A Washington state man will be the new Community Development Director for the City and Borough of Juneau.
Hal Hart was one of four finalists out of 22 applicants for the job. He recently went through the three-day assessment center and interview process used to determine how candidates will respond to the daily situations and problems they’ll encounter in the job they seek.
Deputy City Manager Rob Steedle says Hart’s combination of education and experience put him forward as the best fit for the position.
Hart was most recently Planning and Development Services Director for the City of Woodinville. He’s been Planning and Development Services Director for Whatcom County and held various jobs focused on planning and zoning.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in Local Government Finance and Economics from Central Washington University. His masters’ in Urban Planning comes from Eastern Washington University.
Hart and his family will relocate to Juneau in late August.
Loren Jones says he intends to run for Juneau Assembly. He has filed a letter of intent with the APOC, which allows candidates to begin raising campaign funds. Here he is watching 2011 Assembly election returns when he lost by 73 votes to Carlton Smith. Photo by Rosemarie Alexander.
Loren Jones is collecting voters’ signatures for his CBJ nomination petition. He intends to file for the Assembly District One seat on August 3rd, the first day of the filing period for the October municipal election.
Jones ran for the areawide seat last year and lost to Carlton Smith by 73 votes.
Since then, he’s rarely missed a regular or special Assembly meeting, or an Assembly committee meeting. He says public service is where he believes he can do the “most good.”
Jones says he also was encouraged to run because term limits prohibit the incumbent, David Stone, from running, and “running last time I found a real positive experience. I really enjoyed it. So I thought I’ll give it one more shot, see what happens.”
Jones is retired from the state of Alaska, where he worked for the Department of Health and Social Services for nearly 30 years. He served on the Bartlett Regional Hospital board for many years, and still goes to meetings. He’s also been a member of several other local boards.
He says he finds debate on the current Juneau Assembly lacking, and believes he would add an intelligent voice.
“I think that the public is owed a pretty lengthy discussion, or a very short discussion, based on what the issues really are. I think part of it has to do with making sure that everything’s understood early on,” he said. “It just seems that either, there’s no debate to it at all, or it sort of gets sidetracked off on side issues.”
The municipal office candidate filing period is August 3 to 13. This year Juneau mayor, two Assembly and three school board seats are up for election.
Filing a letter of intent with the APOC – as Jones has done — allows candidates to begin raising campaign money prior to the CBJ filing period.
A brand new 45-ton boat lift arrived in Juneau last week and is already turning heads at the Auke Bay Commercial Loading Facility. (Photo courtesy CBJ Docks and Harbors Dept.)
Juneau’s Docks and Harbors Department got a new piece of equipment last week, but it’ll probably be another three months before it’s fully operational.
The hydraulic boat lift is capable of hoisting vessels up to 45-tons and 65-feet in length out of the water. It arrived at the Auke Bay Commercial Loading Facility on Friday, and is already attracting attention from passersby.
Juneau Port Director Carl Uchytil says it looks like a big blue forklift. But the forks feature inflatable bumpers that are easier on a boat’s hull.
“We picked this model because of the number of wooden hulled vessels that we think we’ll be hauling out,” Uchytil says. “Many of the wooden fishing boats we have are 50-60 years old. So we thought this was the best device for the Juneau commercial fishermen.”
Uchytil says Docks and Harbors staff will be trained to use the lift by employees of the manufacturer — Sea-Lift of Bellingham, Washington.
But it won’t be used in earnest until October. That’s because it can’t lift boats out of the water until a wash down area is built at the commercial loading facility.
“Department of Environmental Conservation has very strict water collection rules,” Uchytil says. “We need to collect the water that we use to pressure wash off the hulls. So, whatever contaminants that were on the hull, we would collect and ensure that that doesn’t get in the waterway.”
The lift cost $750,000 dollars and was paid for with a part of $3.6-million TIGER grant the city received as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the stimulus act.
Docks and Harbors has requested $1.3-million from a proposed extension of the city’s temporary 1-percent sales tax, which would allow the lift to be used at Statter Harbor in addition to the loading facility.
The Juneau Assembly Finance Committee has signed off on a pair of capital improvement funding packages likely to be on this fall’s municipal election ballot.
The full Assembly still needs to vote on the measures. But for now it appears Juneau residents will be asked to approve an extension of the city’s temporary 1-percent sales tax and a $24.9-million bond proposition.
KTOO’s Casey Kelly has more.
Finance Committee Chair Karen Crane says the bond measure is meant to pay for items not covered by the sales tax extension, which will bring in an estimated $44.8-million over five years.
“The problem was there was $70-million worth of requests,” Crane says. “And a lot of really worthy projects, and needs for maintenance and other things. And so this just allowed us to get a little further.”
The Finance Committee last night (Monday) voted 6-3 in favor of separate financing packages, with opposition coming from Assembly members Randy Wanamaker, Ruth Danner and Mary Becker.
Wanamaker says he believes some of the projects in the bond proposition should be paid for with sales tax revenue and vice versa.
“The bond proposition is going to increase property taxes,” Wanamaker says. “And if we’re going to ask people to consider raising their property taxes, it should be for things that people want to have, but aren’t necessary for the people to have.”
Under the current proposal, $10-million dollars from the sales tax extension is earmarked to pay down debt on the bonds, deferring a property tax hike for at least five years.
Sealaska Heritage Institute's Walter Soboleff Center is included in the Juneau Assembly's latest proposal to fund projects with 1% sales tax money. (Rendering courtesy MRV Architects)
If the sales tax passes and the bond measure fails, the $10-million would be used to upgrade Centennial Hall and Aurora Harbor. Right now those items are included in the bond proposition, along with renovation of Capital Transit’s bus barn and funding for a new Learning Center at Eaglecrest Ski Area, among other projects.
The sales tax extension would pay for nearly $34.5-million dollars in projects, ranging from a children’s mental health facility at Bartlett Regional Hospital to parks and trails borough-wide. The measure also includes $3-million dollars for Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Walter Soboleff Center, to be built across the street from Sealaska Plaza downtown.
The measures now go to the full Assembly, which will take public comment before voting on whether to approve them for the October 2nd municipal election ballot.
