- 1970

On February 17 voters approved the charter for a unified City and Borough of Juneau and then voted to incorporate Juneau, Douglas, Greater Juneau Borough, and the school district as a home-rule municipality, although 71% of Douglas residents voted against unification. The new borough entity took the form of a strong city manager form of government effective July 1 at which point the two city and the original borough governments would be legally dissolved and their organizations merged to form the unified new borough government. The first unified borough assembly met April 8 with mayor Joe McLean presiding. The Douglas City Council fought back against the unification vote, first by seeking a legislative remedy with a bill that would allow it to secede from the unified borough, and when that failed, filed suit in Anchorage Superior Court contending that the state law regulating unification of local governments was unconstitutional.  By that time the new borough was beginning its transition period, and Douglas obtained a temporary restraining order prohibiting the Borough from dissolving or hindering the Douglas city government.  Several weeks later, however, the court ruled that the unification process followed was indeed constitutional, Douglas didn’t appeal and entered the fold of the new unified borough government without further challenge.

Earlier in January, the city of Juneau announced its declaration of war on rats and rat feeders to emphasize proper food storage and disposal, and stepped-up inspections and enforcement of sanitary regulations. The Juneau Chamber of Commerce and the Borough kicked off a big area-wide cleanup and beautification campaign in April, which included dumping a total of 419 junk cars into the Treadwell Glory Hole to remove them from other resting points around the area.  The borough assembly gave a special certificate of appreciation to AJ Industries for their civic help in allowing the cars to be so disposed of in their property.  The Borough received a federal Model Cities grant to purchase several mini-buses to initiate an area-wide public bus system. The school board sent delegates in December to a conference for development of teacher and student training materials on Tlingit culture to incorporate into a local program.

Sierra Club and the Alaska Conservation Society filed for a court injunction February 11 to prevent construction of a $100 million pulp mill/sawmill complex at Berners Bay, 40 miles north of downtown Juneau.  Trial of the suit against the Forest Service commenced in November 4.  ACS erected a microwave system by the middle of the year to link Juneau, Angoon, and Sitka, replacing a cable system to provide much greater load capacity. Construction began for the new State Office Building by the site of the old federal courthouse late in the year.