Community

Heat, thunderstorms, fireworks – what’s a dog to do?

“Diego, who’s a 70 pound Golden Retriever, just ripped the leash out of her hand and ran.”

Southeast Alaska seldom gets electrical storms, and the loud claps of thunder on Monday sent Kevin and Barbara Ritchie’s dog on a 20-hour outing.

They were returning to Perseverance Trail parking lot when the storm hit.

“He turned onto the flume and never stopped,” Ritchie says.

They searched, asked friends to look; had Juneau radio stations, including KTOO, put the word out; called Animal Control, and sent Facebook messages.

About 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Diego showed up.

“He came out of the woods limping and got on somebody’s back porch and wanted some help,” Ritchie says.  He showed up at Jon Tillinghast’s house in what’s known as the Highlands.

Ritchie says Diego has not been a dog that normally reacts to loud noises, but the thunderbolts were something many Juneau dogs haven’t heard before.

Diego wasn’t the only dog to take off, according to Animal Control Director Matt Musslewhite.

“And it’s probably a good reminder that fireworks season is coming up. Maybe it’d be a good time to start making plans for alternate places to have your pooch stay during the fireworks on the fourth,” he says.

Musslewhite says Animal Control gets busy the night of July 3^rd with reports of pets that have escaped their owners.

“During the night of the third, it’s probably loud enough to rattle windows in some parts of town,” he says. Not only are the fireworks over Gastineau Channel loud, but lots of residents shoot off their own.  It’s a very stressful time for dogs that are hypersensitive to certain noises.

Then there’s the unusually high temperatures Juneau has had.

Musslewhite says officers often get calls on hot days for welfare checks on dogs in vehicles.

“The hottest one I’ve seen here was an outside temperature of somewhere around 80 degrees and an internal temperature in the car of 136 (degrees Fahrenheit),” he says.  “And that was with windows rolled up and that was actually late in the morning, so it didn’t have the full day to heat up.”

Just like humans, animals can succumb to heat stroke.

It’s better to leave your pet at home on hot days. If you must take Fido, park in the shade, provide plenty of fresh water, and, of course, make sure windows are open enough that fresh air will flow through the vehicle but the animal cannot escape.

Musslewhite also reminds pet owners that city law requires dogs and cats be licensed.  He says that process helps reunite lost pets with their owners.

Long-time retailer and a Nugget Mall anchor tenant is moving to Mendenhall Mall.

Nugget Alaska Outfitters will take over the space most recently occupied by Gottschalks.

NAO managing partner Ron Flint says the move will increase store space from 11-thousand square feet to more than 15-thousand.

The new store also will have an external entrance; NAO now has access only through Nugget Mall.

Flint says he’s especially looking forward to greater warehouse space and a more efficient shoe area.  He says he doesn’t expect to add many hard goods to his inventory.

“Right now it’s taking us a long time to get merchandise into stock and it’s partly because our back rooms and storage areas are so jammed up and just too tight. So this creates some inefficiencies,” he says.  “We’re going to add at least a thousand square feet on the sales floor. At some times, especially in the winter, the racks get pretty close together in here and hard to get around, so hopefully it will help alleviate some of that.”

Flint says the renovation is already underway, and he expects to make the move toward the end of September, when his Nugget Mall lease comes up.  He has signed a five-year lease with Mendenhall Mall with an option to extend.

Loveless/Tollefson Properties of Bellevue, Washington owns Nugget Mall.  Ted Tollefson says he just found out last week that NAO will be moving out.

“We’ll be talking to national tenants.  We have a couple of options and I don’t know which one it will end up being,” Tollefson says.

Two national chain stores Petco and Office Max moved into Nugget Mall last year.

Flint is the son of the late Bill Flint, who started Nugget Department Store in 1974. It downsized to the Nugget Men’s Store after national chain store Lamonts moved into Juneau. Lamonts went bankrupt, reorganized then sold to Gottschalks. That chain moved to the JC Penny space in Mendenhall Mall, but went bankrupt and closed in 2009.  The space has been empty since.

In the meantime, NAO has continued to add more outdoor clothing and gear for the family. Though it’s not a cooperative, Flint calls it the “Southeast Alaska version of REI.”

