With Juneau’s cruise ship season less than two weeks away, Juneau officials are proposing to set aside city money to hire staff for one of the city’s main tourist attractions: the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center.
The jobs were formerly filled by federal workers, and city leaders say the proposal would act as a safety net in the face of further uncertainty at the federal level.
Juneau’s Visitor Industry Director Alix Pierce asked the Assembly Finance Committee to set aside $200,000. The money could be used to fund positions at the visitor center from State Commercial Passenger Fees collected from cruise ship visitors if more federal employees are laid off. She’s hoping it won’t come to that, though.
“This appropriation would be money to the manager’s office to use at the discretion of the City Manager, if there’s another issue affecting staffing, to try to create some level of continuity out there, given all the uncertainties,” Pierce said.
In February, a wave of federal firings left one remaining staff member at the visitor center. In a typical summer, there are about a dozen on site at any given time to serve the 1 million visitors who come each year.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reinstated employees who were terminated because an independent federal board ruled that the firings were unlawful. It issued a 45-day stay on the positions, but thereʼs still uncertainty about what happens next. U.S. Forest Service officials say they can’t provide a staffing schedule or plan for the visitor center at this time.
Pierce says about half of the visitor center staff took their jobs back. Others had already found jobs elsewhere. But even for those currently back at the glacier, the job is unstable. And, sheʼs heard from Forest Service staff that more cuts may be coming from the White House in the future.
“There is still some uncertainty,” she said. “There are discussions of another reduction in force. We don’t know what that looks like. We don’t know how it would impact operations here in Juneau.”
The city manager could use the money to pay other organizations that operate at the glacier to quickly hire some of the terminated staff.
One of those is Discovery Southeast, a nature and science education nonprofit that already has a presence at the glacier.
Shawn Eisele is the director. He said the city funding is a good stop-gap, but he’s upset they have to step in at all. The Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center was self-sustaining as it was before the Trump administration cut staff.
“It worked really well. It ‘s good paying jobs in our community. It worked great. It doesn’t make sense that it’s been kind of artificially collapsed right now,” he said. “Like, we’re not looking for a good solution. We’re just looking for the least pain in the short term to hopefully bridge a better solution in the long term.”
But Eisele said the organization is prepared to be a part of that bridge.
“If there’s an opportunity for us to step in in the short term and keep things going, we’re prepared to do this,” he said.
The proposal will be introduced at Monday’s assembly meeting, and voted on at the next.
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