Parks and Recreation Update

On this episode of Capital Chat, host Cliff Dumas speaks with Juneau Parks and Recreation Director Mark Wheeler about several projects taking shape across the community. Wheeler shares an update on Juneau’s first dedicated pickleball courts at Adair-Kennedy Memorial Park, the opening of a new Lemon Creek playground and additional playground improvements planned near the Mendenhall Glacier and along Back Loop Road. The conversation also addresses growing safety concerns involving high-powered electric motorbikes on local trails, how they can damage mountain-bike routes and which pedal-assist e-bikes are permitted.

What is Capital Chat?

Discover the heartbeat of Juneau's cultural and community landscape with 'Capital Chat.' This series explores the vibrant world of the community, arts, and dynamic cultural and social events happening in Alaska's Capital City. Tune in to 'Capital Chat' for your essential guide to the pulse of our community, where every story is an adventure and every voice matters.

Speaker 1: 00:00

Mark Wheeler from Parks and Recreation joins me. Mark, good morning.

Speaker 2: 00:03

Morning, Cliff.

Speaker 1: 00:04

Welcome.

Speaker 2: 00:04

Thank you. Good to see me back.

Speaker 1: 00:06

Thanks for coming back. Some exciting projects underway. Let's, let's start with, the Adaire Kennedy Court project. How about that?

Speaker 2: 00:14

Yeah. So we are making the first, ever dedicated pickleball courts in Juneau. It's a really popular sport. It's growing every day.

Speaker 1: 00:21

Have you played?

Speaker 2: 00:22

I used to play. Yeah. So I was a tennis player growing up, then I was like, I'm gonna try pickleball, but thought I it'd easier on my body, but I kept tweaking my back. You know, it's all just a little stopping and starting. So I I went back to tennis.

Speaker 2: 00:34

But, it's a great sport, you know, appeals to all ages, all abilities. We're converting there's a tennis court there with two tennis courts, and we're converting them to one shared tennis with two pickleball courts Nice. And then two stand alone pickleball courts. And then, for the basketball court that's right there, eventually, we wanna turn that into a shared tennis basketball court. But, we're out there painting.

Speaker 2: 01:01

I was just there this morning trying to to rough, smooth out some of the edges, but we're we're painting those ourselves. And we're hoping that'll be done in a couple weeks. Just really weather dependent. Like this paint is needs to have 50 degrees. It needs to have twenty four hours to cure.

Speaker 2: 01:18

So finding that those windows of, you know, sunny weather has been a challenge. But we're excited about that. I know the pickleball community is excited about that. It's gonna be really nice.

Speaker 1: 01:27

What other projects you work on? I think this is so important for our community. It's such a huge investment too. But what what, other projects are you excited about?

Speaker 2: 01:36

Well, we have a couple playgrounds that are about to come online. We have, Siguuye, which means fun place park in Tlingit. That's in Lemon Creek. That's been a project for a while now, but we just opened it on Friday. The neighborhood is very excited.

Speaker 2: 01:50

We've it was a challenge getting the material. You have to put the safety surfacing down.

Speaker 1: 01:55

Right.

Speaker 2: 01:56

Now, like, you know, we create those concrete or whatever asphalt. But now we have to put down the safety surfacing. You have to, like, get these crews from out of towns, respecialize. So it's it's taken us a while. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 02:07

But it opened on Friday, and I was just I just drove by on Saturday. It was full of kids. Nice. Packed with kids. So that's really cool.

Speaker 2: 02:15

At the same time, we're working on Situon Park, which means by the glacier. Yeah. It's out on Kanata Day Street right by the glacier. And both these projects built by Admiralty Construction. Shout out to them.

Speaker 2: 02:31

They've done a great job. Nice. And and some subcontractors. But that project, we have all the playground equipment there. We accomplished construction, did a great job on the slabs.

Speaker 2: 02:42

Now we need to put the safety surfacing in, and hopefully that's going to happen next week, weather dependent. But, you know, these are these are small playgrounds, but they're we have different elements for all ages. There's a basketball court there at Citroen. So it's really something for the neighborhood and something for, you know, kids and, family members to really enjoy. So we're excited about those.

Speaker 2: 03:05

And, yes, hopefully, Citroen will be open, by the end of the month.

Speaker 1: 03:09

Now as as you drive around town and see these projects that that you've you've been a part of and worked on, it must be an incredible sense of pride to to see what's happened in town over the years. Right?

