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Gold medallion Alaska social worker sentenced for jabbing flight attendant on Delta flight in January

Suzanne Downing
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Gold medallion Alaska social worker sentenced for jabbing flight attendant on Delta flight in January

A Nebraska man on business as a consultant in Alaska was sentenced Feb. 3, 202 to time served for assaulting a flight attendant during a Delta Airline flight from Minneapolis to Anchorage on Jan. 29.

Denis McCarville, 70, who is the former CEO of Alaska Child & Family social service agency and who now lives in Omaha, while working as a consultant in Alaska, was a passenger aboard Delta Flight 2236, when he became angry because his tray table was stuck. He also inserted his foot into the aisle of the jet every time a particular flight attendant came by, with the apparent intention of tripping her.

Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested McCarville when the jet landed at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.

McCarville pleaded guilty to an Information charging Assault in the Special Aircraft Jurisdiction of the United States, in violation of 49 U.S.C. § 46506 and 18 U.S.C. § 113.

The airline flight attendant who was struck was working on the first beverage cart service of the flight, beginning with the front of the cabin and working to the back of the plane, when she came to row 12 where McCarville was seated in the aisle seat, 12C. When she asked McCarville what he wanted to drink, he stated “I can’t have a drink because my tray table is broken.”

The flight attendant tried to assist in getting the tray out of the arm rest, but she could not get it out either. She apologized to McCarville and pointed out the middle seat was empty, and he could use its tray table instead.

McCarville was still upset, so the flight attendant offered to give him some SkyMiles for the inconvenience, but he responded that his entire flight ticket should be refunded. The attendant said she couldn’t do that but he could ask a Delta representative to refund his ticket once the flight landed in Anchorage.

As the flight attendant turned to the other side of the aisle to serve beverages, McCarville jabbed her so hard that the attendant nearly was knocked into the passenger opposite McCarville. The flight attendant turned to McCarville and said, “That was not okay, please do not touch me again, let’s keep our hands to ourselves,” to which McCarville replied, very loudly, “Fuck you.”

At this point other passengers got involved, including a passenger in 12A, who told McCarville to stop behaving badly.

That didn’t go over well with McCarville, who stated, “I’m a Gold Medallion; I can do whatever I want. Fuck you,” and “Shut the fuck up.”

The flight crew followed protocol with de-escalation by switching positions and job responsibilities. That flight attendant was no longer to work that part of the cabin’s beverage service or interact anymore with McCarville. Another flight attendant took the assaulted attendant to the back of the plane to inspect her rib area where McCarville had jabbed her.

Later on the flight, whenever the attendant walked by McCarville, he stuck his foot into the aisle. Since it was a red-eye flight, and since McCarville didn’t do that to any of the other attendants, it started to look like he was singling her out again.

Toward the end of the flight, McCarville got into a dispute with the passenger in 12A, starting to swear at him several times: “Fuck you.” McCarville would not let the passenger get by to use the bathroom, the court document shows.

The flight attendant said she had served one alcoholic beverage to McCarville, but she didn’t believe he was drunk. However, the flight attendant wore a mask and has a deviated septum, which makes it hard for her to smell anything. She has been a flight attendant for eight years and has never before been pushed or prodded like that, she told the court.

McCarville is a social worker and does clinical work with children. He was CEO of Alaska Child & Family until 2018.

mccarville-complaintDownload

Breaking: Air Force shoots down item over Prudhoe; temporary flight restriction over Deadhorse, as Air Force C-130 circles Prudhoe Bay

Suzanne Downing
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Breaking: Air Force shoots down item over Prudhoe; temporary flight restriction over Deadhorse, as Air Force C-130 circles Prudhoe Bay

The skies are empty over Deadhorse, as a highly unsual Federal Aviation Administration flight restriction has been placed around Prudhoe Bay, Deadhorse, and Kuparuk, as a U.S. Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft, a Combat King II, circles the area at an altitude of 3,225 feet. (Update: The C-130 has dropped in altitude and is traveling at 170 mph.)

