City and Borough of Juneau Parks and Recreation Director George Schaaf speaks during the opening of the new pavilion at Auke Lake. (Michael S. Lockett | Juneau Empire)

City and Borough of Juneau Parks and Recreation Director George Schaaf speaks during the opening of the new pavilion at Auke Lake. (Michael S. Lockett | Juneau Empire)

Auke Lake rec area one step closer to completion

Pavilion was a joint city-Rotary Club project

Donations, hard work, a partnership and a bit of craftsmanship were all it took to take the Auke Lake recreation one more step toward its eventual goal of a more fully realized park area.

“We’re really happy that Rotary can give back to the community,” said Julie Olson, president of the Juneau-Gastineau Rotary Club.

The project, building a pavilion at Auke Lake Park, was part of an effort to involve all local Rotary members in a joint project at least once a year, Olson said. This was accomplished with donations from a variety of sources, including Alaska Marine Lines, which transported the building materials from Icy Straits Lumber in Hoonah, Olson said.

City and Borough of Juneau Parks and Recreation and local Rotary clubs worked together to put up the new pavilion at Auke Lake. (Michael S. Lockett | Juneau Empire)

City and Borough of Juneau Parks and Recreation and local Rotary clubs worked together to put up the new pavilion at Auke Lake. (Michael S. Lockett | Juneau Empire)

“They way we like to do things is through partnerships,” said George Schaaf, director of the Department of Parks and Recreation for the City and Borough of Juneau. “They’re a bunch of doers, and they have a lot of talent and skill in their clubs.”

While CBJ provided the concrete pad for the pavilion, the Rotary members built the pavilion over two weekends earlier this summer under the supervision of project manager Eric Carver.

“This package was really easy to put together,” Carver said. “There are a lot of opportunities with Parks and Rec.”

Assistant project manager Nick Carver admires the new pavilion at Auke Lake, a partnership between local Rotary clubs and the Parks and Recreation Department of the City and Borough of Juneau. (Michael S. Lockett | Juneau Empire)

Assistant project manager Nick Carver admires the new pavilion at Auke Lake, a partnership between local Rotary clubs and the Parks and Recreation Department of the City and Borough of Juneau. (Michael S. Lockett | Juneau Empire)

Carver said it took an average of five workers at any given time roughly the length of a weekend to finish the pavilion.

“I think it’s a great step toward completing the area here at Auke Lake,” Schaaf said.

The area, which currently houses a paved parking lot and public boat ramp in addition to the pavilion, is slated to receive paved footpaths to replace the current gravel ones, and possibly, Schaaf said, a bathroom instead of a portable toilet.


• Contact reporter Michael S. Lockett at 757-621-1197 or mlockett@juneauempire.com.


More in News

(Juneau Empire file photo)
Aurora forecast for the week of March 25

These forecasts are courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute… Continue reading

An employee works on the deck of an Alaska Marine Highway System vessel in a photo used by AMHS on social media to advertise jobs openings during the summer of 2023. (Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities photo)
Crew shortages continue to limit AMHS operations, likely to keep Kennicott idle again this summer

Situation improved from a year ago, but wheelhouse employees and engineers still a crucial need.

The Captain Cook, one of two tour boats formerly operated by Adventure Bound Alaska, in Aurora Harbor prior to a scheduled sealed-bid auction for vessels that has been extended until April 10. (City and Borough of Juneau)
Auction of Adventure Bound boats gets delay, big minimum bid increase due to liens

Two vessels from troubled tour company now selling for several times the original listed bids.

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Tuesday, March 26, 2024

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

The aging Tustumena ferry, long designated for replacement, arrives in Homer after spending the day in Seldovia in this 2010 photo. (Homer News file photo)
Feds OK most of state’s revised transportation plan, but ferry and other projects again rejected

Governor’s use of ferry revenue instead of state funds to match federal grants a sticking point.

The Shopper’s Lot is among two of downtown Juneau’s three per-hour parking lots where the cash payments boxes are missing due to vandalism this winter. But as of Wednesday people can use the free ParkSmarter app to make payments by phone. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Pay-by-phone parking for downtown Juneau debuts with few reported complaints

App for hourly lots part of series of technology upgrades coming to city’s parking facilities.

A towering Lutz spruce, center, in the Chugach National Forest is about to be hoisted by a crane Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2015, for transport to the West Lawn of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., to be the 2015 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service)
Tongass National Forest selected to provide 2024 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree

Eight to 10 candidate trees will be evaluated, with winner taking “whistlestop tour” to D.C.

Annauk Olin, holding her daugher Tulġuna T’aas Olin, and Rochelle Adams pose on March 20, 2024, after giving a presentation on language at the Alaska Just Transition Summit in Juneau. The two, who work together at the Alaska Public Interest Research Group’s Language Access program, hope to compile an Indigenous environmental glossary. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Project seeks to gather Alaska environmental knowledge embedded in Indigenous languages

In the language of the Gwich’in people of northeastern Alaska, the word… Continue reading

The room where the House Community and Regional Affairs Committee holds its meeting sits empty on Tuesday. A presentation about an increase in the number of inmate deaths in state custody was abruptly canceled here. (Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon)
Republican lawmakers shut down legislative hearing about deaths in Alaska prisons

Former commissioner: “All this will do, is it will continue to inflame passions of advocacy groups.”

Most Read