Alaska Business July 2022

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CONTENTS J U LY 2 0 2 2 | V O LU M E 3 8 | NU M B ER 7 | AKB I Z M AG . C O M

F E AT U 1 0 FINANCE Higher Percent Solutions Preparing for a rising interest rate environment

By Tracy Barbour

1 4 HEALTHCARE

RES

1 8 MEDIA & ARTS Setting the Stage

Foo Fighters prove Alaska is a viable stop for premier touring acts

By Brad Joyal

Archipelago of Health Mission-driven partners provide care in Southeast

By Tasha Anderson

2 6 NONPROFITS Art of the State Public patrons fund Alaskan artists

By Rachael Kvapil

3 2 TOURISM Stocking Up on Staff Finding employees to sell the Alaska experience

By Isaac Stone Simonelli

7 4 TOURISM Swinging North A national tournament elevates Alaska golf

By Amy Newman

8 0 AGRICULTURE Blue Acres Is the Place to Be Growing mariculture in Alaska

By Isaac Stone Simonelli

8 4 SMALL BUSINESS Pet Projects The growing, growling industry of animal care

By Vanessa Orr

9 2 TRANSPORTATION To Road or Not to Road The latest backspin for the Tongass National Forest

By Isaac Stone Simonelli

9 6 TELECOM & TECH Broadband Ready Nonprofits, tribes, and businesses work to bring reliable internet to rural Alaska

By Rindi White

Donnie Hayes

B ALANC ED B O U NDARI ES 1 0 4 FIND BALANCE THROUGH BOUNDARIES

By Woodrie Burich

Q

U

I C K READS

8 FROM THE EDITOR

1 0 6 INSIDE ALASKA BUSINESS

1 1 0 ALASKA TRENDS

1 0 6 ECONOMIC INDICATORS

1 0 8 RIGHT MOVES

1 1 2 OFF THE CUFF

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Alaska Business

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Shaping tomorrow means something different for every Alaska business.

years 1922-2022

For some, it’s expanding operations to a new community. For others, it’s investing in technology to create new opportunities.

At First National, shaping tomorrow is our commitment to you.

Whether you’re a first-time entrepreneur or an established business, you can count on a century of local experience and innovative solutions to help you succeed today and tomorrow.

Shaping Tomorrow Since 1922 NMLS# 640297

FNBAlaska.com

CONTENTS J U LY 2 0 2 2 | V O LU M E 3 8 | NU M B ER 7 | AKB I Z M AG . C O M

SP EC I AL SEC TI O N: B EST O F ALASKA B U SI NESS 3 8 BEST OF ALASKA WINNERS 3 9 ACCOUNTING FIRM 3 9 LAW FIRM 4 0 ADVERTISING/CREATIVE AGENCY GENERAL CONTRACTOR CARGO/LOGISTICS PROVIDER SWAG SUPPLIER PRINTING SERVICES PROVIDER BANK/CREDIT UNION TRADE ASSOCIATION TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Snowy Berry

4 0 4 1 4 1 4 2 4 2 4 3 4 3

PROVIDER

4 4 LOCAL BROADCAST MEDIA 4 4 FLORIST 4 5 ART GALLERY 4 5 JEWELRY STORE 4 6 CANNABIS RETAILER 4 6 FURNITURE STORE 4 7 AUTO DEALERSHIP 4 7 OUTDOOR GEAR RETAILER 4 8 TRAVEL/TOUR COMPANY 4 8 HOTEL 4 8 HOSPITAL 4 8 BREWERY 4 9 COFFEE SPOT 4 9 INTERNATIONAL CUISINE 5 0 FINE DINING RESTAURANT 5 0 PIZZERIA 5 1 BAKERY/DESSERT SPOT 5 1 BURGER JOINT 5 2 CATERING SERVICE 5 2 PLACE TO WORK 1-250 EMPLOYEES

5 3 PLACE TO WORK 250+ EMPLOYEES

5 3 BUSINESS ADAPTATION TO COVID-19

5 8 SWEET, SNOWY, INNOVATIVE ARTISTRY Three creative startups from 2021

By Alexandra Kay

6 4 ART IN THE RIGHT PLACE

7 0 BUILDING FROM WITHIN

By Scott Rhode

By Kirk Rose

Galleries sell slices of Alaska

AB O

U

T TH

Inclusive neighborhood entrepreneurship

E C O

V ER

Who is that, lying on the ground and looking at clouds? It might be anyone here at our office—abuzz with Best of Alaska Business voting—seeing signs of categories everywhere. It might be anyone from the winning businesses themselves, envisioning the potential to excel in a range of fields, from preparing delicious food and drink to building roads. Or it might be a reader, filled with desires and dreams and wondering who can help fulfill them.