Update: Must Read Alaska can confirm that at 1:45 pm Eastern Time, the military shot down another unidentified object at 40,000 feet offshore near Deadhorse, Alaska.

The TFR is listed as pertaining to security, rather than hazards or VIP movement. Aviation sources are speculating the Air Force has its eye on a submarine.

Flight pattern of C-130 from Brooks Range to Deadhorse this morning. Top image shows later flight patterns.

Alaska Airlines Flight 5131 passengers, with workers for the North Slope, were holding at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport on Friday morning.

“The object was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of the civilian flight,” National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said at a press briefing at the White House, adding that the object was a reasonable threat to civilian flights. “Out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of the Pentagon, President Biden ordered the military to down the object, and they did, and it came inside our territorial waters.”

The object was much smaller than the China spy balloon that was shot down on Saturday off of Myrtle Beach, S.C. It’s the side of a small car, he said. A recovery effort is expected, which may explain why two Blackhawk helicopters are en route.

Yesterday, another unusual activity occurred in the skies of Alaska, as a commercial jet from Anchorage to Red Dog Mine was diverted to fly nearly to Nome before it was able to swing back to Red Dog near Kotzebue. Normally jets take a straight line from Anchorage to Red Dog. It is unknown if these two aviation anomalies are related.

Flight pattern of an Alaska Airlines jet from Anchorage to Red Dog on Thursday.

The temporary flight restriction around Prudhoe Bay today is the same as the TFR was posted along the South Carolina coast before the China spy balloon was shot down last Saturday. The TFR is from the ground to 60,000 feet, the altitude of the spy balloon.

The Department of Defense has put a lid on all communications with FAA, Must Read Alaska has learned.

Sullivan says Arctic Warriors scrambled jets in Alaska and could have shot down the CCP balloon, if allowed

Sullivan says Arctic Warriors scrambled jets in Alaska and could have shot down the CCP balloon, if allowed

Suzanne Downing
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Sullivan says Arctic Warriors scrambled jets in Alaska and could have shot down the CCP balloon, if allowed

Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan on Fox News said America’s Arctic Warriors intercepted the communist China spy balloon before it entered American air space.

“To Alaska Command’s credit, we scrambled F-16s and F-35s and intercepted the balloon before it entered our airspace. We clearly could have shot it down,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan’s remarks came Friday morning, hours after President Joe Biden went on record Thursday saying that the China spy balloon was not a major security breach, and brushed it off as not a big deal.

“‘”It’s not a major breach. Look, the total amount of intelligence gathering that’s going on by every country around the world is overwhelming,” Biden said to a Noticias Telemundo reporter on Thursday.

The State Department, however, also disagrees with the president, and says the airship shot down over the coast of South Carolina, after it had traversed the entire North American continent, was part of a vast surveillance network by the communist China government that spans 40 countries and five continents.

Sullivan said that America needs to send a message to the CCP.

Video may not play on all mobile phone devices. Check this Twitter version:

“We need to reestablish deterrence,” Sullivan said. “Right now, the Chinese believe they can do this any time they want. They have been doing it any time they want to us and to other countries. What I pressed administration officials on yesterday was making a public announcement that the next time they do anything like this, particularly over my airspace in Alaska. we’re going to shoot them down. To Alaska Command Military Authority’s credit, we scrambled F-16s, F-35s. We were tracking this balloon before it came into our airspace. We clearly could have shot it down, and next time we need to just tell them, we will shoot it down. That will reestablish deterrence. But right now we don’t have deterrence. They believe they can do this any time, any place, in America and the rest of the world.”

On Monday, the said Pentagon did not shoot down the Chinese balloon as it approached Alaska in late January because it was not a military threat to the United States. The Pentagon also said it was worried about debris hitting people on the ground, although Alaska is a vast and largely unpopulated state.

But on Thursday, the Biden Administration story changed. Assistant Secretary of Defense Melissa Dalton told a Senate committee that the military’s decision not to shoot down a Chinese balloon as soon as it entered Alaskan airspace was because of the difficulty the cold weather in Alaska posed to recovering and examining the surveillance equipment.

