has been fun.

“Here we are faced with some really great compositions — really challenging compositions that we’ve had a chance to run through before Yngvil got to town, but mostly just to scare ourselves by trying to play them. Her pieces are formidable and it’s really exciting to be given the opportunity to take a stab at them for sure,” Good said.

Not only will the concert be a collaboration with the band, Guttu says the audience is in on it too.

“I think this is a cool chance for everybody to get together and try to experience being in the same space together when we make music. And that’s what we need an audience for — we need people to come and give us nonverbal feedback. When you listen you’re doing a lot more than you think. You know, we who play music we feel how our music strikes you and it’s a kind of nonverbal feedback,” Guttu said.

Listen to Guttu’s full Juneau Afternoon interview with examples of her music here:

The concert begins at 7 p.m. Thursday in the @360 studio at KTOO.
Tickets at KTOO.org.

Two duck hunters found a body around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday in the Mendenhall Wetlands. Juneau Police recovered it near Sunny Point.

“It appears as though the man had been in the water and exposed to the elements for a minimum of several days, maybe even longer. So the condition of the man was really poor, which really limited the ability to do some identification,” said Lt. David Campbell, a Juneau Police spokesman.

Juneau police could not determine the man’s race or age, but he appeared to be middle-aged.

“He had no identification, but there are some items that make us think we might know who this gentleman is,” Campbell said.

Campbell can’t disclose what the items are because it’s an open investigation. He said the man was wearing “normal” clothing. Police don’t think he’s a crewman on a ship or is linked to any crime. Campbell said he doesn’t fit any missing person reports from the last 30 days. He said it’s possible the man was homeless.

The cause of death is unknown, but Campbell said it likely isn’t connected to the duck hunting season.

“Something caused this gentleman to pass away. He was in the channel. The channel brought him to the area where he was ultimately recovered and the fact that it was opening day and the hunters happened to be on the area is how he was discovered,” he said.

The man’s body was sent to the state medical examiner in Anchorage.

Anyone with information on the man’s identity is encouraged to contact Juneau police, 586-0600.

Final action has been postponed for a proposed charter elementary school focusing on science, technology, engineering and math. The Juneau School Board heard about potential legal issues and opposition from within the district in a meeting Tuesday.

Summit STEM School hopes to serve students who are economically disadvantaged — they’d make up 50 to 75 percent of the student population. At least, that’s the goal.

To do this, the charter school organizers propose heavy recruiting and partnering with organizations that cater to low-income families. They’d also use the district’s current placement process for optional programs, which gives preference to low-income students. That may be illegal, according to City Attorney Amy Mead.

“Weighted lotteries are not allowed for charter schools under Alaska law,” Mead said.

Mead said they’re allowed for optional programs within the district like the Montessori Borealis and the Tlingit Culture, Language and Literacy program, but not for charter schools.

Applications for the Summit STEM School’s 80 spots would be open to all students in the district.

“When there are too many applicants for the spots available, federal law and state law require a lottery to fill the spots,” Mead said. “State law is very specific about how you fill spots for a charter school and it’s by random drawing.”

School board member Barbara Thurston said the charter school can’t guarantee the makeup of the student body because the organizers have no control over it.

“They have control to the extent that they can do really good outreach among certain communities, but they can’t control who else puts their name in the applicant pool,” Thurston said. “If they get a great number of applicants from low-income kids, but they get three times as many applicants from high-income kids, that’s just the way to works out.”

Mead said there were other problems with the charter school application, like potential issues with the collective bargaining agreement, transportation and its contract with the district.

The school board also heard opposition to the proposed charter school during public comment.

Lori Hoover is principal of Auke Bay Elementary School. Five of her current teachers want to work at the charter school.

“They are incredible teachers who work and do incredible things with kids every day, and I’m not saying anything these teachers don’t know, but I’m not in favor of the charter school. I’m just not in favor of it. I don’t believe that Juneau is big enough for another charter school and the impact that [it] has on all the other schools and all the other programs that are currently in place,” Hoover said.

Every student in Juneau, she said, should have access to the concepts brought forward by the charter school, like project-based learning and the focus on STEM.

“Any one of the teachers in my building could say, ‘I want to do a STEM-integrated unit. How do I go about doing this?’ We have lots of resources in the building [and] in the community that allow for that to happen. I think we need to see that, not pull apart schools or go into other schools, but work the best we can for the kids in the system,” Hoover said.

Amy Jo Meiners is a parent and an extended learning teacher at Auke Bay and Riverbend Elementary schools. She opposes the charter school. Instead, she wants to the board to “empower our neighborhood schools.”

“I would love to see this be Riverbend. Let us adjust our hours. Let us meet the needs of our kids,” Meiners said.

Nancy Norman is one of the Summit STEM School organizers. She’s a former teacher, has won national teaching awards and is an education consultant. She agrees that all Juneau students should have an opportunity for the kind of education they’re proposing. She said the rest of the district can learn from their school being a model.

“One of the things is, even if the charter school isn’t approved, it has at least sparked a conversation. I’m not convinced the conversation will get results. I am convinced that if they approve the charter school that we will get results,” Norman said.

Norman plans on working with the superintendent, district staff and the city attorney to get the legal issues resolved.

The next regular school board meeting is scheduled for Oct. 20, at which point the school board could have up to three newly elected members.