Or maybe it’s all those things filtered through the sensibilities of artist Sarah Glaser, who finds stimulation in the serene outdoors. Who has she portrayed on this month’s cover? “It’s an Alaskan,” she says. “It’s someone finding wonder and joy in being there in the moment.”

We've been following Glaser's work for a while, especially given that she's a professional welder. Little known fact: our in-house policies actually forbid us from passing up an opportunity to feature a woman that's equally skilled wielding fire or a paint brush.

AL ASKA BEST OF

JULY 2022

BUSINES

R O J EC T S | PET P

A IN AL ASK S | USGA 2022 JULY

$5.99

PM 6/16/2022 3:52:33

ia.indd 1

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5 4 STARTUP BUSINESS 5 6 CORPORATE CITIZEN

Illustration by Sarah Glaser

Alaska Business (ISSN 8756-4092) is published monthly by Alaska Business Publishing Co., Inc. 501 W. Northern Lights Boulevard, Suite 100, Anchorage, Alaska 99503-2577; Telephone: (907) 276-4373. © 2022 Alaska Business Publishing Co. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. Alaska Business accepts no responsibility for unsolicited materials; they will not be returned unless accompanied by a stamped, self addressed envelope. One-year subscription is $39.95 and includes twelve issues (print + digital) and the annual Power List. Single issues of the Power List are $15 each. Single issues of Alaska Business are $4.99 each; $5.99 for the July & October issues. Send subscription orders and address changes to circulation@akbizmag.com.

To order back issues ($9.99 each including postage) visit simplecirc.com/back_issues/alaska-business.

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Alaska Business

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F RO

M

TH

E EDI TO

I

R

’ve contributed to the Best of Alaska Business (BOAB) awards and special section since we launched them in 2016. Somehow, every year feels almost like I’ve never done it before. Part of that, I’m sure, is because we’ve only done it six times, with year-long breaks in between.

But even with that factored in, there’s something about BOAB that demands, over and over again, that we reconsider what we’ve done and how it can be better—to nerd out for a moment, this end-of-dungeon boss hasn’t quite revealed its final form.

Maybe it’s because we partner with a new local artist for the cover every year, which drives us to fi nd better ways to celebrate them and their work. Maybe it’s because we reexamine the categories year after year, being open to the idea of changing what they are and how many we have.

And maybe it’s because, even when we make those decisions, it just leads to more questions.

If we add categories without removing any—so we can celebrate more companies—do we expand the section or reduce the word count? Or include fewer photos? Or perhaps more photos and a significantly smaller word count? No words? Maybe giant words and tiny pictures… (don’t worry, Art Director Monica Sterchi-Lowman would never allow it).

We want every company listed in the BOAB special section to know that they are there because our readers told us they should be. That’s something special, so the question of how we best represent them is important, to the point that we can’t help but revisit it.

But deadlines happen regardless, and we make the best choices we can without running into them face first.

Maybe one day we’ll wrap up the July magazine, send it to the printer, and think: “We got it.

It’s fi gured out.” I suspect that won’t be the case. It’s more likely that we will be driven again and again to fi nd a perfection that perhaps doesn’t exist. We won’t know until we try all the good options, and there are many, many more good ideas that we would love to fi nd a way to implement.

For 2022, we’re publishing more categories than we ever have, and we’ve included additional reader favorites in almost every one. We’ve added editorial content other than the listings to enrich the section and give you even more insight into a few of the excellent businesses we have the privilege to cover. And, as you’ve already seen, we’ve partnered with an astounding local artist, Sarah Glaser, who delivered a cover that captures the energy and contentment of a fabulous Alaska summer. No improvement is needed there.