The decision to not shoot it down over Alaska was in part due to “the ability to salvage, understand, and exploit the capabilities of the high-altitude balloon,” Dalton told the Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee. “And we look forward to sharing that with you in a classified setting and openly as we learn more.”

Dalton said that Alaska waters in the Bering Sea, being cold, deep, and covered with ice would mean “a very different recovery operation” that she said would include additional risk and could have been “extremely dangerous.”

On Thursday, the House voted unanimously to condemn China for its “brazen violation” of U.S. airspace and for deceiving the international community through “false claims about its intelligence collection campaigns.” The vote was 419-0.

Granny’s Guns ringleader sentenced for 2019 theft of 22 guns in smash-and-grab

Suzanne Downing
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Granny’s Guns ringleader sentenced for 2019 theft of 22 guns in smash-and-grab

An Anchorage man was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in federal prison for stealing 22 firearms from an Anchorage gun store in 2019.   

According to court documents, Gian Carlo Clemente Pangilinan aka “G,” 26, pleaded guilty in September 2022 to stealing 22 firearms from Granny’s Guns, a federally licensed firearms dealer located in Anchorage, on June 6, 2019, along with three co-conspirators.

Pangilinan and the three others drove a stolen Chevy Trailblazer to Wrightway Auto Carriers in Anchorage where they broke into the building and stole license plates, filing cabinets and a GMC Sierra pickup. Pangilinan and a co-conspirator then got into another stolen vehicle, a Chevy Suburban, and drove it through the front window of Granny’s Guns. The two other co-conspirators drove the stolen pickup alongside the broken window and loaded 22 firearms into the back of the truck and drove away. They later transferred the stolen firearms from the truck into a black GMC Denali and lit the stolen GMC Sierra pickup on fire in an effort to destroy evidence.

Later the same day, officers with the Anchorage Police Department tried to stop the GMC Denali and an associated gold pickup when multiple shots were fired from the gold pickup, occupied by Pangilinan and a co-conspirator. On June 18, 2019, Pangilinan and two co-conspirators attempted to recover an impounded vehicle which contained one of the stolen firearms from the Granny’s Guns burglary. All four co-conspirators were indicted in October 2020 and subsequently arrested on the charges. Pangilinan is also facing charges in state court.

“Stolen firearms are a threat to the safety of all Alaskans,” said U.S. Attorney S. Lane Tucker for the District of Alaska. “The blatant disregard for public safety and law enforcement both during and after this series of violent crimes by Pangilinan and his co-conspirators show just how dangerous they are to our community. We will continue to work closely with local, state and federal law enforcement to fight violent crime and keep our communities safe from people who endanger our neighborhoods.” 

“All of the involved defendants demonstrated a complete indifference to the safety of others through their actions in their violent crime spree,” stated Police Chief Michael Kerle. “From the theft of multiple vehicles, to firing shots in public, driving erratically on our streets, and stealing multiple firearms; it is imperative they are held accountable for their behavior. Pangilinan’s sentencing is a big part of that. We are grateful for the efforts of all our law enforcement partners who were involved in seeing this case through.”

Co-conspirators in this case include:

  • Muna Junior Rode, 23, pleaded guilty to stealing firearms and is awaiting sentencing.
  • Kao Chiang Saelee, aka “Robbie,” 40, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal firearms from a licensed dealer and was sentenced to 5 years’ imprisonment. 
  • Hans Mikaele Wells, aka “Mika,” 26, pleaded guilty to stealing firearms and was sentenced to 9 years’ imprisonment.

The Anchorage Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Ivers prosecuted the case.

Dozens of firearms stolen in brazen smash-and-grab heist

Haines man sentenced for grooming kids for child porn

Suzanne Downing
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Haines man sentenced for grooming kids for child porn

A Haines, Alaska man was sentenced on Wednesday to 20 years in prison for sexually exploiting minors. Christopher Panagiotou-Scigliano, 41, pled guilty to one count of production of child pornography, involving coercing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing child pornography.

