Community

Juneau’s downtown dining scene has some new additions while a couple established eateries are making changes.

Coppa is the Italian word for cup, when referring to a cup of ice cream, which was Marc Wheeler’s main inspiration. Wheeler’s decision to open the shop with his wife Jessica Paris is partly based on the success he had selling homemade rhubarb sherbet during this summer’s Food Truck Fridays.

“It was so rewarding to make something with your hands, make people happy, and make money at the same time,” Wheeler says.

Coppa specializes in homemade ice cream and sherbets, baked goods, and espresso drinks, which requires the work of two baristas and a baker. It opened at the end of September.

“I knew it would be some work to build this place, but I didn’t know how much work. I had no idea of how much work and all the decisions you have to make to basically build a place from nothing,” he says.

Wheeler says he’s invested about $75,000 into renovating the space and buying kitchen appliances, including a brand new $10,000 batch freezer that makes six quarts of ice cream in eight minutes.

Coppa is located on Glacier Avenue in the same building as Seong’s Sushi Bar near the Federal Building. It opened a week before the government shutdown which Wheeler says has caused business to decrease by 20 percent. He says that wasn’t part of his business plan.

Wheeler is a semi-finalist in the Path to Prosperity business competition. If he’s selected, he’ll have access to a consultant to develop a business plan. He hopes to get into the wholesale ice cream business.

In the heart of downtown on Seward Street, Venietia Santana has been serving Mexican fusion at V’s Cellar Door since the end of August.

Santana took over the space that formerly housed Olivia’s de Mexico. She pulled the carpet out, bought new furniture, added lighting, and changed the color scheme.

So far, she says, business is better than expected.

“Apparently people like it and keep coming back. It’s not just my friends feeling bad for me,” Santana says laughing. “It’s actually people who enjoy the food and keep coming back, so it’s been really, really busy. We’ve been meeting or exceeding our goal every day.”

Santana employs seven people including two cooks and three wait staff. Aside from trying to keep prices down – dinners are around thirteen dollars – Santana says her main priority is customer service, “I want people to come in here and feel comfortable. I want them to know that they’re going to be able to get what they want and the way they ordered it and everything is top notch.”

The biggest challenge for Santana is getting ingredients. She says her menu includes Mexican dishes infused with other cuisines, like Korean and Italian. Most of the supplies she can’t find locally are mailed by friends and family in the lower-48.

“Some has come from Korea that we’ve had to wait weeks for,” Santana says.

Santana says the Small Business Administration (SBA) helped her a lot, “The SBA really does the paperwork with you and that foundation, that groundwork that makes you okay with and plan for how do you get your doors open. They’re a free service for business. Without them I wouldn’t be open.”

B’s Bakery and Bistro on 2nd Street was closed last week for touch up work on the kitchen.

Owner Rebecca Gaguine says when customers return this week, they won’t notice any changes since most of the work was done in the back. B’s currently has 9 part-time employees.

The eatery most known for its cupcakes also serves breakfast and lunch.

“During the summer, we had a really good breakfast crowd, so I’m excited to see what it’s like during the legislature,” Gaguine says.

Around the corner and down the street, Rockwell is currently undergoing a major renovation.

Co-owner Deb Barry says Northwind Architects came up with a design that involves new walls, a new bar, a stone fireplace, and a tin ceiling. She says everything will be different, including the menu.

“We’ll be adding to the menu. We’ll have a lot more ability to do steaks and seafood and things like that,” Barry says.

The renovation will increase dining room seating capacity to about 80. Rockwell’s 20 employees include six cooks. Rockwell, which has been open for about a year, serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Barry says she hopes to reopen Rockwell in early November.

 

When it comes to hula hooping, 11-year-old Caden Derick says he’s just okay.

“I practice sometimes,” he says. “But usually my dog eats up my hula hoops.”

Caden’s dog would’ve been in hoop heaven at Juneau’s Harborview Elementary School this past month. Students there got to make their own hula hoops out of PVC pipe and other material, all leading up to Saturday’s World Hoop Day.

Caden says he’s not sure what the hype’s all about, but it’s exciting nonetheless.

“Yeah, I think it’s cool that people do it,” he says. “I mean, I don’t know why they have a Hoop Day. But it’s cool that they do it.”

A few dedicated New York City hoopers started World Hoop Day in 2005 as a way of celebrating hoop culture. The exact date has changed every year since, but the idea is pretty simple: Get a bunch of people around the world hula hooping on the same day.

Harborview Gym Teacher Zach Stenson says one of his friends has taken part in past World Hoop Days.

“She gave me the idea a couple years ago, and said ‘Oh, what a neat thing if you could have all the kids do something at the same time that kids all over the world are doing a similar activity,'” he says.

Harborview teachers started a Humanities program this year, and Stenson says they decided to make the hula hoop project their kickoff activity. They hope to hold similar events every month or so, focused on building community.

“Bringing our school a little bit more together,” Stenson says. “Helping the kids make friends, that sort of thing.”

