Community

Juneau Veterans for Peace says it will not appeal the Juneau Assembly’s decision upholding a Planning Commission permit for a gun store and shooting range near the airport.

In a 6 to 2 vote late Monday night, the Assembly ruled the Planning Commission properly issued the permit last December.  The veterans’ group appealed the Juneau Mercantile and Armory permit just after it was issued, arguing the Planning Commission did not properly consider public health and safety, or the CBJ Comprehensive Plan.

Veterans’ for Peace Chapter President Phil Smith is not surprised by the decision. The group will not take the appeal to the next level, which would be Juneau Superior Court.

“The decision makes it fairly clear  that there is an enormous amount of deference that is given to municipal bodies by the courts, and plus it would cost a lot of money,” Smith says.

The appeal to this point has consisted of his time and not much expense, but a court challenge would require a lot more.

“We would need an attorney; it would be, I think, extraordinarily expensive, time consuming and ultimately futile,” he says.

But Smith says Juneau Veterans for Peace will “watch wearily as the development goes in and continue to see if there are things we can do to make our community a little gentler and kinder.”

Mayor Merrill Sanford and Assembly members Mary Becker, Jesse Kiehl, Jerry Nankervis, Carlton Smith and Randy Wanamaker voted to uphold the Planning Commission.  Karen Crane and Loren Jones voted with the appellants.

Jones was hearing officer for the case, which was heard by the Assembly on April 1st.  He says the Planning Commission did not have a sufficient record regarding health and safety.

For example, he says, during a Planning Commission hearing on the permit, there was testimony that armory shooting instructors would be certified, “but nobody asked who’s doing the certification. What are the credentials of the people doing the certification? Was it a national certification, a state certification, a private certification?”

Jones has similar questions for training and safety plans that were noted in the permit record.

“Nobody on the Planning Commission asked for copies of those, nobody asked who approved those plans, whether the Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms with the feds had to approve it, who wrote them,” Jones says. “I felt that their reliance on simply saying this was a land use and zoning issue as opposed to a potential safety issue in the borough just didn’t wash with me.”

But Assembly member Jerry Nankervis says the question before the Assembly was narrow.

“We’re sitting in a quasi-judicial role and when we review an appeal of a Planning Commission decision what we’re looking at is whether the city and the Planning Commission followed the rules the city has in place for the city,” he says. “And it’s not about whether I like the project or I don’t like the project, it’s about whether the process was followed.” 

Nankervis acknowledges the Planning Commission’s discussion on safety at the gun range was thin.

The 13,000 square foot facility on Crest Street would offer semi-automatic, automatic and assault-style weapons, which Smith calls guns of war.

Nankervis – a former Juneau Police Officer – believes the new Juneau Mercantile and Armory will be a safer place than Juneau’s outdoor shooting range.

“I’ve been at the gun range, Hack Harmon, before, sighting in my rifle for deer season and had people show up with automatic weapons and shoot there, and I believe, based on my experience on what I’ve done for a living, that having that done in a supervised range is safer than having it done at an unsupervised range,” he says.

One of the things Juneau Veterans for Peace hopes would grow out of the appeal is a community conversation on gun safety.  But Smith knows it would pit “those who think any discussion of public safety along those lines is somehow an attack on second amendment rights. Then there are those who sort of more agree with Juneau Veterans for Peace that it’s just smart to have that conversation.  It’s smart to determine whether it makes a lot of sense to expose children to automatic weapons and all that entails.  It’s smart to tone down the level of rhetoric.”

Neither Assembly member Jones nor Nankervis believe the Assembly would get behind a public discourse on guns, though Nankervis says it might be a cathartic conversation.  The state of Alaska – not municipalities — regulates gun use.

We’re not born winners and losers. We’re born choosers.

That was the message former NFL offensive lineman turned motivational speaker Shawn Harper had for an audience of young people Wednesday at the Glacier Valley Rotary Club’s annual Pillars of America speakers series.

Harper told his personal story of growing up poor with a single mom in Columbus, Ohio, where he overcame abuse, learning disabilities, and other people’s doubts about whether he could go to college and play professional football.

“So, I could never become wealthy, because in my mind I’m seeing poverty. I could never have success, because all I’m seeing is myself failing from the first grade,” Harper said. “My identity was imprinted with destruction.”

