Early Saturday morning, April 27, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gathered to scoop away the first shovels of earth for their second building here in Juneau. Carl Perkins explained the intended design and layout of the new building. President Garth Hamblin, Stake President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Juneau, Alaska Stake, officiated at the ground breaking ceremony with his counselors Don Huntsman and John Bringhurst, at his side.
The new 18,300 square foot building will be located on the west side of Veteran’s Memorial Highway just south of Wilma Avenue. Church members are thrilled for the new building that will allow room for the growth that has taken place in the last decade. Juneau will be the first city in Southeast Alaska to have more than one meeting house for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
President Hamblin invited Alifeleti Tupou, patriarch of the Tupou family, to turn over the first bit of ground. Tupou died May 2.