One lesson Stenson hopes the kids take from the hula hoop project is that they don’t always have to buy their toys. With the right materials, they can make them at home.

While teachers and parents use hair dryers to heat up roughly 10-foot sections of plastic pipe, the kids bend them into a circular shape.

Ten-year-old Kiana Potter made the project’s first hula hoop.

“When Mr. Stenson first started talking about it, he asked me to make an example hoop,” she says. “So, I could show the other kids what it was going to be.”

Kiana’s not sure why she was chosen to make the example hoop, but says maybe it’s because she has a lot of hula hooping experience.

“I can do a lot of tricks with a hula hoop,” she says. “I can do it around my neck and my hands and my arms, and I recently figured out how to do it around one foot while hopping up and down.”

Local businesses donated money or materials, and many parents volunteered to help with the project. Harborview PTA President Bruce Franklin says the kids at first have no idea how plastic pipe will turn into a hula hoop. But that changes once they see it start taking shape.

“Then they can’t keep their hands off it, and everybody wants to hula hoop,” Franklin says. “So, it’s kind of a rapid particle accelerator machine of excitement, because they just get super psyched up. And then, you know, we have to kind of keep them from hula hooping each other to death out here.”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e65hq2hLAIs&w=420&h=315]

Friday afternoon, the entire school except kindergarten files into the gym at the Marie Drake building for the project’s culmination, a school-wide hoop off.

Each class holds a competition to see who will represent them. Then Mr. Stenson explains how the hoop off will work.

“We have ten minutes for our hoop off,” he says. “That means, be careful not to bump into anybody, and see how long you can hula hoop.”

By the end of ten minutes several kids are still hula hooping, with no sign of letting up. Third grader Florian Wade says he had fun, but he’s exhausted.

“Yeah it was hard,” he says. “My belly hurts.”

Stenson says it’ll be tough to decide who deserves a prize for best hula hooper.

“I think the idea is they all are winners here as a group. They all did a great job. I don’t think we could pick one person.”

Residents of the Blueberry Hill area of West Juneau were without water all day Wednesday when a water main and valve broke.

Carl Uchityl was walking his dog early in the morning when he noticed water bubbling up at the intersection of Blueberry Hills Road and Jackson Street.

“Originally I thought it was just heavy rain overnight, because the curb was somewhat full of water,” Uchityl says, “but upon further investigation I saw that it was permeating out of an asphalt patch.”

He called the city’s emergency water utility line and crews were soon on their way.  Before the repair was finished, eight people were on the job as well as Public Works Director Kirk Duncan.

He says the 8-inch steel water main had about 8 pin-hole leaks.

“We put a 2-foot stainless steel band on the pipe, which will provide a permanent fix for that piece of infrastructure and while we were doing that one of the water valves downstream blew up due to the non-stainless steel bolts that were used 30 years ago, because stainless wasn’t used back then,” Duncan says.

He also says Douglas Island’s acidic soil speeds up pipe corrosion.

Duncan says the Blueberry Hill problems are symptomatic of Juneau’s aging water system.  Much of the pipe was laid in the 1980s and is at least 30-years old.

In some parts of the borough there are problems waiting to happen.

“We have a force main that goes from Anka Street to the bridge on Glacier Highway.  You’ll see the patches on the road. It’s blown up three times.  That needs to be replaced,” he says.

Duncan says it’s clear a lot of Juneau’s infrastructure is coming to the end of its useful life.

“Eventually a lot of infrastructure is going to have to be replaced.  The Mendenhall wastewater treatment plant is 35 years old, the Juneau-Douglas treatment plant is 45 years old,” he said.  Disposal of Juneau’s sewage sludge continues to be an expensive problem.

Every 10  years, the city reviews its water and sewer rates and a study is underway.  It’s being conducted by Seattle-area consultant Financial Consulting Solutions Group, which did the last one in 2003.  Not surprisingly, that report resulted in a rate increase.  Most resident customers now pay a flat rate for water and sewer of $90.53.

The current study is due in May and Duncan believes it will recommend higher rates.

“We have $280 million of water and wastewater assets.  Even if they lasted 30 years, that’s still $10 million a year and our total revenue for water and wastewater is $13 million a year.

Beginning next month, the city will hold a series of public meetings to explain the issues being addressed in the rate study and the likely need for a future water and sewer rate increase.

 

 

Hoonah voters on Tuesday narrowly approved an extension of the sales tax that will help pay for extracurricular activities.

Unofficial results show that Proposition 1 passed on a vote of 177 in favor and 163 against.

The measure would extend a temporary one-percent sales tax with revenues devoted to city schools. Half of the proceeds would go to activities and the other half would go to related general operations. The sales tax extension would run during the 2014 and 2015 calendar years.

In other results, Amelia Ruerup and Robert Starbard were the top vote-getters for Hoonah City Council, and Trevor Hill and Sally Dybdahl were elected to the School Board. All were for three-year terms.

Arlen Skaflestad was elected to a three-year term on the Liquor Board.