In 2015 Panagiotou-Scigliano moved from Idaho to a farm in Haines. After his arrival, Panagiotou-Scigliano arranged for several children he had been grooming and abusing in another state to visit his farm in Haines multiple times.

When the children arrived, Panagiotou-Scigliano continued grooming and sexually exploiting them by taking numerous sexually explicit images and videos of the victims.

Anchorage School Board shuts down parent reading a passage from a sexting-porn manual in schools’ libraries

Panagiotou-Scigliano is also charged with the sexual abuse of multiple child victims in Idaho. That case is still pending.

“This office will continue to vigorously prosecute heinous predatory crimes such as this,” said S. Lane Tucker, United States Attorney for the District of Alaska. “Although no term of imprisonment can repair the harm caused to the victims, anyone engaging or thinking about engaging in grooming and sexual conduct with minors should take warning from this significant sentence.”

“In this unconscionable case, the defendant engaged in a years-long manipulation and grooming process to isolate and sexually abuse minors, all under the guise of being a trusted family friend,” said Special Agent in Charge Antony Jung of the FBI Anchorage Field Office. “The FBI and our law enforcement partners will continue to identify, aggressively pursue, and hold accountable those who commit these vile crimes against children.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force investigated the case. The Haines Police Department, the Bonner County, Idaho, Sheriff’s Office, the Bonner County Prosecutor’s Office and the Alaska State Troopers supported the investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jennifer Ivers and James Klugman prosecuted the case.

Borrowing for benefits: Peltola says Congress must raise the debt ceiling

Suzanne Downing
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Borrowing for benefits: Peltola says Congress must raise the debt ceiling

Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola suggests on Twitter that it would be irresponsible for America to reduce the national debt.

“The benefits of millions of Americans are on the line if we don’t raise the debt ceiling. Our health care, prescription drugs, Medicare, and Social Security are all on the chopping block. Not raising the debt ceiling is reckless and irresponsible. We have to do it,” she wrote in her policy statement about the money owed to foreign governments like Japan and China.

It’s borrowing for benefits: Raise the nation’s debt ceiling, which is already $31.4 trillion, so we can keep borrowing more to spend more on programs, putting America in a debt spiral. Peltola offers no cuts, only spending.

The United States hit the debt ceiling last month, which forced the Treasury Department to take extraordinary steps to keep the government from going into default. Some Republicans say that lifting the borrowing cap must be tied to budget reductions. President Joe Biden says that the matter is not negotiable at all — there will be no cuts to federal spending, a position that Peltola has appeared to adopt.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy Thursday, informing him that the nation’s outstanding debt is at its statutory limit of $31.4 trillion and that the agency will implement extraordinary measures so it doesn’t default on its debt, which would have enormous consequences on the US economy, global financial stability and many Americans. She said the measures would last through June 5. Since she wrote to Congress, the U.S. debt is even bigger — it’s $31.544 trillion. The amount of debt per citizen (taxpayers and non-taxpayers) is over $540,000.

National debt snapshot from Feb. 9, 2023:

In plain language, the national debt is like using a credit card for purchases and not paying off the full balance each month, the U.S. Treasury explains on its website. The cost of purchases exceeding the amount paid off represents a deficit, while accumulated deficits over time represents a person’s overall debt.

On Dec. 16, 2021, the debt ceiling was raised by $2.5 trillion to $31.4 trillion, the largest dollar amount increase in the national debt in history, done under the trifecta leadership of Democrats in the House, Senate, and White House.

The largest holder of U.S. debt is Japan, followed by China.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is in a tight spot because his majority is so slim, and he could be rolled by just about anyone in the majority. But in January, he stated the need for a change in course with the national debt.

"We're six months away. Why wouldn't we sit down and change this behavior so that we would put ourselves on a more fiscally strong position?" he said.

Anchorage School Board shuts down parent reading a passage from a sexting-porn manual in schools’ libraries

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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Anchorage School Board shuts down parent reading a passage from a sexting-porn manual in schools’ libraries

By DAVID BOYLE

On Tuesday, a parent of an Anchorage School District student read aloud from one of the how-to sex books that are accessible to children in Anchorage school libraries.

