On June 23, 1986, a Juneau man and teen were arrested by Alaska State Troopers and charged with several burglaries in the Mendenhall Valley area at Glacier Auto Parts, on Mendenhall Loop Road and at the Valley Liquor Mart. Each place had items stolen and a lot of damage done to the area.
The Juneau Planning Commission was considering taking on several projects. Projects included changes to the mobile home park ordinance, the proposed coastal zone management program and expansion of Marine Park. Most of the edits were needed because of safety code violations.
In rural villages across Alaska, village leaders planned to create a full-prohibition in the hope to reduce alcoholism in the population. Because previous measures enacted by the state had so far failed, each individual community would vote for or against a prohibition for their own community. If a community were to vote in favor of the ban, it would be the first legal prohibition in the nation since 1933.
John Kenneth Peel of Washington was accused of killing eight people aboard a fishing boat and torching the evidence in September of 1982 near Craig, Alaska. After 89 witnesses and 17 weeks of testimony, the trial had reached its halfway point, and Ketchikan jurors wanted their salary tripled due to the unexpected length of the trial.
“This Day in Juneau History” is compiled by Empire intern Tasha Elizarde, who sums up the day’s events — 30 years ago — by perusing Empire archives. To learn more about the project, click here.
