Local Government

Juneau Mayor Bruce Botelho is suggesting a way for the CBJ Assembly to include more projects in a proposed extension of the city’s temporary 1-percent sales tax. KTOO’s Casey Kelly has more.

City departments and at least one nonprofit have submitted more than $68-million in project requests to be included on this fall’s municipal ballot. But if approved, the tax is only expected to bring in about $44.8-million dollars over its five year life.

Instead of trying to cram as many projects into the ballot proposition as possible, Botelho says the assembly could spin off transportation projects into a separate $25-million bond proposition that would cover most airport, docks and harbors and Capital Transit requests.

The mayor offered his idea in a memo to assembly members yesterday (Wednesday), calling it a “starting point” for discussions at tonight’s Assembly Finance Committee meeting. The committee is expected to finalize the project list and forward it to the full assembly for approval.

The temporary 1-percent sales tax is sometimes called the “project tax,” because it’s typically used to fund city construction and maintenance. It’s due to expire in September 2013.

Major projects that could appear in the proposed ballot proposition include more $3-million for upgrades to Centennial Hall, more than $4-million for a new Mendenhall Valley library, and $5-million for a new adolescent mental health facility at Bartlett Regional Hospital. The nonprofit Sealaska Heritage Institute also wants $3-million for a new downtown cultural center.

Botelho recommends the assembly include $1-million for the center. In his memo, the mayor writes that “preservation of Tlingit culture clearly meets … ‘public purpose’ standards.” He also says “The center will be a valuable addition to the community.”

The Finance Committee meets tonight at 5:30 in Assembly Chambers.

Links:
Botelho 1-percent sales tax memo [PDF]
Botelho 1-percent sales tax project list [PDF]

Candidates planning to run in this fall’s municipal election in Juneau can now pick up nominating petitions at the city clerk’s office.

To qualify for the October 2nd ballot, candidates must collect at least 25 signatures from qualified city and borough voters. The forms can be returned to the clerk’s office, starting Friday August 3rd and ending Monday August 13th.

Voters this year will be casting ballots for mayor, two assembly members, and three school board members. All the seats are for three year terms.

Candidates must be registered to vote in local and state elections, and have lived in Juneau for a full year if they’re running for assembly. In addition, candidates for District 1 and District 2 assembly seats must reside within those districts. District 1 includes downtown, Douglas, Lemon Creek and the airport area. District 2 encompasses the Mendenhall Valley and out the road.

A large professional office complex on Glacier Highway will soon be able to apply to the city for a second access route.

The Assembly Monday night approved an ordinance to amend the CBJ zoning map, allowing Professional Plaza in the 9300 hundred block to ask the Planning Commission for access from Berner’s Avenue.

Area residents say there’s enough traffic on their street.

Berner’s Avenue is an entrance to a large subdivision, it’s the truck route for the CBJ Water Treatment Plant, and the road to the popular Airport Dike Trail.

Resident Nathan Young told the Assembly the avenue doesn’t need any more traffic.

“It experiences volume way above and beyond a normal residential street,” Young said.

Berner’s Avenue is being rebuilt this summer. City Engineering Director Rorie Watt said engineers made some changes based on neighbors’ concerns before the project began, including narrowing lanes from 12 to 10 feet.

“So we think that the sidewalks protect pedestrians. And the stop (sign) and narrowing of the lanes I think substantially discourages cut through traffic,” he said.

Watt said Professional Plaza complex is large enough to warrant a second access, which would promote safety and public convenience. Neighborhood resident Janet Thrower wondered for whom?

“If Professional Plaza is convenienced a couple of times a day when there’s heavy traffic with not having to wait for left turns to Glacier Highway, our neighborhood is inconvenienced by a steady stream of commercial traffic all day long. Is Professional Plaza safer with commercial traffic routed through a residential neighborhood, even if that neighborhood has new streets and sidewalks? The neighborhood certainly is not safer,” she said.

A 1985 ordinance restricted Professional Plaza access to Glacier Highway. The Assembly’s zone change action repeals that. Residents have one more opportunity to take their worries to the Planning Commission, when Professional Plaza owners request a permit for the second access.

Four applicants for the CBJ Community Development Director will be on the hot seat Monday as the final selection process gets underway.

The city and borough received 22 applications for the position, vacated recently by the retirement of Dale Pernulla. Interviews were conducted with 11, and a selection committee further narrowed the field.

