The new Juneau Forestry Sciences Laboratory, adjacent to the University of Alaska Southeast’s Auke Lake campus, is set for a dedication ceremony Saturday.

The building is a facility of the United States Forest Service’s Portland, Ore.-based Pacific Northwest Research Station, which has been occupying rented space in the old National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration building in the Mendenhall Valley.

Construction finished earlier this spring, and Forest Service staff have been moving into the new building over the past few weeks.

Southeast Alaska residents who recently passed their GEDs will be honored with a graduation ceremony Friday put on by The Learning Connection, a program of SERRC - Alaska’s Educational Resource Center.

The public event at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall will recognize recent GED graduates, as well as English as a Second Language and Citizenship students working toward improving their English skills and gaining a better understanding of American civics.

The summer season in Juneau means not only motorcycles and tour buses on the road, but safety cones and construction rigs as well.

Among the road projects being done in Juneau this year are the ongoing overhaul of Main Street, the final phase of a multi-year project; the construction of a roundabout in Auke Bay, which is set to replace the intersection of Glacier Highway and Mendenhall Loop Road in the neighborhood; and the illumination of Egan Drive, a project that aims to light up Juneau’s main highway in between the Aurora Harbor area and the Mendenhall Valley.

Individuals from across the state, including a 92-year-old Juneau woman who recently retired from more than two decades of regular volunteering at Johnson Youth Center, were guests of honor at the Governor’s Mansion Friday, where they were honored by Alaska’s first lady as “Volunteers of the Year.”

Earline Smith and six others, including a volunteer firefighter and an Alaska State Trooper who provides clothing to homeless children, had a luncheon in their honor and were recognized at a small ceremony in the ballroom of the gubernatorial residence in downtown Juneau.