Digital Bob Archive

Facilities for fishermen have had the attention of Juneau's city fathers off and on for a good many years. A problem in early years was that the Juneau waterfront had no protection whatever, especially from southeast gales. It was not until the Alaska Juneau mine began dumping its waste rock into the channel, in 1920, to form the rock dump, that the situation improved.

Early in 1917 the city built a float for fishermen next to the Standard Oil plant on the Thane Road. It was partly protected by the oil company's dock, but it was a long way from the Juneau business district. Halibut fishermen, the mainstay of the local fishing business at that time, had another complaint. Ice cost $6 a ton in Juneau and only $3 in Petersburg, while Petersburg sold bait herring at $3 a barrel as compared to $5.25 in Juneau.

The Juneau Merchants Protective Association took up the matter at a meeting in early May, 1917. A large part of the halibut landed in Juneau at that time was packed in ice and shipped south, and the merchants decided that what was needed was a fishermen's dock with facilities for making ice and a warehouse where they could box their fish for shipment and store their gear. The association voted to ask the city to provide such a facility and that started a brouhaha that lasted most of the rest of the year.

The site favored by the merchants was known as the Mann-James property, next to the City Dock and including the location now known as the Upper City Float. The Lower City Float, built later, was in the corner formed by the rock dump. Emery Valentine was the mayor and he expressed himself as unalterably opposed to spending city funds for the acquisition of the property. In July the six members of the council unanimously adopted a resolution providing for leasing the property for $2,875 a year, with option to buy for $25,000. The mayor was absent at that meeting, but in August he vetoed the resolution. At a meeting in September, the council unanimously overrode the veto. It then adopted a resolution directing the mayor to proceed with the lease-purchase. The mayor failed to act.

Councilman James H. King then introduced a resolution declaring that the mayor had failed in his duty and making Councilman Gunnar Blomgren the acting mayor. There was a heated exchange between Valentine and King. \"If I were not so sick, I would throw you through a window,\" Valentine told King.

\"I just wish you were well enough to try to throw me through a window,\" King retorted.

Valentine tried to get an injunction to stop City Treasurer B.M. Behrends from paying the warrant, but the judge was out of town. As soon as he returned, Valentine filed suit against the council. Judge R.W. Jennings issued a temporary restraining order until he could hear arguments in the case. After the hearing he announced that he would take the case under advisement and render a decision in about a month. Apparently he found. in favor of Valentine. 1 say \"apparently\" because neither of the two Juneau daily papers reported the decision, but all action on the lease-purchase of the Mann-James property stopped.

The city did acquire the waterfront portion of the property at a later date, but not the upland that ran to South Franklin Street, and it never did build the facility proposed by the merchants. It appears that by recent action the assembly will carry out at least part of the original proposal for a fishermen's dock, nearly 70 years later.