Community

Tidal flooding is not expected to delay construction of Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Walter Soboleff Center.

Late last week, the future site of the building at Front and Seward Streets in downtown Juneau filled with water from an extreme high tide, stopping work there.

Lee Kadinger is SHI’s Chief Financial Officer and project manager for the center, to be located across the street from Sealaska Plaza. He says the Institute and contractor Dawson Construction anticipated some flooding, since that section of downtown is largely built on fill.

“We’re not, obviously, the first building to be built downtown in this area,” Kadinger says. “When they built Sealaska building they had the same type of issues, so it was fully expected to have tidal influence. We just weren’t certain at what tide it would begin to influence the site.”

Kadinger says the magic number seems to be any tide over 18 feet. Now that they know that, he says they can plan accordingly.

Kadinger also says the building will be constructed with a significant amount of waterproofing and drainage to withstand the periodic extreme high tides.

The $20 million Soboleff Center is expected to be complete in late 2014. The 29,000 square foot facility will house Sealaska Heritage Institute’s education, arts and language programs, as well as offices, archives and collections.

The Coast Guard Cutter Mellon pulled into Station Juneau Monday morning.

The 378-foot High Endurance cutter is based in Seattle.  Coast Guard Spokesman Kip Wadlow says the Mellow is in Southeast Alaska on a “shakedown cruise” to conduct equipment tests before heading back to homeport.

The ship will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday.

She’s named after Andrew W. Mellon, who was 49th Secretary of the U.S. Treasury from 1921-1932.

Built in 1966, the Mellon has diesel and gas turbine engines, one of the first cutters to be built with a combined propulsion plant.

Beginning Wednesday at 8 p.m. (repeating Sundays at 7 p.m.) 360 North-TV will broadcast a four-part documentary series on the Marine Highway’s 50 years of operation.

It’s clear the Alaska Marine Highway is an integral part of coastal Alaskans lives.  In this series, people share their stories, like artist and Ketchikan resident Ray Troll, who came up on the ferry to help his sister open a fish shop.

“I think I came by myself, but I came just for the summer, of 1983, and 30 years later, I’m still here.”

Stories of people like retired Boatswain, John Kanarr, who met his wife while working aboard the Malaspina.

“My wife likes to say this, I don’t, but she does, that the Alaska state ferry system was the original Love Boats.”

Petersburg Track coach, Brad Taylor, says the ferry system is the only economical way to get athletic teams around Southeast.

“We would love to be able to travel, you know, by air, just because the time out of school would be less, but there’s no way we would be able to afford that.”

Stephanie Hoag, from Juneau, weaves the ferry into the seasons of her life and thanks the Taku for her life.

The other really significant thing about the ferries for me is the fact that, they saved my life.

You’ll have to watch the series to find out how.

Series Broadcast Schedule:

Alaska’s Marine Highway
Wednesday, Sept. 25th at 8 p.m. (Sunday, Sept. 29th at 7 p.m.)
From Bellingham to the Aleutians, the “flagship program” of the series is an overview of the 35 hundred miles the 11 ships travel. It’s also a historical sketch of it’s first 50 years.  This show was released to a national PBS audience earlier this year and has aired in more than half of the states.

Alaska’s Marine Highway: The Golden Voyage
Wednesday, Oct. 2nd at 8 p.m. (Sunday, Oct. 6th at 7 p.m.)
The second documentary showcases the culture, history and change in Southeast Alaska ports as the Malaspina takes it’s Golden Voyage up the inside passage.

The third and fourth shows are long-form, oral histories.

Alaska’s Marine Highway: Life on Board
Wednesday, Oct. 9th at 8 p.m. (Sunday, Oct. 13th at 7 p.m.)
Life on Board, focuses on the challenges and rewards crew members face while working and living on the ships.

Alaska’s Marine Highway: Connections
Wednesday, Oct. 16th at 8 p.m. (Sunday, Oct. 20th at 7 p.m.)
Connections, explores how the ferries have linked people in the villages and towns of coastal Alaska to the road system and to each other.

Astute observers of the State Library, Archives, and Museum project in downtown Juneau may have just noticed that the structure is now being built higher, much higher than this summer’s construction efforts.

“The community is going to start seeing that second floor wall section go on, which is as tall as the first floor,” said Bob Banghart, Deputy Director of the Division of Archives, Libraries, and Museums.