Instead of accepting that, Harper says he developed some keys to achieving success. They include having a dream and chasing it; having the vision to spot obstacles; and making the right choices.

He says the right choices led him to playing football at junior college and Indiana University, which he graduated from in 1992. His professional career ultimately included stops in the NFL and NFL Europe.

He says one of the most important choices a young person can make is the choice to not do drugs.

“My best friend right now is doing 25 years flat time. Another one is dead,” he said. “Because of drugs, because of choices. You’re not born winners and losers, you’re born choosers.”

The 6 foot 4 inch, 320 pound former lineman invited 14-year-old Cody Weldon onto the stage to demonstrate how drugs can weigh a person down. Harper lifted Weldon onto his shoulders, and held him there while he talked, until he grew tired.

Weldon – a student at Floyd Dryden Middle School – says he met Harper at a pre-talk reception, where the speaker asked him to be part of the speech. He says he was a little nervous at first, but quickly got over it.

“I’m a little bit shy,” Weldon admits. “But I went up I guess, and it wasn’t that bad. It was pretty fun.”

Weldon says he liked Harper’s message and thinks it will change how he makes choices in the future.

“Probably going to try a little bit harder at some of the things I do,” he said. “Probably will get on top of some things that I’ve procrastinated over. Overall, just probably going to make my life a little bit better.”

Hundreds of Juneau middle and high school students attend the Pillars of America series every year. Students from the Hoonah School District are scheduled to attend this year thanks to a grant from the Rotary club and Sealaska Corporation. However, the Hoonah students missed Harper’s talk after getting weathered out of Capital City Wednesday morning.

When Jim King was appointed to the City and Borough of Juneau’s first Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee in 1968, the Capital City didn’t even have a Parks and Rec department.

Today, the department is responsible for managing more than 50 parks and trails, two swimming pools, an ice arena, a skate park, and a rifle range. Not to mention the Jensen-Olson Arboretum, the Zach Gordon Youth Center, Centennial Hall, two parking garages, and the Juneau-Douglas City Museum.

King stepped down from the PRAC last month after 45 years. The Juneau Assembly on Monday honored his contributions to recreation in the Capital City and statewide. The proclamation took Mayor Merrill Sanford three minutes to read, and included nine whereas sections.

CBJ Parks and Rec Director Brent Fischer joked it easily could have been longer.

“We could have added more whereases on there until the sun came up tomorrow,” Fischer said. “But I want the Assembly and the public to know just, because of you, what a better place this community is.”

In 1970, King led the PRAC’s effort to compile a comprehensive list of parks and trails in Juneau. He also helped establish the Juneau State Parks Advisory Board, and led the charge to create the Mendenhall Wetlands State Game Refuge.

“I’ve always thought it was a privilege to live in Juneau and to be involved in the community as a volunteer with the Parks and Rec department,” King said. “It’s been wonderful.”

King worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for more than 30 years as an enforcement agent, refuge manager and wildlife biologist. His final meeting as a member of the PRAC was in March.

The 85 year old will continue to live in Juneau with his wife, Mary Lou.

 

Juneau Symphony conductor Kyle Wylie Pickett says news that he’s taken a job with the Topeka Symphony got ahead of discussions with the other orchestras he directs.

But he confirms he will continue to lead the capital city’s symphony through the 2013 – 14 season.    The Board of Directors also hopes he will help with the transition to a new conductor during the 2014 – 15 season.

Topeka offered Pickett the job last weekend and the Juneau Empire picked up the story from the Topeka Capital-Journal, also owned by Morris Communications.

“So that story got across the divide sooner than I wanted it to, unfortunately,” he said in an interview with KTOO on Tuesday.

He says he’s still figuring out the implications of taking the Topeka position.  He’s also director of the North State Symphony in Chico, California.

“Part of the equation is just figuring out how all three of these things can work together, and if they will work together and if they won’t work together then what will be the result? And the answer is, I still don’t know,” Pickett said.

Juneau has been his second home for the last 13 years, as he flew back and forth from California.  The symphony performs four main-stage concerts a year.  Pickett arrives two weeks before and holds several rehearsals each week.  In between, resident director Todd Hunt leads rehearsals.

It is not unusual for conductors to direct a number of orchestras, Pickett said.