V O LU M E 3 8 , # 7 EDITORIAL STAFF Managing Editor Tasha Anderson 907-257-2907 tanderson@akbizmag.com

Editor/Staff Writer Scott Rhode 907-257-2902 srhode@akbizmag.com

Social Media Carter Damaska 907-257-2910 enews@akbizmag.com

Editorial Assistant Emily Olsen 907-257-2914 emily@akbizmag.com

PRODUCTION STAFF Art Director Monica Sterchi-Lowman 907-257-2916 design@akbizmag.com

Design & Art Production Fulvia Lowe production@akbizmag.com

Website Manager Taylor Sanders webmanager@akbizmag.com

Photo Contributor Kerry Tasker

BUSINESS STAFF President Billie Martin VP & General Manager Jason Martin 907-257-2905 jason@akbizmag.com

VP Sales & Marketing Charles Bell 907-257-2909 cbell@akbizmag.com

Senior Account Manager Janis J. Plume 907-257-2917 janis@akbizmag.com

Senior Account Manager Christine Merki

Tasha Anderson Managing Editor, Alaska Business

907-257-2911 cmerki@akbizmag.com

Full-Charge Bookkeeper James Barnhill 907-257-2901 accounts@akbizmag.com

CONTACT

Press releases: press@akbizmag.com

Postmaster: Send address changes to Alaska Business 501 W. Northern Lights Blvd. #100 Anchorage, AK 99503

AKBusinessMonth alaska-business-monthly AKBusinessMonth akbizmag

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Alaska Business

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H R M AT T E R S

SOLVING THE GREAT RESIGNATION Katie Lauwers, Project Coordinator, Consultant

E

verywhere we look, we are talking about the great resignation. The question at hand is how do we get the right people for the right job, and how do we keep them?

With the rise of the digital age, remote working opportunities, and the mobile job market, the best talent are always job shopping, and if they aren’t shopping, they are being recruited right under your nose. This new digital job market demands employers meet the expectations employees set.

All stages of the employee lifecycle and talent management are critical, starting with proactive scouting and recruiting and extending to offboarding and succession planning, which leaves your employees and former employees feeling respected and paying dual respect back to your organization.

Employees’ expectations are high when looking for new employment. They are looking for opportunities to confirm their “gut” about the organization.

They want to see their employer walk the walk. We have to remember that people are just that—they are people.

They need trust, respect, and authentic connection in the workplace. Make sure you develop a recruitment and onboarding approach that includes what your organization believes. What you think and how you operate matters; it’s your culture that employees and customers remember.

So when you are onboarding and training your employees, partner them

with a network of people. They can’t go straight to their training manager about everything. Think about how isolating it can be at a job to tell your new boss you just don’t get it, or you’re wondering about how to approach time off. Your employees should know who to go to for unspoken norms and management styles, who they go to as friends and peers, and who they go to for systems training and logins. By sharing the burden of training, you help make connections earlier and spare your superstars time and frustration.

Once you have them, you have to keep them. Research shows that development and growth opportunities are the number one reason individuals are leaving jobs. Illustrating to your team what their future will look like and how they will succeed is imperative. Train your managers to have the following conversations: Quick Connects Short, informal interactions to show you care and that you are available Monthly Check-Ins Review expectations, address obstacles, and identify where employees need support. Show them you see their workload, and provide them timely resources to address their needs.

Developmental Coaching Focus on immediate and relevant feedback and proactive coaching. Stay focused on what they do well and spot opportunities to get more out of them.

Progress Coaching Plan formal conversations every six months to cover performance and development goals. Team Goals conversations should include metrics and documentation of achievements and areas for improvement.

If you advertise a quality work environment, make sure you provide it from the get-go, and then make sure you find ways to engage and develop your most valuable resource: your people.

Katie Lauwers Project Coordinator | Consultant Katie Lauwers is a consultant and Gallup Certified Strengths Coach.

She works with a team committed to empowering individuals both personally and professionally. Katie supports clients through applying advanced psychology to business applications such as human decision-making, engagement, negotiation, marketing, and organizational behavior.

Katie has a Master of Arts in Behavioral Economics, where she combines a unique understanding of consumer and social behavior with a StrengthsBased development approach. Her commitment to understanding the multidimensionality of people equips her to support individuals and teams in improving engagement and professional development.

For more information about People AK, please visit peopleak.com or call 907-276-5707.

