Local Government

Cruise ships visiting Juneau will pay more to hook up to CBJ drinking water come October.

The Assembly Monday night let a Docks and Harbors Board decision stand, increasing the potable water fee by a $1.32 per 1,000 gallons.

The fee only applies to ships that tie up at the Cruise Terminal and Alaska Steamship berths.

The city’s drinking water fees have remained the same since 2005. The fee goes from $3.35 to $4.67 per 1,000 gallons.

Juneau sells about 27-million gallons of drinking water annually at the downtown berth.

Skagway is the only other Southeast port that sells metered water, at a fee of $4.20 cents per 1,000 gallons.

Juneau’s new garbage cans need to be labeled and kept odor free, according to amendments to the Bear Attraction Nuisance section of the city’s Health and Sanitation Code.

The Assembly approved the ordinance at its regular meeting Monday night.

Labeling garbage cans has long been in Juneau law. But local garbage collector, Arrow Refuse, recently changed to a roll-cart service, and customers are leasing the can from the company. The law has been changed to note that many Juneau residents are now garbage can “renters” and they, too, must label the can just like owners. But City Manager Kim Kiefer warns residents the Arrow can should not be permanently labeled.

“What Arrow recommends is putting something like a luggage tag on the can so there’s an address there. They will move the can from place to place so they don’t want somebody to put an address on the side of it in permanent marker,” Kiefer said. “The renter is responsible for making sure that’s on there. They’re also responsible for making sure it’s odor free.”

The ordinance goes into effect in mid-November; giving customers 60 days to get the appropriate label for the new roll-cart cans.

As for an “odor-free” garbage can? Be sure your trash is bagged. And periodically wash it out.

Arrow Refuse puts it this way: Bagging your trash will keep your can cleaner, the utility does not clean garbage cans.

Long time Juneau resident Bruce Denton is glad to be alive. The 63-year-old contractor nearly died the morning of August 27 in a rowing accident in Aurora Harbor. He credits the quick actions of four Aurora Harbor residents for saving his life.

Denton’s story was told at the Juneau Assembly meeting Monday night, and the four Good Samaritans were given Citizen Commendations for what Mayor Bruce Botelho calls “acts of heroism.”

It started like this: Crystal and Bert Fawcett were driving away from the parking lot near the Yacht Club when she spotted a man in a rowing shell between the shore and main floats, just north of the H-float ramp.

Then she noticed the shell had stopped. She could not see the boater, but saw blood and called 9-1-1. Her husband Bert and Jerry Burns – who was on his way to his boat — rushed down the ramp.

They saw the boater submerged next to the shell about 15 feet from the main float and dove into the water. He was unconscious, not breathing, and foam was in his mouth. As Jerry cradled his head above the water, they tried to drag him back to the dock, but his feet were still strapped to the 24-foot shell.

Meanwhile, Crystal got the attention of another harbor resident, John Feller.

Mayor Botelho continues the story:

“So he started down to help, grabbing a long-handled deck brush along the way. He was able to reach out with the deck brush to help Bert and Jerry, and once John was able to reach out and hold the victim, Jerry made it onto the dock while Bert was able to release the Velcro straps that were keeping the victim anchored to the shell. While Jerry cradled the victim’s head, John began doing CPR chest compressions, which expelled volumes of water,” Botelho said.

Then Denton coughed and started to breathe.

Capital City Fire and Rescue provided advance life support to Bartlett Regional Hospital, where he spent the night in Intensive Care. Denton was released the next day.

He was in Assembly Chambers as his story was being told. In addition to publically thanking the four citizen responders, CCFR, and hospital staff, he encouraged the public to learn the skill of CPR.

“I would like to think that something good for me, besides surviving, that’s coming from this thing is that it would be an opportunity to encourage people to take a class,” he said.

Jerry Burns works for Juneau Marine Services in Auke Bay. Bert Fawcett has been a fireman and worked in tourism this summer, Crystal Fawcett is a student at UAS, and John Feller is a retired commercial fisherman.

“They all have in common that they are residents of our Juneau harbor,” Botelho said.

Juneau’s municipal election is still two weeks away, but voters can now cast absentee ballots at two polling places in town.

Ballots are available at City Hall Assembly Chambers and in the Mendenhall Mall. Voting hours at the mall are 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. weekdays, and noon to 4 p.m. on weekends. City Hall voting hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., weekdays only through October 1^st.

