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Join us every Sunday for the stories that shaped Southeast Alaska this week. Southeast Sunday Morning is your essential weekend news magazine, delivering in-depth coverage of the top headlines featured on News of the North, Southeast Alaska's most trusted news source for close to 90 years.
Broadcast across Southeast on KINY, MIX 106, TAKU 105, KXJ, KJNO, and The Hawk in Juneau, Gateway 106, KTKN, and The Rock in Ketchikan, and KIFW and MIX 103 in Sitka—this show brings you the stories that matter most to our communities.
Each week, we break down the latest from City Hall and the Capitol, highlight public safety updates, explore regional economic trends, and take you inside Southeast's most talked-about events—from environmental issues to tribal governance to ferry system developments and local politics. Hosted by the News of the North News Directory and Emmy-winning journalist Greg Knight, Southeast Sunday Morning keeps you informed, connected, and ready for the week ahead.
Whether you're in Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka, or anywhere in between, stay in the know with Southeast Sunday Morning—the news you need.
New episodes every Sunday morning.
He brings you the news and information for Southeast Alaska. Now Southeast Sunday morning with your host, Greg Knight.
Speaker 2:Hello. Hello. Hello. Good morning. I'm Greg Knight, and welcome to Southeast Sunday morning for 04/06/2025.
Speaker 2:Yep. It's Sunday, and thank God we made it to the end of another week here in the last frontier. I can see the work week from here, but let's not think about that right now. Let's get into some news. Back on Monday, I told you about updates and construction at the Valley Transit Center in Juneau.
Speaker 2:For those of you that ride the bus in Juneau, there's going to be construction at the Valley Transit Center to install chargers for their growing fleet of electric buses. Due to that construction, there's going to be temporary changes to the transit center in Juneau. The public parking lot, restrooms, public electric vehicle chargers, and other amenities will be unavailable during construction, and the normal passenger pickup and drop off area is also going to be closed. During construction, all bus boardings and departures will take place in the park and ride lot at the transit center. The project is expected to be completed by midsummer.
Speaker 2:For more information, visit JuneauCapitalTransit.org. House joint resolution 11, a bill which aims to reaffirm Alaska's relationship and continued cooperation, trade, and cultural exchange with Canada, passed the Alaska House of Representatives this past week. The final vote was 33 to four on final passage in the house. House majority leader representative Chuck Kopp spoke to the bill before its passage.
Speaker 3:This is simply the voice of the Alaska legislature acknowledging the strong friendship we have with our Canadian citizens. We acknowledge them as citizens of a sovereign nation and that we are hopeful and embracing a soon amicable solution to the tariff conflict so that our countries can be back to showing the world how strong people can live together in unity versus a lot of the division that we see across the globe today.
Speaker 2:Juneau Representative Andy Story spoke in favor of the bill as well.
Speaker 4:As a representative of border towns, Haines, Skagway, Klekwon, and here in Juneau, we have a strong history of being a sister city with Whitehorse in Yukon, Canada. This resolution is critically important as a statement of support and maintaining our long term friendships. And it affects our safety in between long stretches of highway between these communities, and it affects economies.
Speaker 2:The bill is now in the senate resources committee. Senate bill 15, which would amend state law regarding the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages in the state, passed the house last week and was concurred on by the senate. The bill, passed on a 32 to eight vote in the house, would allow a person aged 18 to 20 to be employed in and serve alcohol at establishments such as restaurants, breweries, wineries, distilleries, hotels, motels, and large resorts. Senator Kelly Merrick of Eagle River is the sponsor of the bill. Representative Zach Fields carried it on the house floor.
Speaker 5:This is a jobs bill, and the key provision allows 18, 19, and 20 year olds to work at breweries and restaurants and serve alcohol to patrons of those establishments with safeguards in place to ensure that 18, 19, and 20 year olds are supervised and do not consume alcohol. This reform will help employers hire for the summer season with an effective date of May 1 for these provisions, supporting a wide range of businesses from a small locally owned restaurant to large tour companies, and we heard compelling testimony from small and large businesses during the committee process.