The Juneau Planning Commission has postponed reconsideration of the conditional use permit for a new boat launch and parking area at Statter Harbor.

The Planning Commission had planned to take up the second vote at its meeting Tuesday night. But CBJ Community Development Director Hal Hart asked for the delay.

He says he’s been pushing the CBJ Docks and Harbors Department to resolve project issues that resulted in the Planning Commission’s vote last month to reject the permit.

Chairman Mike Satre called for reconsideration, and told Docks and Harbors to  use the time to respond to local homeowners’ concerns about the project.

Port Director Carl Uchytil says he’s done just that.  He’s met with Auke Bay Towers condominium association attorney and plans a meeting with the Statter family.  The harbor is named after Don D. Statter, a former state public works employee and CBJ Docks and Harbors Board member, who advocated for Juneau harbor improvements.

Uchytil says he has “tweaked” the permit application, but believes the project as it is meets environmental and regulatory requirements as well as community needs.

“We’re working diligently with all those concerned that the Auke Bay condo association and others to ensure the project is built that meets the demand of the boating public and we feel the he process have been followed diligently,” Uchytil says.   “And after 4 ½ years we think it will vastly improve the Auke Bay area and provide a benefit to all Juneauites.”

Community Development Director Hart wants to see another draft plan by the end of this week that addresses neighbors’ primary complaints, including the question of green space at the harbor.

“What would the folks who are living in the condominium – what do they see? And then from their perspective, are they just looking at a large parking lot,  fill and a parking lot, or is that going to be broken up with some landscaping?”

Hart says the seawalk also should be attractive as a public place, not just a spot for harbor users, “so  that coming in from the highway you’ll be able to walk down that seawalk and have a progressive view of the shoreline.  You’ll see the stream off to your right as you’re walking and the bay would be in front of you. Ultimately we want that to be a nice public amenity.”

But Hart acknolwedges there’s not much space for both parking and landscaping in the area.

Neighbors also are concerned about lighting, which Port Director Uchytil says is mostly resolved.

Hart says he’s bringing up the design issues at the Planning Commission level because they’re important to the community. The Statter Harbor Master Plan has been in the works for more than four years.  New floats have already been completed.

The Planning Commission will take up the Statter Harbor conditional use permit on June 25^th.

 

Capital Transit gave more than a million rides in Juneau last year.

If you’re a regular passenger, or have never taken a bus before, your input is important to the capital city bus system.

The CBJ-operated service is updating its development plan and holding two public meetings this week as well as conducting an online survey.

The Transit Development Study is updated every five years.  City planner Ben Lyman calls it an improvement plan for the system.

“We’re looking at which stops need to be improved or changed, which types of vehicles need to be purchased, what types of maintenance issues we’re having,” Lyman says. “We’re looking at on-time performance, the needs of existing riders, and also we’re looking at perceptions about the system by non-riders. Why do people who could ride transit choose not to, and what might encourage them to do so?”

Lyman says the study analyzes existing performance through the eyes of riders as well as financing, costs per vehicle mile and per passenger, and other operational accounting.

“We had surveyors ride on all of the routes a month or so ago and conduct surveys of riders and look at where each and every person gets on or off of the bus,” he says.

They also were looking at transfers.  “Now we’re taking that information  and trying to figure out if Capital Transit is operating as efficiently as it could be,” he says.

Meilani Schijvens of Sheinberg Associates is working on the study with transportation consultants Nelson/Nygaard.  Schijvens says ridership increased 5 percent in the past year.

“We surveyed over 11-hundred passengers and the number one complaint is it’s too crowded. So in a way they’re (Capital Transit) doing a very good job, almost too good of a job,” she says.

In addition to the onboard ridership survey, Schijven says consultants conducted interviews with various employers, the university, Tlingit and Haida Housing Authority, and other entities. Now it’s time for an online survey and two open houses.

The first is Tuesday from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at the Mendenhall Valley Library.  Wednesday’s open house is at the Downtown Library, also from 4 to 6: 30 p.m.

Lyman says transportation consultants often look for bus system similarities in other communities, but Juneau doesn’t easily compare.  That’s because it’s such a linear system.