The finalists will participate in the city’s assessment center evaluation process, in which job candidates respond to daily situations and problems they would face in the job they seek. They must do written reports, oral presentations, power points and also face questions from city staff and the public.

Two of the four finalists are from Juneau: Greg Chaney, who is acting Community Development director, and Katherine Eldemar, a former special assistant to Sealaska Corp. President and CEO. Candidate Hal Hart comes from Washington state, where he’s worked in city planning and development. Ed James is a city and regional planner from Utah.

Public feedback is part of the process. Assessment center exercises will be held in Assembly Chambers and many are open to the public. They’re scheduled for Monday, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., and Tuesday, from 8:45 a.m. to 11 a.m., and 1 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. A public reception is scheduled for Tuesday from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

The City and Borough of Juneau will continue to lease Cathedral Park from the city’s downtown Catholic parish for at least another year.

The city pays the parish $800 a year for the small parcel at the corner of 5th and Gold. It also pays for park maintenance.

CBJ Parks Superintendent George Schaaf says funding for the lease was accidentally removed from the city budget for the upcoming fiscal year. It was restored after neighbors expressed concern that the church would pave over the park to expand its parking lot.

Schaaf says there’s still a possibility the lease will be terminated next year, but only after talking to the church and the city’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee.

“One of the things we’re looking at is trying to bring all of our playgrounds up to standard,” says Schaaf. “And the slide here and the retaining walls in this park currently don’t meet national standards for playgrounds and so that’s going to be a pretty significant expense to fix that.”

Members of Juneau’s Downtown Neighborhood Association met with Schaaf at the park on Monday. Sam Skaggs says it was one of the few play areas close enough for his kids to walk to while growing up downtown.

“When they took the playground equipment out of that park, my daughter wrote her first letter to the editor at age five in protest,” Skaggs says. “It’s just all part of the overall quality. I think you need every little niche like that. It’s like an ecosystem. If you make everything one monoculture then you don’t have much diversity and it’s not as enjoyable.”

The group discussed various options to help the city buy the property, including forming a Juneau Parks Foundation that could secure grant funding for city parks projects.

Father Pat Casey of the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary says the church is looking at expanding its parking lot. But there’s no plan to do anything to the park at this point. He says it may be used to stage construction equipment for an extensive remodel of the church, but that’s at least three years away.

Casey says the Parish Council plans to meet with the neighborhood association and city officials over the next year to discuss the future of the park.

A drinking water supply plan for Juneau will come up for a public hearing before the Assembly later this summer.

The Assembly Committee of the Whole Monday night adopted the draft plan and approved a resolution calling for a “roadmap” to ensure safe water.

The drinking water supply plan was the top priority of the AJ Mine Advisory Committee last year, whether or not the old AJ Mine ever re-opens.

CBJ Engineering Director Rorie Watt has been working with the Assembly on a water plan for several months. It includes policies to guide water supply system and management.

The first policy — to maintain excellent quality and quality of drinking water system — is the key to the entire plan and the recommendation that grew out of months of advisory committee discussions and public meetings.

“It is one of our highest priorities of services that we provide to the public,” Watt told the Assembly committee. “I don’t think that we can flinch on the quality and quantity of the water that we supply.”

The CBJ water supply comes from five deep wells in the Last Chance Basin well field. Salmon Creek is the second, though interruptible source, and will require major maintenance in coming years.

Watt said Salmon Creek provides the best opportunity for expanding Juneau’s water system, as long as a filtration plant is built.

Two of the draft water plan policies acknowledged that CBJ may lease its mine property to an operator at some point, which could impact the city’s water system.

Just noting future mine development triggers concern among residents who oppose it. Assembly member Karen Crane said she’d heard from a number of people worried a water plan would lead to a mine.

“On the record we need to say that certainly was a recommendation of the advisory committee, but this is not permitting of the mine,” she said.

The Committee of the Whole voted to delete one reference to a future mine, and rewrote another to require a mine operator to divert drainage tunnels away from the well fields.

CBJ owns two-thirds of the former AJ mining property and Alaska Electric Light and Power owns the rest. It has not been mined since the 1940s, and efforts to redevelop the mine in the 1980s and 1990s proved to be very controversial.

The plan and resolution outlining the city’s position on the drinking water system is expected to come up for a public hearing at a regular Assembly meeting in July.