Speaker 2:The bill would also expand the ability of youth age 16 and older to enter restaurants and other licensed premises for dining with protections to ensure they are not inappropriately exposed to alcohol. The bill nearly became law last year.
Speaker 5:I think members are aware that this is one of those bills. This one passed literally two minutes after midnight and was vetoed for that reason. Hence, we have it here before us today. It was broadly supported, and I certainly look forward to becoming law to support our employers now that we're not passing it after midnight on the last day of session.
Speaker 2:Fields added that the bill may assist in stopping out migration of young Alaskan workers.
Speaker 5:For young adults who are attending college outside of Alaska, this bill increases the likelihood that they can return and work during the summer season at really good paying jobs and local restaurants. This bill will also help address our out migration issues because as we heard in public testimony, when young adults attending college outside of Alaska work outside of Alaska during the summer, unfortunately, they tend to be more likely to permanently reside outside of Alaska after graduation. So let's bring our college students back to Alaska, help them stay rooted in this community, and address our out migration issues.
Speaker 2:The legislation would also update warning signs in alcohol serving establishments to emphasize the risks of cancer from drinking alcohol. The bill now moves to the governor's office. A bill in the Alaska house, h c r three, aims to create a seven member joint legislative task force on artificial intelligence. The panel would examine the opportunities and challenges presented by AI in Alaska. Representative George Rousher is the sponsor of the bill.
Speaker 2:It was heard for a second time last week in the House Community and Regional Affairs Committee. Committee member Kai Holland of Anchorage asked Rousher about working with other states and what they are doing in terms of AI legislation.
Speaker 6:I'm curious if you have any thoughts on how this work with this task force might be connected to some of the national AI legislative groups.
Speaker 2:Rauscher said the work that is happening is ongoing.
Speaker 7:I think it's really important that this task force stays abreast of a lot of what's going on in the Lower 48 because a lot of this is already being addressed in a multitude of ways we can't even comprehend yet because this is very very new to a lot of people here in the capital. Okay? They understand AI is out there. They may understand that it's being used one way or another, but they don't really understand the depth that it's actually being used in the in The United States as as we go from day to day.
Speaker 2:According to Rauscher, the establishment of the task force would allow the legislature to proactively study AI issues across the state. The bill will also be heard in the house state affairs committee. As summer tourism approaches, Sitka residents are preparing for a special election that could change the way the city handles cruise ship traffic. Ballot proposition one initiated by local group Small Town Seoul proposes strict regulations on large cruise ships. If passed, the measure would limit port calls, cap daily passenger numbers, and restrict cruise activity during the 02/1926 cruise season and beyond.
Speaker 2:Sitkins will cast their votes on May 28 at Harrigan Centennial Hall. Early voting begins on May 13 and runs through May 27. Doctor Rosita Worrall, the president of Sea Alaska Heritage Institute, testified before the US Senate Indian Affairs Committee this week in Washington DC on the topic of Native American and Native Alaskan education. She said native student scores continue to trail behind reported averages for all students nationwide, especially after kindergarten, demonstrating that the need persists for continued native educational funding. Worrell told the committee that Sea Alaska Heritage is asking for an increase in the federal Alaska native education program budget.
Speaker 2:Because of
Speaker 8:a significant impact in Alaska, SHI has recommended increase in the 2026 ANAP appropriation to $70,000,000.
Speaker 2:Worrell added that increased funding will see increased results in the classroom and beyond.
Speaker 8:With adequate funding, students and educators can have access to quality education and tools that reflect their heritage while equipping them with the skills necessary for future success.
Speaker 2:The late senator Ted Stevens originally authored the act in the nineteen nineties to create equity in education for Alaska natives after the Bureau of Indian Affairs Schools closed in the state. See Alaska, the regional nonprofit native corporation for Southeast, has scheduled a meeting for its shareholders from five to 7PM, Wednesday, April ninth in Wrangel. The corporation is holding shareholder meetings across Southeast this spring, leading up to its annual meeting scheduled for June 21 in CAKE. The Sea Alaska board of directors will be present at the meeting, which will be held at Wrangell's Nolan Center. Sea Alaska will provide food and door prizes.
