Empire Archives is a series printed every Saturday featuring a short compilation of headline stories in the Juneau Empire from archived editions in 1985, 1995, and 2005. The stories include names, AP style, and other content of their eras.
This week in 1985, some residents of buildings on Juneau’s Telephone Hill this morning received eviction notices asking them to leave their property.
The state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities gave an Aug. 1 eviction deadline to residents of at least one building on the hill – the Engstrom and Powers Building, a home at 211 Dixon now occupied as an apartment building, tenants say.
The state, which bought the property at the top of Telephone Hill last year using some $3.5 million in state funds has proposed to eventually turn the downtown hilltop into the site of a new Capitol complex. In the interim, the state has been developing plans with the city for a legislative parking lot and for a scenic “vista” park with bus turnaround.
The city, which donated $2 million to the site acquisition effort, has already taken over the lower-level site of the old Juneau Motors building as a parking lot.
Skip Gray, one of the occupants of the apartment building, this morning said he opposes the state taking over the site at this time. He said the state apparently plans to demolish homes on the hilltop far in advance of the construction of a new Capitol complex.
“It’s just not justified for them to tear down the houses for a parking lot, especially since the chances of ever getting the money to build a $60 million Capitol complex are pretty slim,” Gray said.
Jon Scribner, deputy commissioner for DOTPF’s Southeast region, in a statement earlier this month, said the state is not in the business of being a landlord and has never intended to care for the buildings at the top of the hill for long periods. He said the state never promised property owners they could remain in the buildings until construction was ready to start on a new Capitol.
Original Story: “Telephone Hill residents asked to leave.” by Juneau Empire Staff. 6/25/1985.
This week in 1995, more than 1,500 passengers from the cruise ship Star Princess were to fly to Seattle today and Saturday, their seven-day cruise cut short when the ship hit a marked rock in Lynn Canal early this morning.
The 805-foot-long ship hit Poundstone Rock, in Favorite Channel northeast of Shelter Island, at about 1:50 a.m. and began taking on water, said Randy Midgett of the U.S. Coast Guard.
“There was a screeching noise, it sounded like we were rubbing on the bottom,” said Biagi LaMacchia, an engine electrician aboard the ship.
LaMacchia was one of the first crew members to get off the ship at Auke Bay boat Harbor. We said there was no jolt when the ship hit, and everyone on board appeared calm.
No injuries were reported in the accident, and passengers were not told about it until later in the morning, when the ship motored into Auke Bay and dropped anchor.
Original Story: “Rock gouges cruise ship,” by Jeanine Pohl. 6/23/1995.
This week in 2005, scholar John Enrico has compiled the first comprehensive Haida dictionary, the fruit of years of living among the last generation of people who spoke the language regularly at home.
About 40 people speak Haida today, not all fluently, Enrico said.
The Haida Dictionary was recently published by Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau and the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
At $279, the two-volume, 2,180-page set is not the sort of book you pull off the shelf when you want to know the Haida word for “dog.”
It’s a scholarly work from which academic linguists may furthur examine the relationship of Haida to other langauge families, a point of dispute. Educators can also develop teaching materials from it, said Tom Alton, educator at the Alaska Native Language Center.
The dictionary defines about 20,000 Haida words, including variations, and it provides examples of use.
Original Story: “Dictionary preserves language of the Haida,” by Eric Fry. 6/26/2005.
• Contact Natalie Buttner at natalie.buttner@juneauempire.com