“For those of us who are trying to make a career as a conductor of regional orchestras it just seems like that’s the way it has to happen.  You’re usually piecing it together with a couple different orchestras,” he said.  “I think a lot of it has to do with the artistic experience and one of the things I’ve said for years — and I really do believe it is true — is the fact that I’m a conductor in California makes me a better conductor for the Juneau Symphony and the fact that I’m a conductor in Juneau makes me a better conductor for the North State Symphony.”

He says he has no plans yet to move his family to Topeka.

“Next year we will be in our same house in California, and I’ll be flying to Topeka and I’ll be flying to Juneau and we’ll work the plans out for that in the coming weeks,” he said. 

The Topeka Symphony is a professional per-service orchestra, meaning musicians do not make a livable wage, but get a stipend.  Juneau Symphony musicians are volunteers.

Pickett said he will have details of how his three conducting jobs will work together when the Juneau Symphony wraps up its current season in June.

 

Original Story:

Juneau Symphony conductor Kyle Wylie Pickett will continue to lead the orchestra for the next year, though he has taken a job with the Topeka, Kansas symphony.

Pickett has been Juneau’s itinerant director since 2000, splitting his time between Juneau and North State Symphony in Chico, California.

The Topeka Symphony Orchestra appointed Pickett as music director and conductor over the weekend.  He was one of five finalists and was guest conductor in January.

According to Pickett’s website, he also was guest artist for the Montana Ballet in December, the Bozeman Symphony in February, and the Springfield, Missouri symphony in March.

“We always knew that Juneau was not his last stop,” said  Bev Smith, president of the Juneau Symphony Board.   “So we were happy to have him for as long as we’ve had him—13 years, when we were expecting to have him only for three.”

Smith says Pickett will continue as Juneau’s music director through next season, with concerts October through June.

“He will conduct our concerts as well as the Topeka concerts.  And then the following season he will still be our artistic director but he will probably not conduct, he will assist us on the transition,” Smith said. 

The symphony will begin the search for a new conductor next year.  The finalists will come to Juneau as guest conductors during the 2014-15  season.

Principal flutist Sally Schlichting was on the search committee when Pickett was hired in a similar process, which took more than a year.

The symphony had well over 100 applicants then, narrowed to four finalists.

“They were here for at least a month each prior to the program they were conducting,” she said. “They selected the pieces and conducted the whole set of rehearsals and then the performances.”

Schlichting said she expects a new search to be as arduous as the last, when the symphony did a lot of soul searching about the organization and what they were looking for in a conductor.

She said Pickett’s combination of personality and musicality, and his way of communicating to the musicians has taken Juneau’s orchestra to new levels.

“He’s been here now 13 years and every program has raised our level of ability.  The experience with him musically is just exceptional,” Schlichting said.  

Board President Bev Smith said she expects there will be a lot of applicants for Juneau Symphony conductor when the position is finally advertised in a few months.

According to the Topeka Symphony website, 125 people from all over the world applied for the job that Pickett just accepted.

Conductor Pickett could not be reached for this story prior to news time.

 

 

 

 

The Juneau Assembly will take public comments tonight on the proposed city and school district budgets for next fiscal year.

The spending plan submitted by City Manager Kim Kiefer calls for about $236 million dollars to keep the city and borough running in fiscal year 2014 – up about two percent from the current year.

However, the proposed budget includes a small property tax increase authorized by the Assembly a year ago, which some members would now like to see reversed. If they get their way, the Assembly would have to cut about a million dollars in projected spending.

The proposed Juneau School District operating budget of nearly $94 million dollars is up about three percent from this year. The plan includes about $24 million in local support from the city – the maximum allowed under state law. The rest of the district’s funding comes largely from state and federal sources.

Though both budgets are on the Assembly agenda for public comment, neither will be voted on tonight. The Assembly Finance Committee is in the middle of a series of budget hearings, expected to last through next month. After taking comments, the full Assembly will refer the budgets back the finance committee to continue those deliberations.

The new fiscal year doesn’t start until July 1^st. The full Assembly has until May 31^st to appropriate the school district budget and until June 15^th to adopt the city’s operating budget.

Tonight’s meeting gets underway at 7 p.m. in City Hall Assembly Chambers. It can be heard live on KTOO-FM.