“We’re set up sort of ideally for transit because it’s very easy to serve that linear development with a single bus line.  If we were a big sprawling area with multiple centers and many different residential areas, it’d be much harder to choreograph how people could move through that community,” he says. “Most places don’t have the geographic constraints that we have with mountains on one side and ocean on another so they end up being much more sprawling than what we are here in Juneau.”

Capital Transit operates 18 buses that have 150 stops; 44 of them have shelters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Juneau Assembly has appointed a tourism specialist and commercial fishing advocate to the CBJ Docks and Harbors Board.

Bob Janes, owner of Gastineau Guiding, and Mike Peterson will each serve a three-year-term beginning in July.  They replace outgoing member Eric Kueffner – who could not be re-appointed due to term limits.  Outgoing member Mike Williams decided not to seek another term.

Assembly member Jesse Kiehl chaired the Human Resource Committee of the Whole, comprised of all nine Assembly members.  They reappointed Greg Busch to the board.  Busch is currently Docks and Harbors vice chairman.

“We felt that the folks we ended up appointing are going to make for a more diverse Docks and Harbors Board than we’ve had in the past, and an even stronger one,” Kiehl says.

 

The Statter Harbor master plan was a recurring issue during the Docks and Harbors interviews, he says.

The Planning Commission recently turned down a conditional use permit for the second phase of the harbor, including a new launch ramp and parking area.  An Auke Bay neighborhood group opposes some of the proposed changes. The commission will reconsider its vote on Tuesday.

Kiehl says the Assembly did not give the Docks and Harbors Board direction about the harbor, “but I think it’s fair to say we were looking for folks that have a very balanced approach and who put a lot of value on reaching out.  So we remain hopeful that the Docks & Harbors Board and the Planning Commission will find the balance that works for everyone.”

The issue may be one that drew a number of people to apply for the seats.

Kiehl says there does seem to be more citizen interest in certain CBJ boards lately.  The city had 23 applicants for nine seats on the three enterprise boards of Docks and Harbors, Eaglecrest, and the Airport — so many that interviews for the ski area and airport board will be held next month.

Local author Jean Rogers will be remembered Sunday for her contributions to Juneau’s arts community. The two-hour program will host musical performances and stories from the artists Jean supported during her life.

Jean Rogers is remembered for her children’s book, King Island Christmas, a true-story Rogers adapted from Alaskan artist Rie Munoz’s real-life experiences on the Bering Sea Island in the nineteen-fifties.

In the 1997, the story was made into a musical, first performed at Perseverance Theatre.  Nearly every Christmas season, musicians in Juneau bring the story to life. Now a group is taking Rogers’s story across the pond to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland.

Directed by Missouri Smith, King Island Christmas will be among thousands of performances at the Fringe Festival this August. To stand out, the production has been renamed Alaska’s King Island Christmas and dedicated to Rogers.

Because if it wasn’t for her excitement and enthusiasm about the story when Rie told her, it never would have happened. -Sharon Gaiptman, Alaska’s King Island Christmas Organizer

To raise enough money for the 40 cast members, group organizer Sharon Gaiptman proposed an internet “kickstarter campaign” with a goal of raising ten-thousand dollars. Before the month was over, more than 100 online donors contributed 11-thousand thousand dollars.

Fundraising efforts for the production have included bake sales, school dances, garage sales, dinners, and even a loan from True North Federal Credit Union. The last fundraising opportunity will be a weekend of performances called Christmas in July before the group leaves for Scotland.

Rachel Saunders has been performing in the King Island Christmas Chorus since 2001. The Fringe Festival will be her 5^th  production.

When we’re up there singing to the audience, you just feel like you’re giving a gift to the community and we get so much more in return when we’re singing it.

The King Island Christmas Chorus will perform three numbers from the musical during Sunday’s memorial for Rogers including favorite, Agoodik Muktuk Salmon and Seal.

Roger’s daughter Sydney Fadaoff says donations from the memorial will go to Willoughby Arts Complex Fund in memory of Jean and George Rogers.

It was mom and dad’s dream for Juneau to have a performing arts center so I’m sure they would be very pleased to know that’s where the contributions will be going

“A celebration of life of Jean Rogers through the Arts” is Sunday, at 2pm at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center.