In the past, Jay McDonald has been able to at least read a few lines before being told to leave. This time, the school board shut down him down almost immediately, telling him he could not read from a book during his three minutes at the microphone.

“Let’s Talk About It” was the book in question on Tuesday, and even though children at Romig Middle School and Bartlett High School can read this book that is on their shelves, it was not allowed to be read into the record for school board members to hear. The school board shut it down.

McDonald believes that, if the kids can read the book, then the school board can, too. The school board’s public participation rules have no such sanctions against reading passages from any book.

“”Let’s Talk About It” has detailed instructions on all kinds of sexual activities, including how to “sext,” which is sending nude photos through the internet. The book’s authors give children detailed instructions: Use the editing functions of their phones to remove any identifying features (piercings, tattoos, etc), before sending pictures to the entire world on the Internet, they remind the kids. The graphic book has drawings of anal sex, oral sex, homosexual sex, sex toys, and more.

The authors encourage kids to view pornography online, describing it as a healthy activity. They also encourage children to pay for the pornography they watch. The authors diminish the value of virginity, calling it an outdated term that has no real meaning.

As Jay McDonald began reading from the book on Tuesday, Board member Carl Jacobs, who was chairing the meeting, stopped him.

“I am going to interrupt you at this point. It sounds like you have a concern about a book that I’d be glad to get you connected to the superintendent to go through the appropriate process,” Jacobs said.

Board member Dave Donley objected to the interruption: “Mr. Chair, I don’t think he’s violated any rules.  I mean, he hasn’t used pornography.  I mean he hasn’t shown any pornography, any bad words”.

Chair Jacobs seemed rattled and told Mr. Donley that he could, if he liked, try to overrule the rule of the chair. He said that board precedence allowed him, as the chair, to stop the testimony.

Donley countered, “I don’t think he said anything that would cause us to cut off his testimony at this point.” Donley then appealed the ruling of the chair.

Five board members voted to uphold Jacob’s ruling: Pat Higgins, Kelly Lessens, Carl Jacobs, School Board President Margo Bellamy and Dora Wilson.

Only members Donley and Andy Holleman voted to allow McDonald to complete his testimony.

Watch Jay McDonald’s First Amendment rights violated at the Anchorage School Board meeting on Feb. 7:

Banning book reading at school board meetings?

This is not the first time McDonald has read books aloud to the school board. After he read a passage from “This Book Is Gay,” he was cut off by Board President Margo Bellamy. That book soon disappeared from several school book shelves, but is still available in at least one Anchorage public school.

Read aloud: Anchorage School Board gets treated to gay ‘how to’ sex manual that is in elementary school library

On Tuesday, after being denied his ability to peaceably redress his grievances to the government as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, McDonald returned to his vehicle and posted a video of his testimony online, where Facebook, which objects to the content, has throttled his account back to the point where it’s difficult to find.

He showed the book and, while blocking out the graphic pictures, described to people what is in middle school libraries in Anchorage. In spite of Facebook’s blocking of his account, the video went viral on Facebook, with more than 25,000 views in just a few hours. Here is a clip:

Watch Jay McDonald’s complete 16-minute video at his Facebook page.

A pattern of constitutional infringement has developed as the Anchorage School Board has incrementally reduced the freedom of parents and other citizens to attend and speak at its board meetings.

The board changed its meetings in 2021 from Monday night to Tuesday night, which conflicts with the Anchorage Assembly meetings, and reduces the number of people who can attend either meeting. The school board meetings had been held on Monday nights for decades so they would not conflict with the Assembly meetings.

Then the board decided to allow students to testify first in the allotted one-hour public testimony period at the beginning of the meeting.  If many students testify, then taxpaying citizens who wish to speak are forced to the end of the meeting, usually at about 10 pm.

Now, the school board has told a citizen he cannot read from a school library book.

Patrick LeMay: Newtok, the time to relocate is now

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR
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Patrick LeMay: Newtok, the time to relocate is now

By PATRICK LEMAY

Newtok Village has experienced two newsworthy events within the last four months. In September 2022, flooding and erosion severely impacted the community because of remnants from Typhoon Merbok.

