Authorities recovered a body Tuesday morning under the Gold Creek overpass downtown.
Juneau police identified her as Macaria Wallace, age 51, of Kake.
Police do not suspect foul play.
Indigents often use overpass as shelter. Mariya Lovishchuk, head of The Glory Hole emergency shelter and soup kitchen, confirmed Wallace had used her organization’s services.
Flowers were left on the fence Monday overlooking the bridge.
The new owners of the Foodland IGA will be celebrating completion of their remodeling and expansion Wednesday morning.
A ribbon cutting ceremony is planned for 10 a.m.
“It’s just kind of a chance to mark the occasion because a lot of work went into it, and say thank you to some people,” says Tyler Myers, president of the Washington-based Myers Group LLC.
The former Alaskan & Proud, located in the Foodland Shopping Center, briefly closed in September 2012 and reopened under new ownership two days later. Myers Group signed a 10-year lease for the space with the Rosenberger family of Juneau, owners of the shopping center.
The grocery store has been remodeled and expanded with new flooring, lighting, refrigerator and freezer cases. The deli and salad bar, meat and produce sections have all been expanded. Former True Value hardware store owner Craig Good has relocated to the front of the building as manager of the new Ace Hardware. True North Federal Credit Union and Heritage Coffee have also set up shop inside the store.
Myers says interior and exterior signage is still on their to-do list.
A new pharmacy may open in August.
“They’re in a permitting stage with state and federal regulators on pharmacy licenses,” Myers says.
It may be awhile, however, before a liquor store opens in an adjacent space.
“It’s not been my biggest focus at this point because there’s clearly liquor stores in town,” Myers says. “Part of what I’ve been trying to do is come up with some areas that maybe make the store better and service the community better in a way than it is now.”
Instead, that space may become a natural food or health food store with supplements.
Myers Group owns and operates seven grocery stores, three gas and convenience stores, four hardware stores, and a couple of lube shops in the Pacific Northwest. Myers says they have a total of about 700 employees at those businesses.
Myers says they also just completed the purchase of the Super Bear Supermarket in the Mendenhall Valley.
The state Department of Transportation is moving forward with its environmental review of the Juneau Access Project. The governor’s state budget director wrote a memo last week giving the department the go-ahead to finish the document that lays out the state’s case for where the road should or shouldn’t be built.
Last December, the governor ordered DOT to stop all discretionary spending, not incur new expenses or change existing contracts. Now, the administration is allowing DOT to spend up to $900,000 of general fund money and associated federal funds to finish the supplemental environmental impact statement.
DOT spokesman Jeremy Woodrow says part of completing the environmental review is responding to public comment.
“Last fall we held a public comment period and we received about 44,000 comments. Of those comments, about 2,400 of those are unique in a way that were going to require some additional work,”
DOT has laid out 8 alternatives for improving access to Juneau. Its preferred alternative involves extending Juneau’s highway system about 50 miles north to a new ferry terminal on Lynn Canal. From there, shuttle ships would complete the link to Haines and Skagway.
The other alternatives include another road option, ferry options or no action. After completing the environmental review, the state will submit its final preferred alternative to the Federal Highway Administration; Woodrow expects it to support the state’s choice.
In the memo, budget director Pat Pitney wrote that reaching that milestone ensures the state won’t have to repay nearly $27 million in federal investments. Around the New Year, then-DOT Commissioner Pat Kemp had raised the issue and was asked to resign.
Pitney also wrote the fed’s decision is expected in January. Woodrow says it could take longer.
“We did have to shut down some of the progress on moving forward with the EIS, so therefore, right now is what we call ramping up stage, getting the contractors back on, deciding what the next logical steps are in moving forward with the EIS,” Woodrow says. “We’re definitely shooting for that January 2016, but it’s too early to tell if that’s a deadline that we can meet with the work that needs to be done.”
So far, Woodrow says about $41 million has been spent studying the Juneau Access Project.
Firefighters say they freed a young man on Monday who was pinned by a boulder near Eagle Beach.
Capital City Fire/Rescue Assistant Chief Ed Quinto says the unidentified man was conscious and alert as firefighters and EMTs worked to free his legs.
“The first team used airlift bags and wood cribbing to lift the large boulder which weighed approximately several thousand pounds off the patient legs,” Quinto says.