Speaker 2:The meeting is open only to shareholders.
Speaker 1:This bill is an effort to push back on a multibillion dollar industry that is trying to addict our young people to these substances.
Speaker 2:A bill aimed at increasing the minimum age for tobacco and ecigarettes was heard in the senate finance committee this week. Senate bill 24 proposes two key policies. First, it would align state law with federal law in raising the minimum age to buy, sell, or possess tobacco and electronic smoking products from age 19 to 21. It would also establish a sales tax for ecigarettes. Marijuana and hemp products are exempted from the bill's proposed statutes.
Speaker 2:The bill was previously heard in the senate labor and commerce committee. Senator Gary Stevens is the prime sponsor of the bill.
Speaker 1:The tobacco industry has responded to the enormous decline in cigarette smoking among Americans with a barrage of new and fashionable smoking options in the form of vaping products that appeal to our young people, to our children, and it's working quite well on their behalf. These products have helped adults quit smoking. Certainly, that is true. But they do not end the addiction to nicotine that has occurred. Instead, what they do, the vaping instruments is to provide an attractive new delivery system and help people to maintain the same habit.
Speaker 2:Retired brigadier general Mike Bridges, a community advocate for the American Cancer Society, testified in favor of the bill. He said that tobacco legislation in the past has been helpful to the health and well-being of all.
Speaker 9:Back in 1980, when I first enlisted for, gosh, the first nine years, folks were allowed to smoke in all of our buildings, our military buildings, including here in Alaska, the armories and such. As a nonsmoker, I did not feel that I was benefiting from being in that environment. And I was very pleased when the law changed that federal and or federally funded buildings no longer would allow smoking, and the transformation was amazing.
Speaker 2:In December 2019, congress passed and the president signed into law a provision raising the age of sale for all tobacco, nicotine, and ecigarette products to age 21 nationally with no exceptions. Alaska will recognize March as women's history month under a new law signed by governor Mike Dunlady this past week. This year, the Alaska legislature has a historic number of women representing districts across the state with the first majority of women serving in the house of representatives. Next year will be the first March that the law will be in effect. A bill to require high schools in Alaska to teach financial literacy was heard in the senate finance committee on Friday morning at the Capitol.
Speaker 2:Senate bill 22, authored by Anchorage Senator Bill Wielakowski, would require school districts to offer financial literacy curriculum for ninth through twelfth grade students.
Speaker 10:We think it's incumbent on our schools to educate our kids in things such as making a budget, basic principles of money management, how to apply for a loan application, how to fill out your retirement forms.
Speaker 2:According to Wilakowski, s b 22 would give school districts the flexibility to choose how to incorporate the financial literacy course into their elective curriculum requirements.
Speaker 10:I wanna emphasize it is not a requirement for a single class. That was the original what we had originally proposed, but the education committee and their wisdom last year changed that to have the requirement be allowed to be incorporated in other classes, like math or economics or any other class.
Speaker 2:26 states already have a financial literacy requirement, and many more school districts around the nation offer similar curriculum. If passed and signed by the governor, the bill would take effect 07/01/2026. And a bill that would formally establish a state level department of agriculture was heard again in the senate resources committee on Friday. Senate bill one twenty eight is legislation that picks up where a failed executive order from governor Mike Dunlavy left off. The order was voted down by a joint session of the legislature last month.
Speaker 2:Public testimony was taken on the bill on Friday. Carrie Harris of Anchor Point testified against it.
Speaker 11:I want you vote down the Department of Agriculture. This is nothing for farmers. I mean, this is awful. When government experts get involved, everything gets screwed up. We don't need a Department of Agriculture.