A couple of weeks ago, a fire destroyed the school’s power plant.

In the big picture, these two noteworthy events are merely a small part of the ongoing slow disaster that has been destroying this community since 1954 when the school was located well over one mile from the river.

Now, the school is located with a meager 35 feet of land protecting this valued community emergency shelter and education center from being forever lost to the river, just like many houses that used to be located adjacent to the river.

The land between the 1954 river shoreline and the school once held the community’s landfill, sewage lagoon, barge landing, water source, and homes; all these pieces of critical infrastructure are long gone due to the land eroding away. It is documented that well over $30 million has been spent on planning. Some would estimate that up to $80 million has been spent on planning since the 1980s.  

Now is past the time for action.  It is time to listen to the elders of the community. Elders have clearly stated for decades that the No. 1 priority of Newtok Village is to relocate to a safe location chosen based on science and professional engineering judgement. 

The new community site of Mertarvik is approximately eight miles from the current village site on bedrock instead of the silt river delta that was chosen in the 1950s without an engineering assessment; the location was simply chosen based on it being the farthest location that the barge with construction materials to build the school could be reached. Erosion of the village site was destined to occur eventually based upon the very obvious geological features of the land itself.  

The question was not whether erosion of the village location would occur; but, rather when?  Erosion was indeed inevitable.  The time is now to build housing stock in Mertarvik so that the residents of Newtok will not be left behind when future storm events occur now that the community no longer has a school with a reliable heating source to evacuate to.  

Newtok’s extremely obvious need for additional housing in the safe pioneering Mertarvik location on solid ground is based on severe coastal erosion that is occurring frequently.  The situation is dire and beyond critical.  There is no more time to spend on planning.  Action is required now.  Newtok has been in flux for at least three decades since the need for relocation became obvious.  Declaration of this need unfortunately disincentivized investment in the maintenance of infrastructure in Newtok.  This lack of investment resulted in a severely distressed housing stock, poor living conditions in homes that have a documented case study of residents having a 25% increased rate of upper respiratory diseases due to mold in homes caused by flooding, and severe overcrowding with three generations living in one home.

Newtok is relocating to the new high ground community in Mertarvik due to persistent erosion precipitated by permafrost degradation, reduced sea ice in the Bering Sea, as the river is tidally influenced, and flooding. These conditions have led to a deadly, real-life problem, and time is of the essence.  

The Ninglick River is consuming community land and facilities as erosion advances towards the community’s last remaining infrastructure. Newtok  cannot be considered a viable place to live anymore. With a documented erosion rate of 70-90 feet per year, the erosion rate at Newtok is the highest in Alaska.  

The unique combination of thawing permafrost, flooding, and erosion that all occur together simultaneously is known as Usteq and is catastrophic to the Newtok community’s population. Furthermore, the compounded hazard of Usteq is much greater than the individual component processes; permafrost thaw, flooding, and erosion are all parts of an escalating feedback loop.

Newtok simply must relocate, and housing is the number one priority needed to reunite this community as one family on the same side of the river. If the definition of infrastructure is roads, utilities, and public works, then very little additional infrastructure is needed in Mertarvik to allow the remaining 155 people left behind in Newtok to relocate.

Please don’t misunderstand me. More infrastructure is required in Mertarvik to support the anticipated total population once the relocation of human life is complete. The critical Tribal infrastructure required at the present time to complete the immediate relocation of human life is houses for the people to live in and a school.  

If the No. 1 priority is housing, then the No. 2 priority is a school. Currently, Mertarvik has a temporary school set up for the fortunate families that have already relocated. However, it is at capacity. With school construction taking two to three years to build in a remote location, the need for school funding is NOW. 

Patrick M. LeMay, PE is the Newtok relocation project manager.

Paulette Simpson: The ticking demographic time bomb

Suzanne Downing
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Paulette Simpson: The ticking demographic time bomb

By PAULETTE SIMPSON

Years ago, I attended a college commencement where a Jesuit priest offered graduates some good advice:  When you’re about to make a big decision, first ask yourself, “How do I know, and what if I’m wrong?”

