Community

The U.S. Forest Service wants your input on improving three recreation sites in Juneau.

Public comment on projects at the Lena Beach Recreation Area, the West Glacier Spur Road and Treadwell Ditch Trail are due in a week.

Lena Beach improvements include rebuilding five shelters, upgrading outhouses, paving the road and making it one-way, and improving the fish passage up Picnic Creek.

Ed Grossman is the recreation manager for the Juneau Ranger District. He says the shelters at Lena Beach were built in the 1950s. Besides routine maintenance and repairs, the Forest Service has not done any major improvements in a long time.

“We consider it a very tired, old recreation site and there’s been no significant enhancements there in 20 years, at least,” Grossman says.

The Forest Service also wants to implement volunteers who live at the site, which Grossman hopes will reduce ongoing issues that occur at Lena Beach.

“Drug dealing, vandalism of shelters, burning of pallets which are not allowed there, dumping litter on the beach, dumping garbage, televisions, vehicles off the road – you name it and it probably happens there. Many people aren’t aware of it because it happens well after dark and we clean it up,” Grossman says.

On the West Glacier Spur Road, the Forest Service plans to extend the bike and pedestrian trail a half mile. Grossman says up to 30,000 tourists participate in activities, like bicycle and kayak tours, off the Spur Road.

“And what’s happening is all these people are pouring out into the roadway near the campground along with all the buses and vans and other vehicles servicing the industry, plus the locals,” Grossman says.

The Forest Service also wants to hear from the public on various improvements to the Treadwell Ditch Trail, including hardening the section above the Bonnie Brae subdivision.

Money for the projects comes from the Federal Lands Access Program through the Federal Highway Administration, with matching funds from the Forest Service.

Construction is expected to begin in 2015 and last up to two years.

Public comments are due April 18.

The 40^th annual Alaska Folk Festival is now in its fifth day. This year’s dance band, the Gallus Brothers, will play tonight at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center. Here’s an audio postcard about the band.

The church still smells a bit smoky, but thanks to members, Cub Scouts and the Boy Scouts, the result of a fire at Chapel by the Lake has been mostly cleaned up.

“It could have been much, much, much worse,” says the Rev. Matt Royston.

He’s thankful the fire didn’t spread beyond the pulpit and a liturgical cloth. The pulpit was built by church members Elwood Reddekopp and Martin Johnson in the early 1970s for the main sanctuary.

Damage is estimated between $3,000 and $5,000. Royston says much of that cost will be cleanup.

“We sponsor the Boy Scout Troop 6 and Cub Scout Pack 6 here at the church and they showed up in force to help us clean up the sanctuary.  It was just wonderful that they did that,” he says.

Royston credits a Goldbelt Security officer for finding the fire at the Auke Lake church.  About 3 a.m. Tuesday, he saw lights on and entered the building. The heavy smell of smoke led him to the sanctuary and the smoldering pulpit. He called the fire department and put out the fire with an extinguisher.

Then he went next door to the parsonage and woke up Royston. Neither the family nor their dogs had heard anything. No fire alarm went off and the smoke did not reach the detectors in the high-ceilinged sanctuary.

“The fire appeared to be burning itself out.  It didn’t get hot enough to consume the pulpit,” Royston says.

Fire Marshal Dan Jager says the fire is suspicious, because investigators have not been able to find a heat source, or where the fire started. But he says it’s too early to call it arson.

“When you label it arson that’s a very specific case, that’s a very specific crime, and we don’t have anything right now saying absolutely it was an arson,” Jager says. “Not to minimize the incident, but to kind of emphasize that we don’t want to go mislabeling things, which could have an impact down the road with court proceedings or other legal issues.”

The building was locked at the time of the fire and the point of entry is not clear.

Juneau police investigators also consider the fire suspicious, but Lt. Dave Campbell says they have no suspects.

“There’s things that we look at. Obviously we do a premises check. We canvass the area inside and outside.  We look for things that are odd.  You know, ways we might be able to tie people to the incident. You talk to the people that found it, try to determine the window of when it occurred,” Campbell says.

Fire Marshal Jager says investigators hope the public might be able to fill in some of the gaps in information about the fire.

The public has been a huge help on fires in the past and we would really hope they would step forward if they have anything.

Church activities have not been interrupted since the small fire.

As for a pulpit for Sunday’s services?  Pastor Royston says a music stand will work just fine.

The 40^th annual Alaska Folk Festival is underway in Juneau. Tonight, Folk Fest veteran Jack Fontanella plays with Collette Costa in “Costa’s Second Line Jamboree” at 8pm at Centennial Hall.

I recently caught up with him for ideas on how to enjoy the festival the most.

The Alaska Folk Festival kicked off yesterday in Juneau, but preparation started long before last night. This week we’ll feature a number of pieces introducing you to artists taking part in the 40th Alaska Folk Festival.

The Alaska Folk Festival in Juneau brings together hundreds of musicians and fans every year to celebrate live music. The musicians come from all over Southeast Alaska and beyond and are of all ages. One of the very youngest groups is from Petersburg–the Double Rock Band–but, although they’re young, they’re not new to the stage.

