Airport board OKs use of Taku Room
JUNEAU - The Juneau Airport Board on Wednesday approved the use of the Taku Room as office space to accommodate upcoming security-related changes.
The 1,800-square-foot Taku Room is on the second floor of the airport terminal. The airport board decided it would rent the room as office space, according to Patty deLaBruere, the airport's business manager.
The Transportation Security Administration is working on plans to install bomb-screening equipment in the first-floor lobby of the airport, which would displace some Alaska Airlines offices. In the long-term, the airport is working on plans to expand the terminal to deal with the space crunch.
Juneau's airport, along with 142 other airports nationwide, this week signed a letter urging Congress to give the Transportation Security Administration more time to meet a Dec. 31 deadline to screen checked bags for explosives. The U.S. Senate is considering a homeland security bill that includes language dealing with the checked-bag screening deadline.
In other changes at Juneau's airport, the second phase of construction at the second-floor passenger screening checkpoint will begin this month, deLaBruere said. The new checkpoint was installed earlier this year, but wasn't finished.