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, the charred remains of a few sleeping bags, the top half of a wool sweater and a few dozen disintegrating garments hanging from their metal hangers are about all that’s left of the Capital City Cleaners. An early-morning fire destroyed the building housing the dry cleaners, an attached cleaning plant to the rear and gutted the attached building to the south, which until last week had been the home of the Stonington Art Gallery. “There must be some humor in everything, but for the life of me I can’t find it in this,” said City Cleaners owner Mike Kennedy as he sifted through the rubble at his plant at 278 S. Franklin Street this morning. Juneau police officers, whose station abuts the cleaning plant, noticed the smoke and turned in the first alarm at 1:51 a.m., said Juneau fire chief Alan Judson. By the time firefighters arrived the flames had spread to the wooden ceiling beams of the one-story building, engulfing all the clothes and equipment.
Today 278 S. Franklin St. is the address of the Red Dog Saloon, which relocated the original building from about two blocks away to the site in 1988.
Original Story: “Fire guts downtown building,” by Chuck Kleeschulte. 5/2/1985.
This week in 1995, legislative leaders likely will give school districts some of the extra money they want. House and Senate Republican leaders had pledged to freeze education funding at last year’s appropriation, with any extra money to cover next year’s enrollment increases. Top Republican budget writers are now saying they will trade that money for minority Denmocrats’ votes to balance the budget out of an oil-settlement savings account. Democrats say school funding is important, but not enough to win the three-quarters vote needed to withdraw money from the Constitutional Budget Reserve. Education Department officials say they need $643 million to keep state funding for school districts level on a per-student basis, not counting inflation. That includes $14 million more than this year’s budget to cover additional students in what is called the school foundation formula, said department spokesperson Mark Kissel.
Today the Alaska Legislature has voted to boost the per-student funding formula of $5,960 by $700 — the first large permanent increase since 2016 — in a bill that passed with a veto-proof margin.
Original Story: “’Schools may get additional funds,” by Ed Schoenfeld. 5/1/1995.
This week in 2005, expecting a $6.3 million surplus from sales and property taxes, the city of Juneau is likely to reinstate morning half-hour bus service and other programs that were cut last year. To balance the budget last year, City Manager Rod Swope had to cut nearly $1 million. He eliminated the city’s half-hour bus service from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m., Monday through Friday. He removed funding for planner and building inspector training. Each department was asked to come up with up to a 5 percent reduction in its budget. But this year, the city could restore the bus service and training because of unexpected revenue increases. The Assembly is also considering lowering the mill levy to alleviate the taxpayers’ burden. “We have received a lot of complaints after we took away the half-hour bus service in the morning,” Swope said. “I feel this is something we need to put back once we have the money.”
Today the Assembly is facing an uphill climb due to extra expenses involving in taking over buildings from the school district, high utility costs and other problems. As a result leaders are considering an increase in the mill rate, increasing utility rates, and asking voters to approve school- and utility-related bond measures.
Original Story: “Surplus lets city restore some services,” by I-Chun Che. 4/29/2005.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