Speaker 11:Alaska is never ever going to have enough farmers to do any kind of environmental harm. We're just not. We're not gonna be net exporters in farming in this state because it's too difficult. It is too difficult and too expensive here to do that. And you guys adding regulations to that isn't gonna help anybody.
Speaker 11:That's all I have to say. No to an agriculture department. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 2:Martha Mary of Lancashire Farms in Soldotna came down on the pro side of the argument.
Speaker 11:Our parents brought us here in 1948, and the land has been farmed ever since. And I definitely am for the creation of a department of agriculture. We need the leadership to help us further our agricultural opportunities.
Speaker 2:The bill will be heard again in the resources committee and will also be heard in the senate finance committee. And that's a look at your news roundup for the past week. Let's take a look at some of the big events happening all around Southeast Alaska this week. The big event in Southeast coming out of Juneau is the Alaska Folk Festival in its fiftieth year running April. It'll be at the main stage at Centennial Hall located at 101 Eagan Drive in Juneau.
Speaker 2:The dance stage will be at the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council located at 350 Whittier Street in Juneau. Again, the Alaska Folk Festival in its fiftieth year running April. And in Ketchikan, the Alaska Hummingbird Festival twenty twenty five presented by the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center. It began on Friday, April 4 and runs through Saturday, April 26. Again, that's at the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center.
Speaker 2:And in Sitka, registration opens on Tuesday, April 8 for the forty first annual Julie Hughes Triathlon. The event is scheduled for 08:30AM, Saturday, May seventeenth beginning at Blatchley Middle School. Again, registration opening on Tuesday, April 8 for the forty first annual Julie Hughes Triathlon in Sitka. And that's a look at the big events this week in and around Southeast Alaska. Every week before we go, we always have an interview with a a mover and shaker in Southeast, whether it be in Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka, or another outlying community.
Speaker 2:This week, our interview is with Katie Kester, the city manager of the city and borough of Juneau. Thank you so much for joining us. Starting with the budget. The budget talks are starting in earnest. Can you talk about the reasoning behind the increase in the property mill rate, the property tax mill rate?
Speaker 2:What's the reasoning behind that?
Speaker 12:So there's a slight, increase in the manager's proposed mill rate. Of course, just to understand the process a little bit better, I propose a budget and then it quickly becomes the Assembly's budget and they will add things, take things away and change things. So we are very far from the end of this process. But this budget is basically a status quo budget. Last year, the Assembly funded the operations of Marie Drake and Floyd Dryden, so kind of keeping those in warm status with one time funds.
Speaker 12:And right now we are in negotiations with the Tlingit and Haida to lease Floyd Dryden, so that will cover a significant chunk of those funds. But we still have Marie Drake and portions of Floyd Dryden. So the main cost there is just the consequence of consolidating schools and shifting that, facility cost from, the school district to the city in Borough Of Juneau.
Speaker 2:Great. I had a discussion with Wade Bryson about the same thing, and he said that over the past few years, there hasn't been an increase. So is now just it's just the right time to do it?
Speaker 12:No. I think the the assembly has actually worked really hard to reduce the mill rate, and they've done that, mostly by reducing the debt service mill rate, so, just kind of planning on less bonded indebtedness. What's really important is to not think of the mill rate as a number, but think of the dollars that you need to maintain the level of service. And that's based on assessed value. And the mill rate is just a formula that takes that assessed value and gets the funding that you need.
Speaker 12:And from a dollars and cents level, that number isn't changing very much. We've seen very slight growth in assessed value. It's less than, like, I think it's like 0.3%. Most of that in higher end, assessments. The median, property value for, Juno has actually fallen from about $545,000 to $515,000 So like your average homeowner will see that static dollars that they're paying because the mill rate really just is part of how we apply that to assessed value.
Speaker 12:So it should float up and down naturally because what we really need are the dollars to maintain services.
Speaker 2:Okay, let's talk about glacial outbursts. What's the near term plan? Not today, not tomorrow, but looking out a little bit. What's the near term plan for the Hesco barrier installation? What's going on with that?
