{"id":35696,"date":"2018-09-20T12:12:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T20:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/new-jacc-pushes-forward-for-funding\/"},"modified":"2019-01-10T14:58:10","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T23:58:10","slug":"new-jacc-pushes-forward-for-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/home\/new-jacc-pushes-forward-for-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"New JACC pushes forward for funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Demolition of the old Juneau Arts & Culture Center won’t start in spring as originally planed, but those spearheading the New JACC said Wednesday they’re confident the project will progress soon.<\/p>\n

The annual Juneau Arts & Humanities Council meeting included an update on the status of the proposed New JACC in light of a bond measure falling a single vote short Aug. 20<\/a> of garnering City and Borough of Juneau Assembly approval to appear on ballots for the Oct. 2 election.<\/p>\n

“I don’t have any doubt this will happen,” said New JACC Executive Director Katharine Heumann of building the New JACC. “It’s not if, it’s how.”<\/p>\n

The how is still being finalized.<\/p>\n

Bruce Botelho, co-chairman of the nonprofit board for construction of the New JACC, said when a $12 million general obligation bond package was not approved by the Assembly, it was a setback of at least several months if not a year.<\/p>\n

“We’re going to run a few months later than we had been anticipating,” Heumann said. “There won’t be an April tear-down (of the old JACC).”<\/p>\n

A special election in the spring could be a solution to secure funding through bonds, Botelho said, and pursuing revenue bonds instead of general obligation bonds is an option being considered, too. Revenue bonds are backed by a specific revenue stream, while general obligation bonds rely on the credit of the issuing municipality.<\/p>\n

However, Botelho said bringing a bond measure to ballots is just one step.<\/p>\n

“Getting it through the Assembly is the first hurdle, then the voters have to approve,” Botelho said.<\/p>\n

Ben Brown, marketing and development director for JAHC, acknowledged a bond measure won’t be on October ballots but said if it were, it would be feasible.<\/p>\n

Brown said based on debt falling off the City and Borough of Juneau’s books in coming years, a bond package could be approved, and property taxes could fall — albeit not as quickly as if no new debt was added.<\/p>\n

Deputy City Manager Mila Cosgrove confirmed committed debt service is dropping precipitously over the next five fiscal years, providing no additional debt is incurred.<\/p>\n

The exact form of the New JACC also is being determined.<\/p>\n

Brown and Heumann said there has been discussion about the possibility of an enlarged community hall area and a covered connection to Centennial Hall<\/a>, which is managed by the JAHC, but those plans aren’t final.<\/p>\n

“It’s not written in stone,” Brown said. “It’s not even really written in paper anywhere.”<\/p>\n

What’s been raised so far<\/p>\n

Rachelle Bonnett, fundraising assistant manager for the New JACC, shared fundraising totals for the project that were current as of Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

So far, $4.99 million has been pledged, which Bonnett said brought the project to 19 percent of its goal, and 1,600 people have signed a statement of support for the New JACC, and there have been 380 donors.<\/p>\n

Of those donors, 80 percent have been from Juneau, Bonnett said.<\/p>\n

There have been 98 donations of $10,000 or more, and Bonnett said there are efforts in progress to secure more large donations from corporations, which have not yet been a significant source of money for the New JACC.<\/p>\n

“We’re working hard to get some big donations from corporations,” Bonnett said.<\/p>\n

Board changes<\/p>\n

The annual meeting marked the departure of JAHC Board President Eric Scott.<\/p>\n

Scott, who is Dean of Students and Campus Life for University of Alaska Southeast, has served as president for the past three years. He said his resignation is to accommodate a doctorate of education program.<\/p>\n

Board Vice President Bing Carrillo presented Scott with a piece of art and thanked him for his service.<\/p>\n

“It’s been a wonderful ride,” Scott said. “I will miss it.”<\/p>\n

New officers were also elected.<\/p>\n

Debra O’Gara was voted president, Carrillo vice president, Justin McKoy treasurer and Mandy Mallott secretary.<\/p>\n

\n

Contact arts and culture reporter Ben Hohenstatt at (907)523-2243 or bhohenstatt@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @capweekly. <\/b><\/p>\n

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Demolition of the old Juneau Arts & Culture Center won’t start in spring as originally planed, but those spearheading the New JACC said Wednesday they’re confident the project will progress soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":474,"featured_media":35779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":9,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[186,73,116,187,75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-35696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-news","tag-arts","tag-ccw","tag-ccw-features","tag-juneau-arts-and-culture-center","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/474"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35696"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=35696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}