KTOO, the Juneau Empire and Capital City Weekly each took home several awards at the annual Alaska Press Club conference held this weekend in Anchorage.
In the radio division, stories produced by the KTOO News Team won First Place for Best Government or Political Reporting and Best Reporting on Crime or Courts. KTOO reports also took Second Place in the Crime or Courts category, and Third Place for Best Sports Reporting.
The Empire got First Place for Best Reporting on Crime or Courts and Best Arts Coverage in the print division. Empire Sports Editor Klas Stolpe won Best Sports Columnist, and Managing Editor John Moses won the Leslie Ann Murray Award for Best Editorial or Commentary in the all-media division. The Empire and Capital City Weekly also received several awards for Second and Third Place stories.
The awards are for pieces produced during the 2011 calendar year.
Foresters, geologists, fishery biologists, climatologists, and culture bearers from up and down the Pacific Northwest are in Juneau this week for the first-ever Coastal Temperate Rainforests symposium.
The event is organized by the Juneau-based Alaska Coastal Rainforest Center. Tuesday’s events included a field trip to Berners Bay. Wednesday’s events includes sessions on adaption and climate effects.
On Thursday, subjects include public policy and education.
During a short break in presentations on Wednesday, we talked briefly with Rick Edwards of the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station in Juneau about the conference and some of his work.
The Coast Guard has called a community meeting tonight (Monday) in Kodiak to discuss last week’s double homicide at the base’s communications station.
Law enforcement officials remain tight-lipped about the murders of 41-year-old James Hopkins and 51-year-old Richard Belisle, who were shot to death inside a building at the Com Station complex. Hopkins was a Petty Officer 1st Class electronics technician, and Belisle was a retired Chief Petty Officer, who was working for the Coast Guard as a civilian employee.
FBI Spokesman Eric Gonzales said over the weekend that the killer was still on the loose, but the community was not in any danger. He did not say why he thought Kodiak residents were not in danger.
Meanwhile, Alaska State Trooper vehicles were seen blocking access to a home in the Bell’s Flats neighborhood all weekend. Individuals in white encounter suits were seen Sunday searching the house and area.
Tonight’s community meeting will be held at the Gerald C. Wilson Auditorium at 7 p.m.
A memorial service for Hopkins and Belisle will be held Wednesday in a hangar at the Kodiak Coast Guard base.
The City of Gustavus has hired Virginia-based consultants ICF International to develop a plan for expanding high speed Internet access in the community.
Gustavus residents currently get 3G and satellite Internet service, but access is spotty and speeds are less than one-fifth the national average.
The city received $235,000 in last year’s state capital budget to plan and design a community broadband network. City officials hope to build the infrastructure to serve Gustavus for the next 20 years. They also hope the planning effort can serve as a model for other rural Alaska communities facing issues with Internet access.
ICF will begin the planning process this month by assessing community and stakeholder needs, including local residents and telecommunications companies.
Gustavus is considered the gateway to Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. The community of 460 residents is located about 48 air miles northwest of Juneau.
According to his biography on the Legislature’s website, Gatto was born in New York City on December 29, 1937. He moved to Alaska in 1968, and was a career paramedic and firefighter with the Anchorage Fire Department.
A visibly shaken Representative Bill Stoltze announced his death on the floor of the Alaska House.
“It’s with a great deal of sadness that inform the members of this body, the people of the valley, and the people of Alaska, that our friend and colleague Carl Gatto – Representative Gatto as I want to remember him – passed away about an hour ago,” said Stoltze.
A Republican, Gatto was first elected to the House in 2002 and served five terms representing his Mat-Su Valley district. He chaired several committees, most recently House Judiciary.
Gatto was battling prostate cancer this session, and was often absent from the Capitol while receiving treatments. He suffered kidney failure last week.
Stoltze said Gatto leaned heavily on spirituality and family in his final days.
“Our sympathies to his wife Cathy, who I’m so grateful he got spend his last days with,” Stoltze said.
Gatto also is survived by two daughters and two sons.
In what amounted to a farewell speech on the House floor just a week before he died, Gatto thanked his colleagues for their support during his illness.