Speaker 12:Yeah. We have installed 2,100 linear feet of Hesco barriers as of yesterday, and we will continue installing those barriers. July 1 is our goal for having that installation complete. So you will see there's actually four separate construction crews, construction companies out there working, and they've just been so great. I mean, my hats off to the construction community and, of course, CBG staff and the property owners who are just having the trucks and the staff in their yards, the riverfront property owners.
Speaker 12:So that work is slow and steady, but ongoing and going really well. So we will see that, you know, before kind of what we've termed as Yokaloop season can happen really as we've seen Yokaloop releases in early July. We haven't seen the full releases that are as catastrophic until August, but we're wanting to just be, be prepared well in advance of that.
Speaker 2:Okay. Let's move back downtown. Parking parking is a perennial issue in downtown. What is CBJ working on thinking about in terms of, parking in the downtown corridor?
Speaker 12:Well, probably most of your listeners who have been impacted by not changes to our parking, but changes to our parking enforcement, where we now have a more robust enforcement of the two hour parking limit on street parking limit in the downtown core. And the reason for that, of course, is to drive behavior. We want people to be able to run-in and out of our downtown businesses. And we have two parking garages that if you want to spend the day, you're going to spend all day downtown, you can park in those parking garages. So I think a lot of it is just changing what people are used to because we have new software and new systems now to be able to enforce those rules, and it's just taking people time to get used to that.
Speaker 12:I will say that, you know, kind of as an aside, the city is still working on negotiations to move downtown employees to the Michael Burns Building, which is where the Permanent Fund Corporation currently is. We're looking at the bottom two floors of that that are vacant. There's about 160, parking permits for city staff in the parking garages downtown that then would open up a lot of capacity downtown.
Speaker 2:Great. Where is the city with the the new City Hall, purportedly at the permanent fund building?
Speaker 12:Yeah. So we contracted to get an appraisal. Per city code, we have to get an appraisal, and we have submitted that letter of interest, officially submitted the letter of interest with the appraised value. It's think the appraised value is just under $10,000,000 So we've submitted that to, the owners, the the real estate company that manages the building for the permanent fund corporation and are waiting to hear back from them. So it's kind of negotiations beginning in earnest.
Speaker 2:Great. Right. Enough factoids. Let's have some fun. What exactly does it take to run the city of Borough Of Juneau?
Speaker 2:What does it take for you to do your job?
Speaker 12:What's it like? Well, it takes a lot of really great people because of course I can't do it on my You know, the City And Borough Of Juneau is unique because we're a consolidated city borough. So we don't just provide roads and police protection, but we also have and the school district. Of course, those aren't divisions that are directly under my control, but it really speaks to the breadth of what the city and borough of Juneau does and what the assembly does. So a big part of my job is really to give the assembly the information they need to make their decisions.
Speaker 12:And so that means talking to staff, that means understanding the operational impacts of their decisions so that they know when they ask for new services or reductions in services or different policies and procedures that they know those impacts. So a lot of what I do on a day to day basis is really being that conduit for the assembly so that they can make educated policy level decisions. And of course, I implement their policies, right? My job is very much the implementation arm of government. And of course, we do that with our staff and our many city departments.
Speaker 12:So it's always different. Every day is so full and so interesting and so diverse. And we're very lucky in this community to have a great staff to lean on, but also really, really engaged public. I mean, one of the reasons why I actually moved to Juneau was, and I used to work for the legislature, so I've spent many sessions here, but I really appreciated how engaged the public here is and knowledgeable. I mean, really, we have a public that pays attention.
Speaker 12:We have a public that values, city services, understands city services, and it really, you know, makes my job a lot easier.
Speaker 2:Perfect. Aside from the budget, which the discussions began in earnest this weekend, what does, in your mind, the next six months of Juneau government look like? What's coming down the pike that folks may or may not know about? What are you looking to do in the next six months?