In short, consider the source of the knowledge that informs your decision and contemplate the consequences of getting it wrong.

Elected officials spend public money and allocate finite resources.  For guidance in getting it right, they sometimes defer to well-connected constituents, lobbyists, or “experts” who spend their careers arriving at predetermined conclusions. 

Currently, Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau are experiencing declines in student enrollment.  These are not new demographic developments. There’s been plenty of time for local leaders to craft rational policies and plans to address this depressing, potentially devastating trend. But they haven’t.

In May 2018 the City and Borough of Juneau’s long-time trusted consultant Gregg Erickson warned that Juneau School District (JSD) enrollment counts have been in decline since 2004.  Last year, Erickson projected Juneau’s 2022-23 student count to be 4,225.  According to the state’s Department of Education website, it’s now 4,183 – once again proving Erickson’s estimate right on target. 

Juneau’s peak school enrollment in 1999 was 5,701. By 2032, the number is forecast to drop to 3,035. 

Ignoring facts doesn’t change them.  Juneau’s aging population and declining school enrollments have helped create a demographic timebomb that James Bond is not coming to defuse. The current Assembly didn’t create the conditions that caused this scenario. Nonetheless, it falls upon them to manage the fiscal pressures of reduced state funding for fewer students alongside increasing numbers of seniors. If their answer is to simply raise taxes, how many more people will be forced to leave?

Keeping the cost of living affordable in a town with sluggish growth that can’t even hold on to a Walmart is no small challenge.  But to tax and spend freely and force vanity projects on an unwilling electorate is cynical, disrespectful, and ultimately counterproductive.

In fairness, one CBJ Assembly member might have a clue. In a February 25, 2022, Juneau Empire letter to the editor, Assemblymember Carole Triem wrote, “Instead of being distracted by the shiniest new projects and the loudest voices, we should spend money where it matters the most.”

This past October, Juneau voters rejected spending money on a new City Hall. Previously, voters twice approved bonds to finance necessary upgrades to Centennial Hall convention center, demonstrating they are willing to spend money to fix problems, but not to create new liabilities.

In 2019, the Juneau electorate also said “no” to a new performing arts center.  In response, the CBJ went behind the voters’ backs. They linked the ratified Centennial Hall renovations to the rejected performing arts center and gave it a new name.  

To avoid another pesky public vote, the CBJ and “Capital Civic Center” promoters are seeking handouts from Alaska’s congressional delegation ($35 million) and the state ($10 million). Even if these windfalls come to pass, the facility will still need more money, as well as funds for furnishings.

Minimized, if not ignored, are the very real costs of operating and maintaining a $75 million facility, costs that will be borne by Juneau taxpayers for generations to come.

Bob Banghart, multi-talented proponent of the CCC was quoted in the Juneau Empire opining that the civic center “…is something this community needs to mature into.”  

Such an implicitly condescending statement suggests that those not yet convinced of the necessity of a $75 million facility obviously must be educated until they “mature” into agreement. But demographic data shows this community is already plenty mature.  

The revealing comment sadly reflects the attitude of Juneau’s “let them eat cake” ruling class that dismisses cost of living concerns as not relevant to their priorities. 

The Empire article also quotes civic center promoter/former mayor Bruce Botelho. Like a TV preacher hyping his crystal cathedral and promising salvation for anyone who will pony up, Botelho says, “I think it is visionary in the terms of what it will do not only this generation but future generations and the impact it can have in the state.”  So, the Capital Civic Center is good for Alaska?  Botelho may be right about it impacting future generations because they’ll surely be paying for it. 

Propaganda won’t stabilize Juneau’s population or subsidize our public facilities. Identified community priorities (housing, childcare, cost of living, landfill) should always take precedence over the shiny and new.  

Perhaps it’s time to subject our elected officials and ourselves to the scrutiny of “How do I know?” and consider the sobering consequences of “What if I’m wrong?”  

Paulette Simpson is a Juneau resident.

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