City Clerk Laurie Sica says any registered Juneau voter can cast an absentee ballot for any reason, and many people prefer it to voting on Election Day.

“It’s just convenient,” Sica says. “And they don’t forget then on Election Day or don’t put themselves in a bind and get to the poll by 8 o’ clock.”

In the past eight municipal elections, city records show between 13 and 15 percent of voters have cast absentee ballots. Sica says the city saw a big increase when it started offering early voting at the Mendenhall Mall about 10 years ago.

Absentee ballots are also available for mail-in and fax-in voting by contacting the clerk’s office.

While most regular ballots will be counted on Election Night, Sica says absentee ballots are always counted a few days later.

“We have to cross check to make sure that that person didn’t go to a poll on Election Day and cast a ballot there,” she says. “So, we do that cross check before we approve all the ballots that are absentee to be counted.”

Municipal Election Day is Tuesday October 2^nd.

Juneau voters will choose a new mayor, two new assembly members, three school board members, and decide two ballot propositions that would fund capital projects for the next five years.

Termination dust has been seen around Juneau, and though snow hasn’t hit the top of Eaglecrest yet, it’s time to think about winter.

The city-owned ski area will celebrate the annual Discover Eaglecrest Day on Saturday in recognition of the end of summer – which we never had anyway — and what skiers and boarders hope will be a great winter in the mountains.

General Manager Matt Lillard says the Porcupine chairlift will be running tomorrow to take people up to the Porcupine area. “They’ll be able to walk down and they’ll go through what’s called the Decomposition Decathlon, which is put on by Discovery Southeast.”

Eaglecrest summer partners Alaska Zipline Adventures and Cycle Alaska will offer discounted rates; there will be an Alpine BBQ, Beer Garden, and Mountain Lift will be open.

Discover Eaglecrest Day is also a chance to purchase season passes at the lowest prices of the season.

“October 8th is when it will go up again and then from October 8th to November 3rd, which is the ski swap weekend, that’s the next price break,” Lillard says. “And then after November 3rd, the price will go up again.”

The City and Borough of Juneau has budgeted a four-and a half month ski season, beginning December 1, assuming the weather cooperates.

Lillard says he hopes the cold, wet summer means a lot of snow like last year, when Eaglecrest had more snow at times than ski areas around the world.

“Obviously Mother Nature will do what she’ll do. I know that we have an El Nino coming up and we’ve looked at the patterns there and that doesn’t tell us much. We’ve had great seasons and we’ve had not so great seasons with that weather pattern, so we’re just going to have to wait and see and get a little closer to get some better indicators,” he says. “But if cold and wet is what the summer was and winter’s going to be a little bit colder and just as wet, we should be looking pretty good.”

Over the summer, crews exchanged the noisy, high-carbon diesel fuel motor on Hooter chairlift for a more energy-efficient electric one. The Black Bear lift also has new chairs, similar to Eaglecrest’s other lifts and without a pole in the middle. The chairs are courtesy of Mount Sima in Whitehose, Yukon. The old Black Bear chairs will be sold to raise funds for Eaglecrest Foundation projects.

Former Alaska First Lady Ermalee Hickel is the honorary statewide chair of the capital city’s whale sculpture fundraising campaign.

The citizen’s committee has raised nearly $350,000 toward the $2.3 million project, a life-size bronze breaching humpback whale to be sculpted by Skip Wallen in recognition of the 50th anniversary of Alaska statehood. Committee chairwoman Kathy Ruddy says Hickel, who lives in Anchorage, will give the project some statewide reach.

“Having people upstate learn what we’re trying to do. A capital awareness campaign,” Ruddy says.

The whale has been donated to the City and Borough, which has agreed to locate and maintain it on city property.

The Juneau Assembly Committee of the Whole this week approved the final sculpture location. Once planned for busy Marine Park, the 27-foot whale will be part of the proposed maritime park near the Douglas Bridge.

Ruddy calls it an optimal location.

“As you’re coming up the channel you’ll be able to see it,” she says. “You won’t be able to see it from Egan Drive, but Skip Wallen was always concerned about road noise in the first place, because he wants this to be an extraordinary experience where you see this whale and fountain, and in your mind you see a live whale breaching out of the water, which many of us have seen, but not everyone, so we’re eager to create that experience.”

The project is still about a year from completion. The committee is holding a fundraising dinner and auction Friday evening at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center.

The ten 6-foot resin whales’ tails that have been seen around Juneau this summer will be auctioned and the proceeds will go to the project.