It was busyness as usual for kids on a scavenger hunt for snowflakes at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center on Saturday morning, as well as for some adults who stopped by the front desk to ask about the thinning ice on the lake.
But many of the grownups are also aware more than just the glacier and lake ice are unstable these days.
The center is down to two employees after 80% of the staff was fired as part of President Donald Trump’s mass purge of federal workers during the past week. That wasn’t immediately apparent Saturday with roughly a half dozen people in U.S. Forest Service uniforms engaging with visitors during the morning, as staff normally involved with other aspects of the agency’s local operations were helping out.
Kids, parents, grandparents and U.S. Forest Service staff perform a vigorous reenactment of the life of a snowflake during a Mendenhall Minis event at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center on Saturday morning. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
All of them declined to be interviewed, a now-familiar mantra for federal workers who fear retribution from the Trump administration for speaking publicly. But Rosary Lombardo, a former summer-season ranger at the center for a decade until 2018, said things seemed to be functioning with a familiar similarity as her two grandkids took part in the morning’s Mendenhall Minis activities with the theme “Life of a Snowflake.”
However, Lombardo said she questions how Juneau’s most-visited tourism attraction can function properly when thousands of cruise ship visitors are showing up every day instead of just a few families and local explorers during limited hours a couple days a week.
“I would suggest funding for a full staff,” she said when asked what advice she has based on her previous experience at the visitor center.
The center is currently open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays — a cutback from the regular winter season schedule when it is also open Sunday during those hours — and continues to host its weekly Fireside Chats on Friday nights. About 50 people showed up to hear this week’s chat about harvesting local clams and their safety risk by John Harley, a professor at the University of Alaska Southeast (which in another Trump-related move announced hours earlier it’s removing all diversity, equity and inclusion terms from all electronic and print materials).
Matt Knutson (right) watches as his wife Rosary Lombardo helps their grandchildren Jasper Lombardo-Brown, 6, and Felix Lombardo-Brown, 3, with a snowflake scavenger hunt as part of the Mendenhall Minis event at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center on Saturday morning. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Harley, in an interview Saturday, said while the turnout was about the same as a previous chat he hosted “I wouldn’t say it was normal” in the sense that the staff who asked him to give Friday night’s presentation were among those fired. He said there also was a recognition by those present of the circumstances the center is now operating under.
“Before I started I gave a land acknowledgement and also an acknowledgement of the people with the Forest Service who had put these together that were terminated, and everyone who was there gave them a round of applause,” he said.
The staff present Friday said they intend to continue the Fireside Chats, but “they might not be able to advertise because they don’t have social media anymore and they might not be able to livestream,” Harley said.
Some of the fired employees spent their Friday evening at a “Fired Side Chats” gathering at The Alaskan Hotel and Bar where speeches, songs, and donor-paid drinks for current and former federal workers were shared.
“I see a lot of faces that work in the visitor center or who work in the Forest Service, and I think we’re all feeling the same feelings,” said Maria Diaz, an employee at the visitor center for two years until she was fired last Friday, told the crowd. “But mainly for the community that doesn’t work with us, you still see what we do, right? We work on the trails that you walk. We work on the bridges that you walk on and the cabins that you rent out to spend a long weekend in. And it’s a lot of work that goes unsung…and it’s tough and I want to share my support for everybody who’s going through the same thing right now.”
Maria Diaz talks about being an employee at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center until she was fired last Friday, as part of a mass purge of federal workers nationwide, during a “Fired Side Chats” gathering Friday night at The Alaskan Hotel and Bar. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
The gathering was hosted by Quinton Woolman-Morgan, a fired Forest Service employee who also works at The Alaskan, whose introductions during the evening included a mix of terminated workers as well as those who still have their jobs for the time being.
“These guys were like brothers to me and it (expletive) hurts to know the dirty truth of it all,” he said.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
A singer performs at The Alaskan Hotel and Bar during a “Fired Side Chats” gathering Friday night to support fired federal government workers as well as those still employed. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