The Silverbow Bakery in downtown Juneau is closing. For 18 years, the eatery has been a popular gathering spot for locals and visitors. It’s known for its cookies, soups and sandwiches and, of course, its bagels.

Nicky Love, 30, is a longtime Silverbow Bakery customer. She’s been coming here for most of her life.

“Silverbow is definitely something I think of when I’ve been away and think about home,” Love said.

You can find Love at Silverbow two to three times a week. On this day, she’s seated at a corner table, typing on a tablet. Several others in the dining area are doing the same.

“I’ve been a fan of the breakfast bagel with sausage and egg and cheese and it’s huge and messy and filling. I think I’ve had that almost every time I come here,” Love said.

Love has memories of getting lunch here as a high schooler. As an adult, “I can come here with my kids now and they have somewhere fun to play. It’s kid-friendly environment.”

Love considers Silverbow an integral part of Juneau’s fabric. She’s in shock that it’s closing.

“It’s taken a minute to sink in. I’m going to be really sad to see it go,” Love said.

Silverbow owner and operator Jill Ramiel says she’s heard similar sentiments from other customers.

“It has been fantastic how many people have come out and been emotionally distraught about it. And I was like, ‘Wow, I had no idea that bagels had such an impact on people.’ Or people say, ‘My kids grew up here,’ and then I say, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s been way too long. I’ve been doing this too long,'” Ramiel said.

Ramiel is originally from New York and went to school in Seattle to study architecture. She worked in Juneau the summer of 1996. She says Juneau was missing a place to grab a quick lunch.

“And a bagel place was what I grew up with. You eat bagels every day after school. It seemed like the most normal thing to me. I didn’t realize it wasn’t the most normal thing for everyone in Juneau at that time,” Ramiel said.

Ramiel bought a historic building on Second Street and renovated it. The bakery opened in June 1997.

Over the years, the Silverbow has hosted art exhibits, Alaska Folk Fest singers, movie showings and World Cup events. Ramiel and her husband Ken Alper also operate the attached Silverbow Inn.

“We still own this building and we still live above it and we’re still raising three kids in this community and we still run an 11-room hotel, so we have no plans to leave,” Ramiel said.

Ramiel is putting her energy into another business venture, Juneau Legacy Properties. She and her business partners want to transform a historic Juneau building, like she did.

“When I look back, that’s really what I liked the most was taking something that maybe is dilapidated or maybe it’s underutilized and making it fresher and newer and having new energy put into it,” Ramiel said. “And so we’ve been looking for a building to buy and I would love to add more hotel rooms, or apartments and residences. There’s a lot of options.”

Ramiel is going to miss being a part of people’s everyday lives. But she won’t miss the long, endless hours.

“Because our operation functions 24 hours a day, my bakers work all night long and things go wrong all the time. So I’m looking forward to one solid night of sleep,” Ramiel said.

While the Silverbow Bakery is closing, what it’s most known for isn’t going away. The business taking over promises to carry on the bagel tradition.

This past weekend, a Juneau Preparedness Expo gave the public a variety of information on how to cope in an emergency. One lecture more relevant than ever was on mudslides and landslides–just weeks after Sitka’s deadly disaster.

Joel Curtis from the National Weather Service told a small but captive audience about the mechanics of a slide.

He’s witnessed the damage firsthand. A couple of weeks ago he was on an ordinary business trip in Sitka, where he had been helping out with a diesel spill.

“And I get another message. Could you please come to the firehall immediately. One of the things we had talked about in the forecast the day before was some heavy rain combined with some wind,” he said.

Curtis rushed to the fire station and that’s when they told him.

“‘Joel, we need you to be the incident meteorologist on this. We just had a mudslide and three people are missing.’ It was terribly emotional, at least to me.”

The mudslide claimed the lives of three people. An intensive search uncovered the bodies of brothers Elmer and Ulises Diaz, who had been painting a house in the area. It took longer to find the third person: building inspector, William Stortz.

For Curtis, that really hit home.

“Knowing that this much beloved individual was missing was really, really tough,” he said. “But at the same time you just have to set that aside and go to work and do the things that you do to contribute to the recovery operation.”

Curtis helped by monitoring the weather, and Stortz’s body was located before more rain fell.

He says there are some differences between the conditions in Sitka and Juneau. For instance, Sitka gets the brunt of oceanic weather. Juneau has taller mountains to the East. But could the same thing happen here? 

Tom Mattice, the city’s emergency coordinator, said it already has. One of Juneau’s most destructive slides occurred in 1936, covering South Franklin Street and killing 15.

Although there’s little anyone can do to prevent it, Mattice said there are steps people can take to protect themselves–like have an evacuation route. Five years ago, Centennial Hall was used as a safe space when a slide hit Gastineau Avenue.

“If you live in an area that’s a mass wasting zone, an avalanche zone, a mudslide zone. On days with high wind, on days on high precip, it’s a good idea to go somewhere else,” Mattice said.

Joel Curtis agrees. He said since Southeast is a temperate rainforest, landslides are inevitable.

“They’re hazards and they’re big and they’re natural and there’s a lot of force in them. I think being prepared is the answer.”

Curtis says for him, that’s having an emergency bag packed and being able to evacuate with his dog and cat.