HR Matters is Sponsored by:

F I NANC E

Higher Percent Solutions Preparing for a rising interest rate environment

I

By Tracy Barbour

nterest rates rose in May for the policy-making arm—was projecting their lines of credit because their cash is second time this year. The Federal Fed funds target rates to increase so strong.”

Consequently, the demand for smaller Reserve (Fed) bumped its benchmark 2.75 percent in the next twelve to federal funds rate 0.5 percent to a eighteen months, according to Wells loans has waned; when companies do borrow, it’s for larger purposes, such as target range of 0.75 to 1 percent. The Fargo Securities.

“Long-term, fixed rates a real estate purchase. “Most nation’s central bank applied a quarterincreased more of our businesses report that point-rate increase in March and has have business is up,” Steadman indicated that it intends to raise rates than short-term rates in says. “Many of the businesses after each of its five remaining policy anticipation of projected can handle the higher meetings in 2022. The Fed also Fed funds rate increases,” interest rates.” announced plans to reduce its nearly $9 says Sam Mazzeo, who Depending on the trillion asset portfolio of Treasury and leads Wells Fargo’s Alaska financials involved, higher mortgage securities, and it is allowing Commercial Banking Group. interest rates can significantly bonds to mature without reinvesting “Ten-year, US Treasury Bill affect a company’s ability the proceeds into new securities. The yields have already increased SAM MAZZEO, head of Wells to secure loans. A higher recent moves are designed to curb 1.4 percent from 1.5 percent Fargo Alaska’s Commercial interest rate results in record-high inflation, which surged to at year-end [December 31, Banking Group Wells Fargo a higher payment that 8.5 percent in March—its highest level 2021]. Ten-year US Treasury Bill yields are currently 2.9 percent, as borrowers must prove they can afford. since December of 1981.

Escalating interest rates is one of of April 19, 2022. Banks often tie fixed “The best way to counteract that is to today’s most important economic rates directly to US Treasury Bill yields, have a solid plan of how you’re going issues, according to Mark Edwards, which are also a great barometer of to repay the loan,” Steadman says.

“The bank wants to see good balance chief credit officer and bank economist interest rate swap costs.” sheet strength.” at Northrim Bank. “The Alaska economy Essentially, higher interest rates showed broad improvements in Effects on Obtaining Loans 2021 and the first quarter of 2022 Banking customers will feel the affect profit, cash flow, and the ability as it rebounded from the pandemic immediate pinch of the higher interest to amortize debt. This makes higher lows of 2020,” he posted on April 29 rates with lines of credit, which are leverage less affordable for borrowers. in Northrim’s Alaskanomics attached to the prime rate, “Today, borrowers are more concerned blog. “A steady recovery of says Chad Steadman, a with hedging interest rates related to jobs in nearly every sector senior vice president and future borrowing needs compared to resulted from improved senior corporate lending one or two years ago,” Mazzeo says.

Should current conditions change tourism, rising oil prices, director at First National a strong housing market, Bank Alaska. However, in borrowers’ approach to commercial financing?

Mazzeo’s and consumer liquidity the last couple recommendation is for from government stimulus of years, many borrowers to maintain a mix programs. We believe that businesses have of fixed- and adjustablethe potential effects of rising MARK EDWARDS, EVP, accumulated rate debt, and they should interest rates, high inflation, Chief Credit Officer & Bank enough cash Economist at Northrim Bank consider the amount of and supply chain disruptions Northrim Bank that they don’t interest rate risk their business are the most pressing issues facing the need to access their lines can afford. For example, a economy in 2022.” of credit. “Many businesses company operating on a Businesses have been expecting the have paid down their debt narrower margin with less effects of a higher-rate environment. and are in a cash position,” TRACY MORRIS, SVP, pre-tax cashflow cannot As of April 19, 2022, the Federal Open he says. “We have had Commercial Banking at KeyBank afford to take much risk and Market Committee (FOMC)—the Fed’s businesses that have closed KeyBank 10 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

Alaska Business

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may need to lock in an interest rate for a longer term.

Since higher interest rates translate into larger loan payments and influence a company’s access to capital, business owners must be precise when seeking financing, says Tracy Morris, a senior vice president of commercial lending at KeyBank. “It is imperative that business owners be strategic in debt structures and fully understand sales cycles and capital needs,” she explains. “Hedging interest rates is an option that should be considered.”

