Community

Family members and community leaders shared anecdotes of the late Walter Soboleff on Friday. Sealaska Heritage Institute and Sealaska Corp. hosted the event inside the clan house of the building named in his honor.

The Tlingit cultural and spiritual leader died in 2011 at the age of 102. Three years later, the Alaska Legislature passed a bill naming his birthday Nov. 14 as Dr. Walter Soboleff Day.

Soboleff’s son Sasha Soboleff recalled praying before each meal growing up. When no one volunteered to say the prayer, “Dad said, OK. He prayed for the governor and his cabinet by name, for the senators and representatives and their staffs by name, for all the fishermen who were on the fishing grounds and their boats and their captains by name. So the next night when there was a time to give a prayer, boy, hands went up right away.”

During the event, Sealaska transferred a portrait of Soboleff commissioned on his 95th birthday to Sealaska Heritage Institute. Sealaska CEO Anthony Mallott says it was the only individual portrait of any leader that was in the Sealaska building.

“He took the power of values, the power of kindness and the power of caring to improve people’s lives. I think the fact that we have a building like this, that we have Dr. Walter Soboleff Day in Alaska, that we have people that are willing to share their stories about him, he’s going to continue to touch people’s lives,” Mallott said.

The portrait will hang in the conference room of the Walter Soboleff Building.

There will be a reception for Dr. Walter Soboleff Day at the Tlingit-Haida Community Center on Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m.

Soboleff was known for sending handwritten letters. The Juneau-Douglas City Museum invites the public to send a note of encouragement to someone. Note cards and postage will be provided.

Juneau residents, service members and veterans paused for a few moments on Friday to remember the sailors who perished when the USS Juneau sank during the naval battle of Guadalcanal 73 years ago. A short service was held in the blowing wind and sideways rain at the USS Juneau memorial on the waterfront.

Mayor Greg Fisk read a proclamation declaring Nov. 13, 2015, as USS Juneau Remembrance Day.

Lt. Cmdr. Rich Halbig of the U.S. Navy briefly recounted the World War II battle that led to the vessel’s sinking.

All five brothers from the Sullivan family in Waterloo, Iowa, served on board the Juneau and died during the sinking. Their grief-stricken parents made speaking appearances at war plants and shipyards around the country during the war.

Jane Lindsey of Juneau-Douglas City Museum announced that they will be putting on display the silver set that was used on board the Juneau. The silver set, including a punch bowl and ladle, was typically used in an officers wardroom while entertaining dignitaries. Lindsey says Juneau community members may have raised funds for that silver set, which was kept on shore for safekeeping before the ship entered combat.

Lindsey credits the Mendenhall Valley Flying Lions for helping acquire the silver set on a 10-year loan. She hopes to put it on display at the museum on Feb. 14, the 74th anniversary of the USS Juneau’s commissioning.

The city museum already has artifacts related to the first USS Juneau, CL-52, and the third USS Juneau, LPD-10, an amphibious transport dock that was recently decommissioned.

Goldbelt Heritage Foundation is beginning a free Tlingit culture and language program at Zach Gordon Youth Center on Saturday.

Over the next five Saturdays, kids will make and paint traditional Tlingit drums, learn some language and hear stories with Paul Marks, a Tlingit language and culture specialist with Goldbelt Heritage.

The 3-hour sessions begin at 1 p.m. this Saturday.

The program is free, but limited to 15 participants age 8 and older. It’s geared toward families, and elementary and middle school students.

Register through the Zach Gordon Youth Center at 586-2635.

The crumbling Gastineau Apartments are still slated to be torn down. The Juneau Assembly voted 2-6 on Monday not to change course, after a Seattle developer presented an alternate plan.

Private Public Partnership LLC and local company, Coogan Alaska Construction, have entered into a last-minute purchasing agreement with Gastineau’s owner. But haven’t bought the building yet. The group originally intended to turn the building into affordable housing.

Construction attorney, Garth Schlemlein, said that plan changed after meeting with city officials and realizing their sense of urgency.

“And that’s why we have morphed away from the affordable housing and the time that would take to pull that together to a more right-of-tackle straightforward deal that we will know within 30 days what it’s going to take us to do what we’re planning,” Schlemlein said.

City engineer, Rorie Watt, said it would cost the city $50,000 to delay the demolition, which was already contracted to CBC Construction.

Schlemlein and his partners presented the assembly with an option to salvage Gastineau into a turn-key shell. After the rehab, the city could purchase the building. But several downtown business owners testified in opposition.

Colleen Goldrich, of Annie Kaill’s, said she’d experienced the negative effects being located next to an empty building.

“I just worry that we’ll end up in the same position that we’re in now with a nice looking shell that will then degrade and there will be no improvement, and the opportunities we have right now may go away,” Goldrich said.

