In 2023, a Coast Guard cutter stationed in Juneau is expected to be decommissioned. After that, it’s unclear whether the Coast Guard will commission another ship to take its place.
At Monday’s City and Borough of Juneau Assembly meeting, the Assembly members will consider a resolution urging the Coast Guard to assign Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutters in Juneau in future years.
The Coast Guard Cutter Liberty has called Juneau its home since 1988, aiding in search &rescue, law enforcement and protection of natural resources efforts. CBJ Assembly members are hoping that legacy continues after Liberty is decommissioned in five years.
The city’s federal lobbyist, Katie Kachel, is using her contacts to help the efforts. At a joint meeting Friday between the Assembly and Juneau’s legislative delegation, Kachel said the Coast Guard is sending more and more vessels to Alaska and she’s trying to get Juneau in on that action.
“I think we have to engage with the Coast Guard at many levels,” Kachel said, “early, often and continuously to get on their radar and get visibility with them. I know other communities are doing that aggressively.”
The Coast Guard recently stationed two 154-foot Fast Response Cutters in Ketchikan, and according to the CBJ resolution, the Coast Guard has four more that it’s considering stationing in Alaska. The resolution reads that “Juneau continues to be an optimal location to support the operational needs of the future Fast Response Cutters in Alaska.”
Applying for annexation
City officials are looking to extend the borough’s boundaries, and will vote on whether to send an application to the Local Boundary Commission (LBC) to expand the boundaries to include four new areas. Members of the public will be able to share their thoughts on this at Monday’s meeting, which takes place at 7 p.m. in the Assembly Chambers at City Hall.
The four areas of land include three sections on Admiralty Island (including Funter Bay, Pack Creek and Glass Peninsula) as well as a triangle-shaped portion of land between the Juneau and Petersburg boroughs. The Committee of the Whole voted at a meeting earlier this month to include all of these requests in one application, making for a more efficient process.
In the 1990s, the LBC defined so-called “model borough boundaries,” identifying where borough boundaries would ideally be. Juneau’s model boundaries extend beyond its actual borough boundaries. Of the land that the CBJ would include in its application, almost all of it is currently not in a borough.
In April 2017, CBJ officials including Watt attempted to set up a meeting with Angoon — located on Admiralty Island — city officials to discuss the possibility of the CBJ expanding its land on Admiralty Island. The CBJ’s borders already go on to Admiralty, covering a section that includes Hawk Inlet.
They were unable to set up a meeting, and in September, Angoon Mayor Harriet Silva wrote to the CBJ expressing that she and her staff are not in favor of any expansion of the CBJ’s borders on Admiralty Island.
“The City of Angoon strongly opposes any further annexation by the City and Borough of Juneau,” Silva wrote, “and feels that since Admiralty Island is the home of the Angoon Tlingit people since time immemorial that any further annexation of any part of Admiralty Island is a front to our rich culture and history.”
• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at 523-2271 or alex.mccarthy@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @akmccarthy.