How to Prepare Rising interest rates make financial and operational environments more challenging, but having sound decision-making and a proactive strategy can help companies better prepare themselves.

To mitigate the volatile climate, businesses might want to keep cash on hand for future projects. While rates are lower, they could consider financing assets—even if they have cash on hand and don’t actually require financing.

Steadman explains: “It's a great time to do an inventory analysis of your

balance sheet. See what assets you need to replace now while we’re still in a good rate environment. Historically, commercial rates have been 6 to 8 percent. The last two years, they have been in the 3- to 4.5-percent range, depending on the borrower’s collateral and situation. To expect them to stay that way is not reasonable.”

In addition, companies with upcoming debt maturities that qualify for long-term financing should consider extending maturities on credit lines and loans. Borrowers should consider longer-term fixed rate or interest rate hedging contracts provided by interest rate swaps. “Borrowers with defined long-term capital needs in the next eighteen months may hedge interest rates related to future borrowing needs with forward rate lock contracts provided by interest rate swaps,” Mazzeo explains.

Mazzeo says businesses with growth opportunities need enough credit to provide flexibility. “Borrowers with lower leverage and excess liquidity may view rising rates as an investment opportunity,” he says. “The Fed is trying to reduce inflation and asset prices

by increasing interest rates. This can provide better buying opportunities for those companies positioned with cash and lower leverage going into a risingrate environment.”

Ultimately, companies should “run their businesses and then manage interest risk” around that, Mazzeo says.

“My theme is being proactive: looking out a couple of years, determining what their debt needs will be, and proactively managing debt in that fashion,” he says.

Insulating against rising interest rates can be difficult. One of the best ways to accomplish this is with an owner-occupied property. Companies that are paying rent should consider owning their property and effectively locking in their rate, Steadman says.

“After that, it becomes very difficult to protect yourself,” he adds. “You could finance your equipment, but that would provide a locked-in rate for just three to seven years, depending on the asset’s expected use.”

Businesses also should carefully consider the term and duration of their loans. The goal is to lock in fixed interest rates over the long run—five or

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Alaska Business

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“We had one of our best years last year, even though we did fewer loans.”

Chad Steadman Senior Corporate Lending Director First National Bank Alaska

ten years—to stabilize their exposure to rising interest rates, Edwards says. He also suggests looking at a fixed interest rate swap for products the business will buy and hold for the long run and securing a line of credit. A credit line will afford companies access to working capital during times they might be churning their business cycle. “A line of credit provides liquidity when you need it,” he says. “It can be helpful when you’re facing uncertain times.”

It would behoove businesses to cultivate a relationship with a financial institution that has expertise on various state and federal lending programs.

The lender may be able to use these programs to facilitate a favorable fixedrate loan, such as a twenty-five-year, fixed-rate option from Alaska Industrial Development Export Authority. “When your business gets fixed-rate loans, you can know what your payments are for the foreseeable future; you can have more certainty during rising rates,” Edwards says.

Morris’ prescription for preparing for an environment with rising rates is to collaborate with financial partners.

Business owners should review their

O R SHAREHOLDERS.

Strong Commercial Loans Commercial lending activity is robust in Alaska. At First National, the demand for smaller loans has been lower because businesses have ample cash on hand, but the transaction sizes have been relatively larger. “We had one of our best years last year, even though we did fewer loans,” Steadman says.

At this point, Steadman expects commercial lending to remain strong.

Regardless of the interest rates, companies continue to borrow as long as it makes good business sense. If rates dramatically increase this year, commercial activity may diminish.

Commercial lending is also strong at Northrim Bank, which had record activity during the last two years.

Consequently, the community bank has been significantly growing, adding production offices in Nome and Kodiak,

O R HEARTBEAT.

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balance sheet to see how much variable debt they have and if it is time to convert to a fixed rate. “Companies should also consider how much cash they have on hand with respect to the impact of anticipated interest rates rising,” she says.

ACH.CO

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a second branch location in Fairbanks, and many new customers statewide.

“We’re a well-capitalized bank with strong deposits; we have money to lend,” Edwards says.

The demand for commercial loans also has increased for Wells Fargo, overall and in Alaska. In 2021, demand was lower, but there has been a noticeable increase in demand and activity in 2022, Mazzeo says. “Our Alaska Commercial Banking team does a lot of work with Alaska Native corporations, which have continued to grow their government contracting businesses,” he explains.