A second team provided medical care until a helicopter could arrive to transport the patient to Bartlett Regional Hospital.
A dozen firefighters and EMTs responded to the incident. One group traveled to the Boy Scout Camp and was taken to the scene by camp personnel. Another group loaded up medical gear on a rescue boat and launched out of Amalga Harbor.
The extent of the young man’s injuries was not immediately available.
Sunday roll over
Juneau Police are investigating an accident out the road on Sunday morning that put three people in the hospital.
Glacier Highway at about 20 Mile was closed to traffic as first responders assisted victims in the crash just before 5 a.m.
A white Ford F-250 pickup with four people went off the road and crashed, resting on its top.
Occupants of the truck say a dark colored vehicle swerved into their lane, causing the pick-up driver to swerve to the left and go off the side of the road. Then, the pickup driver corrected his steering to the right and the truck crashed.
The driver of the dark colored vehicle drove away without stopping or providing any help to the pick-up’s occupants.
Juneau Police Department officials said on Monday that at least two of the occupants were still being treated at Bartlett Regional Hospital. The extent of their injuries and their condition was not immediately available.
Juneau Police are asking anyone with information about the incident to contact them or the Juneau Crime Line.
The Juneau Police Department is looking for 32-year-old Derick Nathaniel Skultka, who has three warrants out for his arrest.
On Monday, an officer spotted Skultka’s vehicle going over the speed limit in Douglas. Lt. Kris Sell says an officer attempted a traffic stop, but was unable to detain Skultka.
“The subject drove into a residential neighborhood, he ditched the vehicle and ran between residences in a brushy area,” Sell said.
He disappeared near Nowell Avenue. Additional officers were called to the scene; however, Skultka wasn’t found.
Six hours later, he was involved in a car accident near McDonald’s and fled immediately. His passenger, the owner of the vehicle, complained of “pains” from the crash.
JPD believes Skultka may be hanging out near Switzer Village where the woman lives.
Skultka’s arrest warrants stem back to February when he failed to appear in court for charges of burglary and fourth degree assault.
JPD is asking anyone with information on Skultka’s whereabouts to call 586-0600.
The Juneau Assembly is working on amending child care permit regulations in an effort to increase child care availability in Juneau.
On Monday evening, the city’s Land and Resources committee forwarded an amendment that would change part of the land use code, allowing at-home child care facilities to take in 12 children instead of eight.
The Association for the Education of Young Children, or AEYC, provides resources and advocates quality child care in the Southeast. Coordinator Nikki Love says the organization is in full support of the amendment.
“There’s enough licensed care for 1 in 4, or 1 in 5 children, under the age of 5, so the need is really high,” Love said.
In the past few years waitlists have increased but remain at a steady rate, according to Love.
“We’d like to see a decrease in barriers to child care facilities and businesses in town since there is such a great need for child care, and changing the zoning would help open the door to potential businesses,” she said.
The amendment also provides a clear definition of child care home-facilities, requires at home providers to have sufficient parking and if state fencing requirements apply, the city may require the fence to meet neighborhood aesthetics.
If passed, the amendment would not affect any child care facilities currently operating.
The amendment is a part of a larger comprehensive plan to fix the child care crisis Juneau.
Gold Creek Child Development Director Gretchen Boone says she’s in favor of the permitting — the more childcare, the better.
Boone says the waitlist at Gold Creek has 75 children on it — the highest she’s ever seen it despite working at the facility for nearly two decades.
“Having more child care out there would benefit the entire community. There are families on our waitlist who have been on our waitlist for over a year and will probably never obtain space with us,” Boone said.
Lisa White, former owner of Little Bear Daycare, says she also had long waitlists.
“Usually by the time I would get back to some names they had long since found a place, but sometimes it would a year or two,” White said.
White cites over-regulation as the reason she closed her child care center in 2007. Nearly finished with the re-licensing process she called it quits as a child care provider in Juneau after 17 years, a profession that she cherished.
While speaking about the lack of childcare in Juneau, White got emotional. She looks forward to the situation improving for Juneau’s families.
“It’s just going to keep getting worse unless they do something about it. There are all these families — they need this, and they don’t need this years from now, they need it years ago,” White said.
The amendment was forwarded on to the full assembly, and will be considered at a future meeting.
Editor’s note: We’ve clarified the amendment’s fencing requirement.