“People would send cards,” he said. “Cards after cards after cards, and some of them, I said, ‘Who the heck is this?’ And when I got the bottom of the card, it said, ‘Alaska Democratic Party!’ I said, well, ‘If you can go there, they must be real, and honest.’ So, I want to thank you enough, and thank each and every one of you with a special thanks.”
Governor Sean Parnell released a statement saying, “Alaska has lost a great public servant who will be remembered for his wit and wisdom, his commitment to education and veterans’ issues, and his unwavering support for the people of the Mat-Su.”
Parnell ordered flags lowered to half-staff today. They will be raised to full staff on Thursday.
Assembly member Ruth Danner wants to turn this old CBJ Public Works shop into a shelter for homeless people. Her proposal was rejected by the full Assembly 7-2. (Photo by Casey Kelly/KTOO)
A Juneau Assembly member wants to set up a homeless shelter at the old CBJ shop under the Douglas Bridge.
Ruth Danner suggests the equipment facility become a temporary solution for a downtown problem that gets worse every summer.
“I just feel like you can’t keep telling these people you can’t be here, without telling them where you can be,” Danner told the Assembly Monday night.
She is chair of the Assembly Human Resources Committee, which has been gathering information on Juneau’s homeless issue for some time now.
The committee on Monday heard the results of a recent Vulnerability Index Survey. Glory Hole Outreach Coordinator Kiel Renick told members the goal is to connect Juneau’s most vulnerable homeless to services and housing.
“We estimated that we probably spoke to 75 to 80 percent of who we would deem the target community – unsheltered, the chronically homeless, those who are experiencing seriously challenges, so I do want to reiterate this project is looking at one demographic of the homeless community in Juneau,” he said.
The Juneau Homeless Coalition estimates more than 500 homeless people live in the capital city. The survey indicates those most at risk have been on the streets an average of ten years.
Renick said he’s still compiling data from the survey and cannot yet recommend solutions to Juneau’s chronic problem.
Danner believes a long-term solution could be three to five years out.
“We don’t even know what the solution looks like yet,” she said.
The Assembly has not yet discussed possible solutions nor are members ready to advocate a city policy. But Danner said the city must do something now. She made a motion to the full Assembly to set up a homeless shelter in the equipment shop under the Douglas Bridge.
“I want to know what is the least we can do to this building in order to allow for shelter of our homeless and vulnerable citizens,” she said.
The city has moved its Public Works shop to 7 Mile Glacier Highway. Last year the Assembly appropriated the funds to demolish the old building and a contract will soon be awarded.
CBJ Engineering Director Rorie Watt reminded Assembly members that the shop has been used for snow plows, graders, trucks, and other heavy equipment. He said at the least, even a temporary shelter would require a conditional use permit and would have to conform to CBJ housing codes.
“I don’t have all the details with me but I know that we do have underground fuel tanks, which is normal for lots of facilities. I’m sure the slab in the equipment maintenance area is stained with diesel and oil and probably has lots of odor issues. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were small amounts of asbestos in the building,” he said.
Despite the logistics – as well as funding and finding an agency to run the shelter — Danner said it’s doable.
Assembly members said they didn’t want to vote against the homeless, but couldn’t agree. Johan Dybdahl put it this way:
“We’re a long ways from coming up with a solution and a maintenance building suddenly becoming a shelter, I think we’re going down the wrong road,” Dybdahl said.
Danner’s motion failed on a vote of seven to two.
For at least one more winter, the site under the bridge is to be used as a snow dump. It’s part of the Juneau Waterfront Master Plan, which calls for parkland and an extension of the seawalk. A new facility to house maritime services and port operations is also proposed.
In the meantime, the agency that paid for Juneau’s vulnerability survey is standing by to help the city find solutions to its problem.
Nancy Burke is a program officer for the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority. She told the Human Resources Committee that Juneau is in the right position to identify a housing project, now that it has the survey data.
“You’re the first community I’ve seen do it frontward instead of backward. Other communities identified their project and then figured out who was going in,” Burke said.
She said the Juneau Homeless Coalition should be the Assembly’s source of solutions and recommendations for a project to help the most vulnerable homeless.
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