“Many Native corporations are actively investing in new ventures and buying other companies, which provides new financing opportunities. We are actively lending to oilfield services companies in Alaska, Alaska commercial fishing companies, mining support companies, and tourism-related companies, among other industries in Alaska.”

What to Consider What should Alaska companies keep in mind as the year progresses?

Businesses are eager to use available cash, and as the higher interest rates

affect the cost of capital, businesses your business tremendous flexibility to should evaluate their debt structure, operate and grow more efficiently.”

Companies could also benefit from Morris says. Additionally, companies need to focus on supply chains, rising assessing their non-performing assets. inflation, and the highly competitive They should review their balance sheet labor market. “Now might be a time to and ask, “Do I really need to own this?” discuss with your financial institution They might decide to sell their building the option to convert variable rate and lease it back or sell equipment they no longer need—which could be financings to fixed rate,” she says.

From Steadman’s perspective, advantageous since prices are higher now. “Good management Alaska businesses should decisions will determine concentrate on the right your results in diffi cult times,” asset mix and balance sheet Edwards says. “You have strength. “We’ve seen a lot to be more active in your of people who have let their management… You have to line of credit lapse, which be nimble and adjust.” doesn’t surprise me,” he says, Edwards also highlights that “but with the uncertainty in with the instability caused the market, they may want to STEADMAN, SVP, by supply chain problems, speak with their banker now CHAD Commercial Lending Russia’s war against Ukraine, about getting a line of credit Director at First National Alaska and the pandemic, more instead of waiting until the Bank FNBA people are questioning the need arises.”

In terms of advice for how to approach source and reliability of goods, and that’s the months ahead, Mazzeo cautions: good for the Alaska economy. “If we can “Do not panic regarding rising interest develop and produce natural resources rates, as rates can be managed, but here and goods are reliably sourced, make sure you are proactive to manage that’s the silver lining,” he says. “Maybe business debt. Business debt is a tool, there will be more attention on Alaskawhich, used appropriately, can allow sourced products.”

C A M A ’I P A D R ES • • • • • • • •

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Archipelago of Health

Mission-driven partners provide care in Southeast

By Tasha Anderson

A

2018 Pew Research Center report states, “People living in rural areas have longer travel times to the nearest hospital.” It’s not an earthshattering revelation, by any means, but the details are interesting. According to the report, rural Americans live an average of 10.5 miles from the nearest hospital, while those in the suburbs live 5.6 miles away and those in urban areas are 4.4 miles away, on average. This translates to average travel times of 17 minutes, 12 minutes, and 10 minutes, respectively. These are just averages, and the report recognizes that averages “mask considerable variation in access within community types.”

Pew Research Center based these figures on a metric of “car travel time.” The report’s methodology didn’t account for communities that are not on a road system. When one is trying to get a national picture of access to healthcare, perhaps that makes sense. But when one considers the healthcare needs of Alaskans, this report demonstrates the problem of 14 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

relying on national data to inform local issues.

Affordable, practical access to healthcare is a nut Alaska has been attempting to crack for decades, and some progress has been made.

Innovative programs of traveling healthcare practitioners and significant improvements in telehealth show the healthcare industry evolves to meet the needs of residents.

But each region of Alaska has its own needs and potential solutions, and Southeast is a particularly interesting space, as it has both fewer and more connections to surrounding communities.

Some Panhandle communities, such as Haines, are accessible by road: it’s about a fourteen-hour drive from Anchorage, assuming one has a passport. The “drive” from Wrangell to Anchorage is approximately the same as Wrangell to Seattle—roughly thirty-three hours—but both routes require the captain of one of the ferries that travel the Alaska Marine Highway to Alaska Business

take the driver’s seat for a portion of the trip.

Searching for Partnerships Southeast, instead of relying on travel outside of the community, has built up a network of health services within the community. The Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) is a nonprofit working to do exactly that through 100 providers in twentyseven Southeast communities. One of its newest connections was made in March, when it welcomed Rainforest Pediatric Care to its Care Network, expanding its pediatric care services in Juneau. As part of the agreement, Rainforest Pediatric Care moved from its previous location to the Ethel Lund Medical Center.