Speaker 2: 03:22

Yeah. It's it's really it's really wonderful to see these projects come to life, and they take a while. You have to do all this planning and all this engineering. And then, you know, when you finally see them completed, it's it's really wonderful.

Speaker 1: 03:35

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 03:36

With with this kind of series of playgrounds, the next one we're gonna build is at Steelhead Street, kind of off Backloop Road. Yep. And, there's a playground there. We're renovating it, and we're just about to start the design process on that.

Speaker 1: 03:49

Got it. Cool. Let's talk about ebikes on the trails,

Speaker 2: 03:52

shall we? Yeah. Thanks. I mean, I think, you know, everybody's seen these things Yeah. Around town.

Speaker 2: 03:58

And so right now, our trails in Juno that aren't open to motorized vehicles, those are closed to these e motorbikes, that you see around town.

Speaker 1: 04:12

Those things are fast.

Speaker 2: 04:13

Yeah. The name brand is Suron that most people call these Surons.

Speaker 1: 04:16

And they they look like a dirt bike. Yeah. Not just your regular bike that's got a battery pack to it.

Speaker 2: 04:20

Yeah. So they go fast. They can go, I don't know, fifty, seventy miles an hour. Yeah. You've probably seen kids doing wheelies down the street with these.

Speaker 2: 04:27

But, on the trails, they're causing some issues because they can really tear up the tread of these mountain bike trails. We have Juno Mountain Bike Alliance that spend a lot of volunteer time building a mountain bike park on upper I mean, sorry, under Thunder, also in, Dredge Lakes. And these e motorbikes, they can spin out these wheels and really do damage to the trails. But the big thing is safety. These things go too fast for trails.

Speaker 2: 04:54

And in these mountain bike parks, they're built, you know, 15 miles an hour, you know, like, and the jumps, they're, you know, of the length where you hit them with a mountain bike, you're gonna land in the right spot. Yeah. But if you're on an e motorbike, you hit that going 30 miles an hour, you're gonna fly past the jump, and it's gonna be bad. We had, you know, one person a couple weeks ago was carried out by CCFR. But, the other thing is some of these bikes are going uphill on these mountain bike trails, which are designed to go downhill.

Speaker 2: 05:22

Yeah. Yeah. So if that happens, you know, heaven forbid, one of them is going up, mountain bikers coming down, that could be really bad.

Speaker 1: 05:29

How do you police this, though?

Speaker 2: 05:30

Yeah. That's that's the hard part. Right? So, like, our rangers, we have a few park rangers that go around our trails and parks, make sure they're all safe. But it's just a challenge to

Speaker 1: 05:41

We need parents to step up and take

Speaker 2: 05:42

of Yeah. So that's what I wanted to talk to you about, because, you know, parents need to know, the rules of the road. And, you know, if you have bought one of these for your child, just have them stay off the trails.

Speaker 1: 05:53

Got

Speaker 2: 05:53

it. You know, these you know, we really hope we're not gonna have an accident in Geno, but there have been fatal accidents around the country with these bikes. They're just growing in popularity and, yeah, it's it can be unfortunate. But we are kinda clarifying the rules at the city level. It went through our Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee to regulate ebikes more clearly on our trails because it's kinda murky right now.

Speaker 2: 06:21

It's clear that motorized bikes are not allowed, but we're gonna clarify that the only electric bikes allowed on our trails that aren't open to motorized like right now, we're working on 35 mile ORV park, and then, you know, Montana Creek is open to motorized vehicles. But on our trails that are not open to motorized vehicles, those Surons are not allowed. But we're gonna make it clear that the e bikes that are allowed are the ones that only work while you're pedaling. Yes. Got it.

Speaker 2: 06:50

So there's a classification system and it's it's complicated. But the ones that you the the motor only engages when you're pedaling and then it stops 20 miles an hour. Yeah. Those won't be allowed. And so, like, you know, a lot of people have these.

Speaker 2: 07:03

They'll, like, go uphill at the mountain bike park and then with in pedal assist and then come down. And those those work fine for our trails. But the faster ones, it's just they're just not designed for that kind of speed. Then pedestrians, you know, and these bikes, it can be a safety issue.

Speaker 1: 07:20

Thanks for the update, Mark. Mark Wheeler, Parks and Rec, and thanks for the great work around town. This is fantastic.

Speaker 2: 07:25

Yeah. I appreciate it. Thanks so much, Cliff.