Speaker 12:Yeah. Well, I think that the next six months will be, understanding priorities of the new federal administration and how, you know, we can fit in within those. You know, right now we're things like understanding new kind of objectives and what possible grant opportunities there will be, you know, pivoting to be able to respond to some of our, you know, reductions in force at the glacier has been something that we're watching very closely because that's so important to our small businesses. So I think there's just gonna be a lot of that settling into kind of what, what that looks like in particular for, for our community. Flood mitigation continues to be really, important.
Speaker 12:We will have new inundation maps sometime at the May, and, those inundation maps will be able to give us a better picture of kind of the worst case scenario for Glacial Lake Albers flooding. And I think that that, protecting protecting our community is gonna just continue to be a high priority. We're also working, of course, on some high assembly priorities. Tuno Douglas North Crossing is assembly priority and moving into the NEPA phase that we're partners with Alaska Department of Transportation on that and moving into environmental and design on that project. And of course, continues to be just key priority for the assembly.
Speaker 12:So looking at projects like Telephone Hill, continuing to use the affordable housing fund and really advance those goals. So there's a lot going on and it's exciting time to be in Juneau.
Speaker 2:Speaking of housing, all one has to do is look at the city CBJ parcel map, the parcel viewer, to see that there's a lot of land, a lot of land owned by CBJ. Is that land maybe being looked at for future development for housing?
Speaker 12:So we actually have a really interesting interactive map that looks at vacant land, not just owned by CBJ and their developability. And there's really not a lot of easily developable city land. Know, kind of the low hanging fruit has been developed. And we work constantly with developers. We have a process through the lands division to petition the city to purchase land.
Speaker 12:So if you're out there and you're like, I think this parcel, I could put a house on here or I could put a subdivision on here, definitely contact the city because the assembly has really prioritized getting parcels into private development for housing. We live in a challenging area. Right? We're surrounded by federal lands. We're surrounded by mountains, and we're surrounded by the ocean, we're long and skinny.
Speaker 12:So while you see large swaths of land when you kind of look at Parcel Viewer, a lot of that is gonna be steep slopes that are not developable. A lot of that might not have water and sewer, right? So then there's development constraints at least, and it makes it more expensive and more difficult. We do have some pockets of land that the assembly is investing in developing. Peterson Hill is one of them.
Speaker 12:Telephone Hill is, of course, another one of them. So the assembly continues to invest in trying to get properties, city properties that could be developed. Like if like, let's say the city puts in some of the basic infrastructure to kinda get over the hump of the most expensive part and then sell those parcels that we've done that with Peterson Hill and are looking at doing that with a number of different properties in the city to try to kind of make some of that city land that you see actually accessible and developable.
Speaker 2:Great. Last question. For folks that want to get involved, you know, Juneau is a pretty politically active community in reaching out to the legislators and the city. If folks want to get involved in the city process, reach out to your office or reach out to the assembly, how do they do that?
Speaker 12:The emails are all online. Boroughassembly@juno.gov is your direct line of communication to the assembly. I encourage people to use that. All the assembly members and actually higher level CBJ staff also get those emails. Come attend meetings.
Speaker 12:I will speak about one priority over the next six months that I have, and that is really deepening our accessibility to and our communications outreach. I do think that we have some kind of tried and true methods of participating in government email, write a letter, testify that maybe aren't as relevant for our entire population anymore. It's not really the way everyone you know, some people still receive information that way and communicate that way. And so I have asked for a communications position and some communication staff in the proposed budget to really help with our ability to reach out to the public in different ways and engage with the public in different ways. So I hope that's something that I'll be able to work on because I think, you know, we've got this like tried and true model of participating in city government and we're missing some voices in that.
Speaker 12:And so really hoping to expand that and hoping, you know, to make sure people feel heard.
Speaker 2:Katie Kessler, city manager of the city and borough of Juneau. Thank you.
Speaker 12:Thank you.
Speaker 2:That will do it for this week's episode of Southeast Sunday Morning. Join us every Sunday right here for another edition. I'm Greg Knight. Thank you for joining us.