SEARHC President and CEO Charles Clement said of the partnership, “Merging Rainforest Pediatric Care with SEARHC is another step toward our mission to fill out our service lines toward a complete spectrum of healthcare offerings… We focus on w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

mscornelius | iStock

H E A LT H C A R E

new partnerships and mergers with likeminded organizations.”

One such organization was Alaska Island Community Services, which operated the Wrangell Medical center and formally affiliated with SEARHC in 2017; in 2018 SEARHC took over operations of the Wrangell Medical Center, the primary behavioral health, dental, and primary care provider for Wrangell.

Not all of SEARHC’s relationships are mergers; it has contracted with Dahl Memorial Medical Clinic, located in Skagway, to provide healthcare to SEARHC’s beneficiaries.

Dahl Memorial Medical Clinic is one of a handful of facilities that provide emergency care to those living or traveling in the Panhandle.

It’s named after Dr. Peter Dahl, who answered an advertisement in 1925 for a doctor to serve in Skagway for a monthly wage of $250. When the clinic was named in 1968, it was after Dahl, who was Skagway’s longest serving doctor.

In addition to 24/7 emergent care, it offers a range of standard healthcare services year-round and houses visiting providers who offer services ranging from physical and occupational therapy to optometry, dentistry, breast cancer detection, and acupuncture, aromatherapy, and reflexology.

It also provides a limited selection of over-the-counter medications, an unusual service for a clinic/hospital but one that suits its community. “We know that sometimes certain items can be in short supply and, in a pinch, people need them sooner than later,” the organization states.

One of Southeast’s other emergency care providers is Bartlett Regional Hospital, located in Juneau. Juneau has a resident population of just over 32,000 people, but the hospital serves a 15,000-square-mile region, with approximately 55,000 people residing in its service area.

Bartlett Regional Hospital provides a full range of healthcare services, is licensed for a total of fifty-seven inpatient beds, and is a certified Medicare and Medicaid provider.

New Investments Providers in Southeast have pursued multiple projects in recent years to w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

Image courtesy of Dan Butts.

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Affordable, practical access to healthcare is a nut Alaska has been attempting to crack for decades, and some progress has been made. Innovative programs of traveling healthcare practitioners and significant improvements in telehealth show the healthcare industry evolves to meet the needs of residents. update their facilities and better serve their patients.

For example, the Ethel Lund Medical Center, a state-of-the-art facility, completed a large-scale renovation in 2021. Local contractor Dawson and architect NorthWind Architects worked on the project, which included renovations to the lobby, reception area, waiting area, physical therapy room, ICT (information communication technology) areas and offi ces, pharmacy, lab, phlebotomy area, library, work rooms, and mechanical mezzanine.

In February of 2021, SEARHC completed construction of a new Wrangell Medical Center, which

“married a new critical access hospital and long-term care with the existing [Alaska Island Community Services] Clinic to create a 44,500-square-foot healthcare campus,” according to the nonprofit.

In July of 2021, SEARHC entered into an offi cial Joint Venture Agreement with the Indian Health Service to construct a facility to replace Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital, which is the oldest hospital in the Indian Health Service system. The new twenty-fi vebed critical access hospital will be located in Sitka.

The Petersburg Medical Center is also taking the long view and making plans to build a new facility.

The original Petersburg Hospital was built in the late ‘50s and now serves as the Long-Term Care wing. The hospital was expanded in 1984, and a clinic was added in the mid-‘90s.

Essentially, “The basic infrastructure of the building is thirty to fifty years old,” according to the medical center. Jensen Yorba Lott, a Juneau architecture firm, assessed the facilities and found that the “majority of the systems, components, and finishes have exceeded or are near the end of their service life and should be replaced.” Petersburg is working on a plan for a new facility and in fact received $8 million from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs

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Act for the construction of a new hospital.

Geographic Isolation To better accommodate farflung clients, healthcare providers in Southeast have found multiple solutions. Bartlett Regional Hospital “expanded its pulmonary rehabilitation program to include a fully remote option for patients who suffer from longterm effects of COVID-19 or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,” which it announced in May. The rehabilitation program includes exercise training and education on managing lung disease and developing healthy habits. “The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the increased need for delivery of virtual health care, particularly for patients with preexisting chronic lung disease who, as a result are at an increased risk of severe COVID-19,” a release from the hospital states. “Further, telehealth can help to reduce health disparities and barriers to care, such as lack of access to transportation and proximity to specialists due to geographic isolation.”

