Community

State ferry system officials Tuesday evening will explain the latest design for two Lynn Canal day boats.

It’s the first in a series of forums on the proposal to be held this week in Juneau, Skagway and Haines.

The proposed 280-foot shuttle ferries would serve the three communities, operating 12 hours a day. Current design calls for ships that would carry about 53 standard-size vehicles and 300 passengers.

The state transportation department is collecting public comments on the preliminary design through the end of the month, but DOT spokesman Jeremy Woodrow says this week’s meetings are informational and not public hearings.

“They’re to present the day boat, Alaska Class Ferry design concept to the public, answer questions on the concept itself. It’s not a forum to accept public comments. The official way to submit public comments is to be done online through the email link that’s on the Alaska Class website,” Woodrow says.

AMHS Captain John Falvey, Deputy Commissioner for Marine Highways Reuben Yost, and ferry consultant Elliott Bay Design Group, will be on hand to answer questions.

Juneau’s forum is from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Egan Room of Centennial Hall.

Sessions are scheduled later this week in Skagway and Haines.

The day boat shuttles replace the proposed Alaska Class ferries that were so deep in the planning process a construction contract was to have been  awarded in July.   Gov. Sean Parnell last year told DOT to scrap the plans and come up with less expensive ships.

DOT has said the two shuttle ferries should not exceed $117 million.

Officials of a nationwide non-profit housing operator are looking at Juneau as a possible site for an assisted living center. But it’s just the beginning of the process of finding the right provider for the capital city.

Two Retirement Housing Foundation executives visited last week to meet with a task force dedicated to building a facility here.

The feasibility tour included various sites, but co-chair Sioux Douglas says the task force is still looking for suitable, affordable property for a senior center that is near commerce and on the bus line.

“Juneau actually has more land than some people think. But the fact is a lot of it’s wetlands, a lot of it’s forested, some of it’s too steep, so finding the right buildable property that is more flat than anything for accessibility is really critical,” Douglas says.

State labor department statistics indicate 20 percent of Juneau residents will be over age 65 by the year 2025.

A 2010 survey identifies senior residential housing as a top priority as more senior citizens choose to stay in Juneau.   Even if the Juneau Pioneers Home adds beds, Douglas says another facility will be needed.

“There isn’t any question that the need is here and is going to get huge faster.  We have to quantify that and verify in a proper market analysis, which will then define for us truly the number of beds that are required.  Right now we’re talking between 40 and 60 and that may not be enough at all,” she says.

Douglas says the task force has a list of assisted living facilities and providers to contact in Alaska and the Lower 48 before an assisted living plan can be developed.

The Juneau Community Foundation, Juneau Commission on Aging, Juneau Economic Development Council and Senior Citizens Support Services organized the effort to find a site and provider.

This week Bryan Smith and his Rocky Mountain Hockey School coaching staff have been working with more than 50 Juneau hockey players at the Treadwell Ice Arena. It’s the arena’s 11^th season with players from 5 to 17 getting coaching daily on the ice. All photos by Steve Quinn.

After being gone for two and a half months, the bear sculpture in front of the Alaska State Capitol is back. It returned Monday after Main Street improvements in that area were complete. During its absence, the bear received touch-up work by original artist Skip Wallen and sculptor Steve Parks.

Skip Wallen guesses how many times his bear sculpture has been touched over the years.

“Close to a million people pass through Juneau each year and if one out of ten of those people patted that bear, that would be 100,000 pats per year.”

At that rate, Wallen says, that’s a total of 2 and a half million pats in the past 25 years.

“But nobody pats it one time,” he says. “They go pat, pat, pat, so I figured that must be up in the 7-8 million range of rubs and pats on that bear.”

All those touches and pats caused the bronze bear to turn red in certain spots, like the ears and nose.

“The kids like to climb on it and they grab hold of the ears, then a lot of people like to rub the nose because it’s just a convenient spot to reach over and put your hand on,” Wallen explains.

It was brought to the rock dump where Wallen and sculptor Steve Parks worked on the bear for four days in June.

“We applied chemistry to those spots to try to match it with the areas of the bear that had not been rubbed and patted.”

This is the first time touch-up work has been done on the bear in 26 years.

“Some people told me those were love pats and I should have left the bear and not retouched them,” Wallen says. “I just thought, well, it’s not much effort to pay a little attention to the bronze and start afresh for another 25 years.”

Wallen originally began work on the sculpture in 1984 to honor 25 years of Alaska statehood. It’s made from recycled high power lines that once ran across the state of Colorado.

