Economy & Business

An Anchorage housing ordinance does more than its title says

Anchorage's shop-house ordinance would also shrink the minimum commercial lot to about 2,700 square feet. The city says it outgrew its own title.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Alyeska wants the pipeline on state land until 2064

Alyeska asked the state to renew the pipeline lease through 2064, eight years early. Its own letter argues the commissioner is required to approve it.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Follows: The pipeline's owners want another 30 years, seven years before they have to ask

AT&T's parking lot at the Anchorage port could stay until 2041

AT&T's parking and storage yard at the Anchorage port could stay through 2041, though rent has only been set for the first five of those 15 years.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Juneau harbor board weighs charter passenger fee of $7.50, up from $2.05

Juneau's port director wants to raise the charter passenger fee at Statter Harbor to $7.50 per person, up from $2.05, to help fund harbor expansion.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

A third of Anchorage's buses are past their federal life span

A third of Anchorage's full-size bus fleet is past its federal useful life. The Assembly votes Sept. 15 on replacing six of the 26 aging buses.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Kodiak is replacing hospital power switches nobody makes parts for anymore

Kodiak is replacing four 27-year-old power switches at the hospital that no longer have available parts, spending $151,155 on design work before construction begins.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

A $2 fix could cut $49,944 a year off Bethel's fitness center energy bill

Two dollars. That is what Bethel would have to spend to cut nearly $50,000 a year off the fitness center energy bill, according to an audit.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

The roof went on wrong at Bethel's gym expansion and has to come off

The roof and walls went on wrong at Bethel's gym expansion. They come back off at no cost to the city, and nobody has set a new completion date.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

A Fox placer miner asked to move Treasure Creek. The state's public notice says equipment and an operator.

A miner near Fox wants to move part of Treasure Creek, but the state's public notice describes the request in eight words and never mentions the creek.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readFrom Sep 2

Anchorage Assembly ordinance restores parking permit rule its planning commission voted 8-0 to cut

Anchorage's planning commission voted unanimously to drop a parking lot restriction. The Assembly sponsors put it back in and will take it up Oct. 20.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Anchorage company wins patent for adjustable pipeline support

Two Anchorage inventors have patented a pipeline support you can raise or lower with a hand crank — a simple fix for supports that shift as permafrost thaws.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Kenai beautification panel floats $700,000 tennis and pickleball court rebuild

Rebuilding Kenai High's tennis courts into two tennis and four pickleball courts would run about $700,000, the parks director told a commission.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Cordova commission backs sealed proposals for Davis Avenue hillside lot

Cordova Planning Commission voted to recommend sealed bids for a 6,740-square-foot city lot above Davis Avenue, requiring 30 days of public notice if the City Council approves.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Anchorage weighs who decides when cold-weather shelter opens

An Anchorage ordinance up Sept. 15 would let the health director decide when emergency shelter opens, replacing the current 45-degree trigger.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

State proposes 55-year Adak Airport lease, competing bids due Oct. 8

Alaska wants to lease airport land at Adak, a remote island now drawing military and space interest, for 55 years — one of the longest terms it allows.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Wells Fargo keeps shrinking in Alaska, where it's the only bank in six towns

Wells Fargo keeps closing Alaska branches — nine since 2019, the latest in Anchorage. In six Alaska towns it's the only bank, and could leave them with none.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readFrom Jun 22

Missing an unemployment filing could cost Alaska employers five times as much

Alaska employers behind on unemployment insurance paperwork could pay $2,927 per worker next year instead of $542. Third quarter reports are due Oct. 31.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

An Ahtna-owned company will demolish buildings at a West Virginia park

An Anchorage company owned by the Ahtna regional corporation will demolish abandoned buildings at New River Gorge National Park in West Virginia.

by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago1 min read

A state windfall would restore shelter capacity Anchorage cut this year

Anchorage cut $1 million in shelter surge capacity when alcohol-tax revenue fell short. An unexpected state payment would let the city restore it.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min readFrom Sep 1

Wasilla's legislative ask leads with $10 million aviation training center at city airport

Wasilla asks state and federal lawmakers for $10 million to build an aviation training center at the city airport, leading a capital priorities list the Planning Commission reviews Tuesday.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

A plan to let Alaskans invest in the gas pipeline has stalled

A plan to let ordinary Alaskans buy a stake in the state's gas pipeline has stalled for want of $2.5 million, even as the pipeline itself keeps moving ahead.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago3 min readFrom Sep 3