Hoonah City Clerk Alice Williams says the Canvass Board plans on certifying the election on Thursday. There is one questioned ballot that must be reviewed.

 

[box type=”shadow”]Unofficial Hoonah election results with 350 total votes cast

Proposition 1:
Yes – 177 votes
No – 163 votes

For two, three-year City Council seats (top two vote-getters):
Amelia Ruerup – 205 votes
Robert Starbard – 156 votes
Nadine Morrison – 108 votes
Other write-ins – 97 votes

For two, three-year School Board seats (top two vote-getters):
Trevor Hill – 179 votes
Sally Dybdahl – 152 votes
Gerald Byers – 105 votes
Heidi Jewel – 109 votes
Grace Villarreal – 65 votes
Other write-ins – 6 votes

For a three-year term on the Liquor Board:
Arlen Skaflestad – 215 votes
Other write-ins – 45 votes[/box]

 

Over in Gustavus, Morgan DeBoer was elected to a two-year term for City Council in preliminary results.

Lori Trummer and Jeff Irwin picked up the most write-in votes for two other seats. But it’s unclear if they really want to serve on the City Council.

Gustavus City Clerk Noel Frarevaag says the City Council acting as a canvass board will review the election returns on Friday. On Monday, they will meet to determine Trummer and Irwin’s intentions.

 

[box type=”shadow”]Unofficial Gustavus election results with 131 total votes cast

For a two-year unexpired term on the City Council, Seat F:
Morgan DeBoer – 105 votes

For a three-year term on the City Council, Seat A:
Lori Trummer – 50 write-in votes

For a three-year term on the City Council, Seat B:
Jeff Irwin – 14 write-in votes
[/box]

Voter turnout at Tuesday’s election was a dismal 14 and a half percent.

While absentee and question ballots have yet to be counted, turnout is unlikely to break 20 percent, according to City Clerk Laurie Sica.

“We have 830 absentee ballots to review and to be added to the total and we have 270 question ballots outstanding that need to be reviewed and added, so that’s about a thousand ballots. I think we’ll be up to about 20 percent or so,” she said after Tuesday’s ballots were counted.

The review board begins looking at those ballots on Wednesday.  The count is scheduled for Friday.

Watching the results come in, Mayor Merrill Sanford said the city needs to figure out ways to increase voter turnout.

“If that takes us mail-out balloting, that’s worked successfully in some places, Oregon and different places, maybe that’s what we need to do,” Sanford said. “But we need to look at different ways and different avenues of making it easier for our public to vote.”

He had the same concern last year, when turnout was only 32 percent.  More voters usually go to the polls when there’s a mayoral race and ballot issues, and last year a bond issue and sales tax question were on the ballot.

“Whenever we have tax issues where we have decisions to make on what we’re going to take out of people’s pocket that helps bring out another 10 to 20 percent,” he said, laughing.

That’s still too low.

Considering the sparse ballot, Sica was not surprised at the low voter turnout.

Besides going to the polls on Election Day, Juneau voters have a number of ways to participate in an election. They can vote by fax, homebound voters can ask a relative or friend to bring them a ballot, then there’s the usual absentee by mail. Beginning two weeks before the election, they can vote an absentee or early ballot at two polling places in the borough.

“And a lot of people are taking advantage of that,” Sica said. “Basically you can consider that our biggest precinct turnout was our absentee stations.”

Voters may have ignored this election because there were so few candidates.  Only one race was a contest; the other candidates were unopposed.  What’s happened to public debate, the mayor mused, and how does the city get more people to run for office?

Sanford said the CBJ Assembly will take up the issue of different voting methods again soon, because low voter turnout is a chronic problem that  comes up  just about every election.

Sica said other types of voting may not make a difference.

“They just need to be interested enough to take advantage of what we’ve got.”

Alaska’s online health insurance marketplace can help the uninsured, underinsured, or even those with medical coverage who want to shop around.

But the Affordable Care Act will not change the insurance you currently have.

Enrollingalaska.com goes live today.  If you enroll by December 14, the federal insurance will start January 1, 2014.

Assistance will be available in several places in Juneau to help individuals, families, and small businesses sign up for federal health insurance.

Starting October 7, a navigator will be located at the NAMI office at 9000 Glacier Hwy, Suite 201.  Appointments can be made by calling 463-4251.

NAMI stands for National Alliance on Mental Illness. The organization also will hold a community forum on the new Alaska Healthcare Exchange next month.

Next week, Enroll Alaska agents will be at Bartlett Regional Hospital and Walmart to help people understand the options, the cost and help them enroll.

Southeast Alaska Natives will continue to receive medical benefits through Indian Health Care, but the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, or SEARHC, has two people on staff to answer questions on ACA.

The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium will help Alaskans navigate health care sites, or email healthreform@anthc.org

The Alaska Division of Insurance can help.

By phone:

24-hour hotline corresponding to the healthcare.gov website  is 1-800-318-2596.

United Way of Anchorage is making information available via the 211 Alaska information referral line.