He named the piece ‘Windfall Fisherman,’ based on bear drawings done at Windfall Harbor on Admiralty Island.

Wallen is currently working on a new public sculpture of another iconic Alaska creature – a humpback whale.

Summer is nearly over for Juneau kids.  It’s back to school on Tuesday for first through 12^th graders; kindergarten starts next Thursday.

That means it’s time for shots,  that little poke in the arm that allows youngsters to attend Alaska public schools.

Juneau Public Health, part of the Alaska Division of Public Health, and the Vaccinate Juneau Kids Coalition will hold a immunization clinic on Saturday.

Public health nurse Catharine Boice says most vaccines for infants, kindergarten, and older students will be available.

“There’s a list of shots that kids need if they are going into kindergarten.  D-tap (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis), measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, hepatitis B, hepatitis A,” Boice says. “When kids are going into the 7^th grade they usually need a tetanus update, so we’ll have that available.”

Boice says TB testing, also required for kindergarten, will not be available at the clinic, nor will the chicken pox vaccine.  But just about everything else will.

The shots come from the federally funded Vaccines for Children program, making the clinic free to families who have no health care insurance, are eligible for Medicaid or SEARHC coverage, or those who have insurance, but it doesn’t cover vaccines.

Boice says families who have medical insurance that covers immunizations should go to their own provider.

Public health nurse April Rezendes says kids coming to the clinic must bring a parent or guardian, as well as their immunization records, so it’s clear what vaccinations they need.

“No records, no shots; no parents, no shots.” 

Saturday’s clinic is from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Nugget Mall.

After more than two days of trolling for salmon during the Golden North Salmon Derby, Jody Hass and her family were wrapping it up when one decided to bite.

Jody Hass describes the majority of derby weekend as pretty dull.

Hass and husband Jason, 6-year-old son Carvin, and 4-year-old daughter Landia launched their 22-foot Olympic from Douglas Friday night to spend the whole weekend fishing.

By about noon on Sunday, they decided to call it quits after lunch. Hass retreated into the boat to make hot turkey sandwiches.

“I heard the initial zing of line being taken so I ran out onto the deck,” she says.

It took Hass about 15 minutes to reel in the 29.2-pound winning king salmon.

“It was fighting with all its might, swimming all around the boat prop, and underneath the boat, and a couple times we thought we were going to lose it and it was going to get tangled up in something.”

Once it got close to the boat, Jason Hass netted the king.

” My husband said, ‘Okay, when it gets up to the boat, don’t freak out.’ And I said, ‘Why? How big is it?’ He goes, ‘Just don’t freak out.’ I didn’t actually see it until it got in the boat, and then, yeah, I was freaking out,” Hass describes.

Meanwhile, as Hass was catching a big fish, no one was checking on lunch. “The meat ended up being burnt to a crisp,” she laughs.

Using a boat scale, the fish weighed in at 28 pounds.

“We decided we better get into town fast, so he got the gear into the boat and I went inside and threw the lunch out the windows and started motoring into town.”

At the official derby weigh-in station at Douglas Harbor, her fish actually weighed 29.2 pounds, which put her in first place. Hass was shocked.

“We went home and we were sitting around biting our nails until 6 o’ clock just worrying if anybody was going to pass it or not,” she says.

Hass’s first place prize includes 10,000-dollars in cash. Her plan is to use it as down payment for property in Gustavus where a cabin will one day be built.

Unofficial derby results:

A 29.2-pound king salmon is the unofficial winner of this year’s Golden North Salmon Derby. That was caught by Jody Hass on Sunday at 12:50 pm and brought to the Douglas weigh station.

In other unofficial results, Al Risley came in second with a 28.8-pound king caught Sunday at 8:45 am and turned in at the Amalga harbor. And in third place is a 26-pound chinook caught by Amy Fosket just after 4 pm Saturday and weighed in at Auke Bay.

The 67th annual event was a success with over 1200 participants. The derby started Friday morning and ended yesterday evening.

The 67th biggest fish weighed in at 15.5 pounds caught by Chip Verrelli Sunday just after 5:30.

283 fish were weighed in and many more entered as scholarship fish. All salmon turned in will be sold to Glacier Seafood and proceeds go towards the Territorial Sportsmen Scholarship Foundation. Scholarships are given to students and adults to pursue further education.

Results will be confirmed Tuesday. The top fish are posted on the Golden North Salmon Derby website. Prizes will be given out Thursday at 7 pm in Centennial Hall. First place takes home 10,000 in cash. Prizes are given to the 67 biggest fish and there will also be drawings for those who turned in scholarship fish.