JUNEAU DAILY NEWS MINUTE
Thursday, February 13, 1997 (c) Alaska Juneau Communications
*Douglas Island Pink and Chum Incorporated has signed a two year
agreement with Trident Seafoods of Seattle to handle chum salmon
that return to the Gastineau Channel hatchery. Ladd Macaulay,
director of DIPAC says they are very pleased with the deal.
Trident said that they will be bringing in a floating processor,
and they also plan to buy as many fish as they can handle from
local fishermen. Last year, Trident sent a 300 foot processor
for about two weeks to deal with the chum glut.
*Mt. Roberts Tram will be getting additional funding to help
cover the cost overruns incurred last summer during construction.
The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority and Key
Bank have increased funding from $10.5 to 13-million to help make
up the difference of the $15.7-million cost of construction.
Costs went up as a result of construction delays caused by
outdated engineering data and a four month delay in delivery of a
tram car.
*Operation Fish Hook II has netted over 100 illegal immigrants in
Alaska since the first of the year. 18 of those arrested were
found here in Juneau, while the majority were in seafood
processing jobs in the Aleutian Islands. Most of the illegals
who were rounded up were from Mexico, while the remainder were
from England, El Salvador, Brazil, Bulgaria, Honduras, Indonesia
and Malaysia. Most were transported to Anchorage to await
deportation to their home countries.
*Major General Jake Lestenkof, head of the Alaska National Guard,
says he thinks Juneau should be home to a battalion headquarters.
Southeast has a high rate of Guardsmen per capita, and plans are
already underway for a new readiness center to replace the
current Armory, that is being vacated due to a transfer of land
to the Alaska Mental Health Trust. Lestenkof said that if the
battalion headquarters are put here in Juneau, that will mean
more jobs, and equipment to come.
*About 30 National Guardsmen from seven Southeast communities are
in Fort Greeley this week taking part in severe cold weather
training. 1st Lt. Don Mercer, commander of Alpha Company here in
Juneau, said that the troops will practice combat patrols and
ambushes, typical infantry and scouting missions, in temperatures
as cold as 40 below. If temperatures drop to 50 below, they will
be halted. The training ground is a short distance from on base
housing, and troops will be followed by an ambulance.
*Long-time Juneau resident and Alaska Pioneer, Mildred Shelley,
passed away on Sunday at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Shelley was born in Wisconsin in 1920, and moved with her family
to Ketchikan in 1931. Memorial services have been scheduled for
Saturday morning at 10 in the Treadwell room at the Baranof
Hotel.