Massachusetts firm seeks study permit for a 66-pod undersea data center in Cook Inlet

A Delaware company formed in January wants to put 66 data center pods and 350 tidal turbines on the floor of Cook Inlet. Comment closes Nov. 2.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readFrom Sep 4

Anchorage could shrink its minimum lot size by two-thirds under a pending ordinance

Anchorage could cut its minimum single-family lot to a third of current size and let buildings cover 70 percent of it. The hearing is Sept. 15.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readFrom Jun 9

Anchorage clears a substation plat on quake-prone Port ground

Anchorage approved a plat for a new Chugach Electric substation at the Port on ground its own maps rate as highly likely to fail in an earthquake.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readFrom Sep 2

Follows: Port of Alaska seeks road realignment for Chugach Electric substation

The pipeline right-of-way comment window got another week

The public has until Sept. 17 to comment on whether the trans-Alaska pipeline keeps its federal right-of-way for 30 more years, after the Bureau of Land Management extended the deadline by a week.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min readFrom Aug 26

Hilcorp wants a North Slope gravel mine with no wetland payback

Hilcorp wants to mine gravel across about 95 acres of North Slope tundra near Deadhorse with no wetland compensation, arguing Arctic wetlands can't be replaced.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

An Anchorage company will run the ATF's supply operation

An Anchorage company won $5.3 million to run the ATF's supply operation. Its federal small-business certification expires six weeks into the contract.

by Alaska News2mo ago1 min read

A Cordova tribe's company will rebuild the Labor Department Great Hall

A tribe based in Cordova, a town you can reach only by boat or plane, will rebuild the Great Hall at the U.S. Department of Labor headquarters.

by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago2 min read

BLM rule would let NPR-A operators waive subsistence conditions without public notice

A new BLM rule lets oil and gas operators in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve waive mitigation conditions, including four protections for subsistence hunting, without public notice.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago3 min read

An Anchorage company keeps the heat and power on at NIH's Bethesda campus

An Anchorage company runs the heating, cooling and power plant at NIH's Bethesda campus. It just won $5.9 million to upgrade the ventilation.

by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago1 min read

Antimony plant equipment lands at Port MacKenzie before its air permit clears

Nearly 500 tons of gear has landed at Port MacKenzie for a plant to produce antimony, a defense mineral the U.S. lacks — but its air permit isn't approved.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago3 min readFrom Sep 1

Follows: A barge of secondhand equipment is bringing a military antimony refinery to Port MacKenzie

Tunneling into an old Alaska gold mine turned up veins nobody had mapped

Crews tunneling into a historic gold mine north of Anchorage hit two veins that were not on the company's map. One sample ran 12 ounces to the tonne.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readFrom Sep 2

Sitka's search for housing land narrows to two small parcels

Sitka's search for city land to build housing on has narrowed to two small parcels — the sites with the most room to build are the hardest to develop.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago3 min readFrom Sep 2

Chugach Solutions gets $43,689 in FBI building maintenance orders

Chugach Solutions picked up $43,689 in no-bid orders to install fall protection and replace a generator breaker at the FBI's Washington office.

by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago1 min read

Ketchikan has five years to start disinfecting the sewage it discharges

Ketchikan's sewage plant does not disinfect what it discharges. EPA gave it five years to change that, and voters approved $15 million to do it.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Juneau code allows six hens. A Silver Street family is asking for 230 animals.

Juneau allows six backyard hens. A homeowner is asking for up to 200 chickens and 30 other farm animals, and neighbors are pushing back on the scale.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Kodiak hospital chiller running at a third of capacity; borough moves to accept $3.85 million to replace it

Kodiak Island Borough Assembly votes Thursday to accept $3.85 million in state funding to replace a failing hospital chiller that is limiting emergency and surgical care on the island.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Kadiak takes a $4.45 million State Department IT contract

An Anchorage company owned by Koniag will run IT support for the State Department bureaus covering the Middle East and South Asia.

by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago1 min read

Scott Robb won the state fair cabbage title with 122.7 pounds

Palmer grower Scott Robb won the Alaska State Fair's giant cabbage weigh-off on Sept. 4 with a 122.7-pound entry, but the fair's official records page does not list that weight.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Federal grant will test a Yup'ik healing framework against homelessness

Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness won $450,000 to serve Alaska Native households facing homelessness through case management and traditional Yup'ik healing practices through August 2027.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read