So, people are going to start paying attention. This is really a large building.”

Banghart has a suggestion for estimating the expected size of SLAM:

If you look at the crane, you look at the cab where the operator sits, count down three sections of the crane frame, that’s the approximate height of the building.”

On Wednesday, a pumping vehicle with an articulated boom pipe reached into the interior of the structure to pour concrete for the second floor slab as a chain of cement trucks came and went from the construction site.

Concrete form panels are already being erected to extend the walls even further up for the vault that will become the main storage area for artifacts.

The first of the current Alaska State Museum’s permanent exhibits on the second floor will be dismantled and packed up starting on October 7th. That will continue through February 28th when the Museum closes to the public.

Once (the current Alaska State Museum) is empty, it will be removed. Then they will add the other two-thirds of the construction project.”

The current Alaska State Museum includes about 24,000 square feet of space. By comparison, the new SLAM structure will be nearly 116,000 square feet. The parking lot will add another 64,000 square feet of space.

We’re pretty much on-schedule, on-budget, where we hope to be.”

Meanwhile, the Eagle Tree will return in the new structure. Banghart suggests that patrons and community members were very adamant about continuing with that exhibit.

Also planned for installation in the new building or on the grounds will be Science on the Sphere, the sculpture Nimbus in a restored form, and — hopefully — two of the current museum’s distinctive exterior side panels with the Pacific Northwest Native formline design. Banghart said that the recovery of two complete panels may be difficult.

We’ll have more on the project coming up next week on KTOO’s Morning Edition.

The city and borough of Juneau is looking for artists to design, produce, and install public art in the new Mendenhall Valley Public Library.

Scheduled completion for the library isn’t until 2015, but it’s not too early to start thinking about artwork.

“For this art project, the reason it’s out right now and we’re looking for an artist is because the design is not complete and the design team has decided that they would like to integrate the art into the design somewhat, so that’s part of the reason we’re putting it out now instead of after the building is being fully designed and being constructed,” says Jennifer Mannix is contract administrator for the CBJ.

The new library will be located in Dimond Park. NorthWind architect James Bibb is part of the design team. He says the new library will play a key role in the Valley, “The Valley is sort of considered to be a suburb where there’s not a very definitive sort of city center or center for the neighborhood as much, but Dimond Park has become sort of the next what we see as a very central location for community activity with the school system there, the swimming pool, the ball fields.”

The selection panel wants the artists to incorporate certain themes into their proposed work. Community is one of them. Another is integration with the natural environment.

“Artworks that respond to our weather, our land forms, our waterways, flora and fauna, other features, and because the library is designed to have a very nice connection to the outside, art works that enhance rather than obscure that connection, ” says Donna Pierce, library project manager

The call for artists is part of CBJ’s Art in Public Places program. One percent of the library’s construction costs must go toward art. The selection panel will decide how that money gets spent.

“Artists have the option of proposing in different price ranges. The total budget for the project is $105,000, so the panel could select several different pieces of art that add up to that or they might just select one large one,” Mannix says.

The city is advertising for artists nationwide. Proposals are due October 4th.

A pre-submittal meeting takes place 10 am today in CBJ’s engineering department conference room in the Marine View Building. Mannix, Bibb, and Pierce will be present to answer questions.

Juneau’s League of Women Voters will host a Municipal Candidate Forum on Wednesday in Assembly chambers.

The annual forum is an opportunity for candidates running for Assembly and School Board to discuss the issues affecting Juneau.

League member Barbara Belknap is the moderator.   She says questions from the public are an important part of the event.

“You know we always are looking for people to come prepared to ask questions about what they care about. So they write the questions, a League of Women Voters member will pick them up then they’ll get funneled to me at the moderator’s desk,” she says.

Belknap says each candidate will have one minute to make an opening statement then 30 seconds at the end to wrap up their message.   They’ll have 45 seconds to answer each question.

With only four Assembly and two school board candidates, the forum may go quickly this year.  Only one race is contested.

The League has sponsored the pre-election forum for years.  Belknap calls the non-partisan organization one of the most enduring civic groups in Juneau.

“I feel like it is the most viable women’s organization in town that contributes specifically with these forums but also with voter registration, voter information,” she says.

Wednesday’s Municipal Candidate Forum is a 7 p.m. in Assembly chambers at city hall.

It will be carried live on KTOO radio.

Click here for the sample ballot.