The city budgeted $1.8 million for the project which it hopes to recoup from the owners, James Barrett and his mother.

Assemblymember Loren Jones said he was tired of the owners jerking him around.

“As far as I’m concerned, we proceed with the demolition order,” Jones said. “Whoever buys that property buys that demolition order. If we lose the $1.8 because it stays a hole in the ground, I guess that’s the price we pay.”

The city needs to send the notice to proceed to CBC construction for the demolition deal to be finalized.

The burned out Gastineau Apartments are supposed to be demolished in April, but a last-minute deal could restore the downtown dwelling. Three years after the fire, the owner has a purchase agreement with a Seattle developer. It’s on Monday’s Assembly agenda.

Will Muldoon lived at the Gastineau Apartments for about five years. He says the street was always bustling with activity: bars letting out after last call, the occasional smell of acetone from the nail salon below.

And he says sure, sometimes it could be uncomfortable.

“Part of living downtown is one time, I stepped out the shower and my neighbor saw me so I had to go over and say ‘I’m sorry’ to them. But it’s part of the fun of living downtown in such close quarters,” Muldoon said.

That neighbor was working at the doll museum across the street. Still, he says he loved living in Gastineau in a small one bedroom.

Muldoon paid around $950 a month for rent. He worked two jobs. The location gave him the flexibility to walk to work in the day, then come home and do information technology work at night.

“It was kinda neat,” Muldoon said. “My life was pretty localized and I liked it that way.”

Then three years ago this month, his life changed. Clanging fire alarms woke him up, but he rolled back over and went to sleep.

“The way Beck was knocking, Officer Beck was knocking, I could tell it wasn’t just like a ‘hey, let’s chat kinda thing.’ It wasn’t no ‘hello, I’m trying to sell something.’ Or anything like that,” he said.

Muldoon escaped with a pair of XTRATUFS and his dog. Even the clothes on his back had to be thrown away from smoke damage. But all of the other tenants, minus one pet cat, made it out.

Gastineau’s owner, James Barrett, repeatedly missed city deadlines for repairs or demolition. And the building caught fire again. It’s been a huge eyesore, even declared a safety concern. So the city put together a bid package for Gastineau to be torn down.

The contract was supposed to be finalized with CBC Construction at the end of last month.

“Well, the Barrett family has now relinquished control of the property to us,” said Jim Hurley, a Seattle-based consultant.

The city is holding the notice to proceed for the demolition.

Private Public Partnership LLC and a local company, Coogan Alaska Construction, want to renovate the apartments. Not tear them down. The group has entered into a purchasing agreement with the Barretts. But haven’t bought the building yet. The Barretts couldn’t be reached for comment.

“We have a plan that could involve a construction cycle that could be completed in 18 months. If we had cooperation with the city,” Hurley said.

The Assembly would first have to cancel the bid it awarded to CBC Construction.

Hurley says it’s still in the development stage, but there are tentative plans to turn the apartments back into market-rate or subsidized housing. Of course, this would take longer than just tearing it down.

“Here’s the thing, I don’t know much about the history in terms of the politics of it,” Hurley said. “What I do know is there’s not much risk for the taxpayers to listen to what we have to say.”

But he says there are risks with the demolition. The city hoped to recoup over a million dollars from the Barretts; after demolition, Hurley estimates the land is only worth about $200,000.

“We’re fresh now and can bring our vision of an alternate plan to the city. And they can have an apples-and-oranges plan to what’s on the table,” Hurley said.

For Muldoon, the fire that destroyed his apartment seems like a lifetime ago.

“My life has changed. Now I live out in the valley, I have a state job and help raising kids and all these things,” Muldoon said.

He lost most of his possessions but says he was able to bounce-back with the help of his family and community.

Seeing the twinkle in his eye when he talks about living downtown, I have to ask if he would move back into the Gastineau Apartments if it was renovated.

“I would, I would,” he said enthusiastically. “I’ve got a really nice setup in the valley right now. But it would be hard not to. I had a lot of fun living there. It had a 100-year-old history. So I’m kinda excited to see if they can do the restoration, what Gastineau 2.0 will mean.”

The assembly will be discussing that possibility with the developers.

Full disclosure, Will Muldoon is a member of KTOO’s Board of Directors.

A volunteer resident at The Glory Hole emergency shelter and soup kitchen is starting a blanket drive.

“Keeping our friends on the street warm this winter,” Logan Henkins said.

He’s got a specific subset of needy folks in mind to give blankets to.

“Pretty much only a select few, the ones that are sleeping outside, in doorways, on benches are who I’m aiming for,” he said. “It’s mostly people that are intoxicated or been eighty-sixed from The Glory Hole.”

Drugs and alcohol are forbidden at the shelter.

Henkins said donated blankets will be accepted during the shelter’s regular hours. He said donors can also arrange pickups by calling 586-4159.