The Double Rock Band is made up of three Sperl siblings and a friend. The Sperls live on a little family farm about a 20 minute drive south of Petersburg.

When you walk in the front door, three violins are hanging on the wall at eye level. So, not surprisingly, there’s live music coming from within the home. But if you didn’t know better, you might think adults are jamming out…instead of kids ages 11 to 15.

The song that’s playing is about a bear, “Old Slough Foot”, and it’s the band’s favorite to play.

“That one’s fun,” says Kelsa Sperl, “all of us have a part in it. It’s upbeat and funny.”

At 15, Kelsa is the oldest in the group and kind of the de facto band leader.

“This will be our third time going to Folk Fest,” Kelsa says. “Both with the Fiddle Heads the last two times, so this will be our first time going by ourselves without lots of other people on stage so it’s going to be kind of exciting.”

The Fiddle Heads was another, much larger youth band in Petersburg, which had up to a dozen members.

These four have been playing as Double Rock Band for less than a year, practicing about twice a week. Besides Kelsa, there are her two brothers, Koren who is 13 and Kole who is 11 and they all play with their friend, Erin Pfundt who is 14.

Koren has focused on the guitar since he was six. The other three started out on the violin. Erin has since moved on to the upright bass and Kole, the mandolin.

Kole: “I just taught myself the mandolin two years ago I think it was but I started fiddle when I was six and then I started piano a year ago.”
Angela: “So, between the fiddle, the mandolin, and the piano, do you have a specific passion in there or are they all the same to you?”
Kole: “Um, I like the fiddle and mandolin a lot better than piano.”
Angela: “And do you know why that is?”
Kole: “Because they sound better.”

So, with all the musicians under the same roof, where’s the music coming from? I ask their mother, Tausha Sperl.

“You know, we don’t really exactly know where the music’s coming from because it’s not really coming from Donald and I,” Tausha says, laughing.

But these days, the band and the parents agree, they’re pretty committed to music now. Here’s what the band members have to say about why they like to play:

Erin Fundt: “Once you get good enough to play in a band, it gets really easy. Whereas, when I was younger, you have to learn all the songs. Now, though, when I play with the Sperls, I know a lot of the songs so it’s a lot more easy and you can have fun.”

Kelsa Sperl: “It’s nice to hear your instrument make a good sound, once you know how to play it, you know. And then, especially playing with other people and like, my brothers and Erin, it’s cool because we can make so much, like sound, with just four instruments. It’s really fun.

Koren Sperl: “Well, I like it because you can actually make music and it used to be, you know, you just kind of listened to people playing music whether it’s up on stage or in the car or on a CD or something, you know. I guess I always thought when people are playing this music on a CD or whatever that there has to be this big orchestra but just like, I think that maybe Kelsa mentioned that, it’s fun just because even with a little bit of instruments, you know, if you know how to play them you can make things really sound good so I like that.”

Kole Sperl: “Yeah, well, they all kind of took my ideas but one of the things that I like is when I hear a song on the radio or I just remember a song that I heard then I can look it up on a website or something and print out the music and look it up on youtube and listen some more and then I can actually, if it’s an easier song, then I can actually learn it. So that’s really fun to do that. Even if it’s a hard song, then if it doesn’t sound very good with just like plucking then Koren can play the guitar for me while I play it on the mandolin and it sounds really nice like that.”

The Juneau Festival runs April 7-13.

The Double Rock Band plays Friday night at 10:15 p.m.

They will be followed by Petersburg singer songwriter Scott Hursey at 10:45 p.m.

Nicole and Alec McMurren—Mc2 (M-C-squared), also from Petersburg, will perform Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

KRNN is audio streaming the entire Folk Fest, and video streaming each evening.

Juneau firefighters will be sitting more comfortably this year, thanks to a donation from Charmin.

Charmin has donated 960 rolls — a year’s supply for about 20 firefighters — to the Auke Bay Fire Station, to be divided among all the local stations.

Ed Quinto, assistant chief for Capital City Fire/Rescue, estimates the toilet paper would cost the department $1,200 if purchased from Fred Meyer.

Quinto didn’t know Auke Bay had won until the delivery last month. The firehouses were nominated through Facebook and Twitter.

Quinto says the donated rolls “are not the industrial type, they’re the residential type.”

“So yes, they are a lot smoother, so it will soften a few butts.”

Volunteer firefighter Donald Law nominated the downtown Juneau and Auke Bay fire stations. He thought the donation would help CCFR handle a budget shortfall.

“It’s kind of nice to have something for us, that’s given to us. Because we do what we can to help the city and everybody that needs the help,” Law says.

The Charmin Relief Project began in 2012. Charmin donated 70,752 rolls of toilet paper to the Detroit Fire Department after learning its firefighters were paying for toilet paper with their own money.

The company this year provided toilet paper to 50 firehouses across the U.S., one in each state.