Since geographic isolation is more the rule than the exception in

Southeast, SEARHC has a Patient Travel Office, which helps their clients who need emergency travel—and meet the eligibility requirements—via a 24/7 oncall travel coordinator. SEARHC also provides courtesy shuttle services to its medical campuses in Sitka and Juneau for those who need non-emergent medical travel assistance.

And for those who need to travel to the Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center in Sitka for procedures that require little to no hospitalization, SEARHC established its Patient Housing Facility. According to SEARHC, “Our 7,820-square-foot short-term housing facility offers a safe, comfortable place to stay for as many as thirty-two patients or family members.” Two of the double-occupancy rooms at the facility are fully ADA compliant.

Better than traveling is finding ways to bring healthcare into the community.

Through its Care Network partnerships, SEARHC has medical facilities in Klawock, Hoonah, Gustavus, Pelican, Kasaan, Haines, Hydaburg, Kake, Klukwan, and Angoon, all of which provide select medical services. For example,

the Alma Cook Health Center in Hydaburg provides primary care through an in-resident certified nurse practitioner and behavioral health, dental, and physical therapy at set times on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, while the Jessie Norma Jim Health Center in Angoon has three medical professionals on staff to provide primary and specialty care and radiology, as well as offering pediatric care through a traveling pediatrician.

SEARHC also organizes seasonal clinics at Coffman Cove, Edna Bay, Naukati, Port Protection, Point Baker, Whale Pass, and Excursion Inlet. Many of these seasonal and year-round facilities serve all patients regardless of their ability to pay, based on a sliding scale.

Being flexible is par for the course for healthcare providers in Southeast, who have built up their practices and facilities purposefully to accommodate the communities they serve. According to Bartlett Regional Hospital, to meet it’s vision to be the best community hospital in Alaska, “We choose to do our best and work with a commitment to continuous improvement.”

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M

EDI A &

ARTS

Setting the Stage

E

Foo Fighters prove Alaska is a viable stop for premier touring acts

By Brad Joyal 18 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

ver since Billie Holliday visited Anchorage in 1954 for a gig at the 1042 Club, Alaska has served as a desired destination for musical acts both big and small. While some artists plan a tour stop because they want to check another state off of the list of places they have performed, other acts have viewed Alaska as a new frontier to gain fans willing to spend money on records, tickets, and merchandise. Throughout the ‘70s and early ‘80s, West Anchorage High School’s auditorium served as the preferred venue for large national touring acts.

Steppenwolf, Ozzy Osbourne, Bee Gees, Ray Charles, Johnny Cash, and the Grateful Dead performed inside the school’s 2,000-seat auditorium.

The 1983 opening of the George M. Sullivan Arena unlocked new possibilities for Anchorage-area promoters, able to fit more than 8,700 concertgoers.

Interior Alaska received its own arena in 1990 when the

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Carlson Center opened in Fairbanks with a capacity of approximately 6,500. The Beach Boys, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Buffett, Bon Jovi, James Brown, and Elton John are among the many performers who have graced the stage at Sullivan Arena, while Elton John, Toby Keith, Godsmack, and comedians Larry the Cable Guy and Cheech & Chong are some of the many acts that have performed at the Carlson Center.

The number of major national touring stops in Alaska dwindled during the 21st century. In recent years, music fans have had to turn to smaller clubs and venues or fairs and festivals for live music.

That changed last August when Foo Fighters performed a threenight run of concerts that included two performances at Anchorage’s Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center and another at the Carlson Center in the Golden Heart City. The three concerts marked the return of large-scale events in Alaska after COVID-19 limited crowd sizes for more than a year.

The logistics to bring the fifteentime Grammy Award-winning band to Alaska is representative of the many challenges that promoters and venues face while trying to host national touring acts this far north.

“We definitely had our struggles,” says Fairbanks North Star Borough Parks and Recreation Director Donnie Hayes, who organized the Carlson Center show. “If it weren’t for all the different people who jumped in and said, ‘Yeah, we’re going to make this happen,’ we couldn’t have pulled it off.

There was a lot of support from the community to make it happen.”

was shelved when COVID-19 arrived in March 2020.

A year later, Ferrin got another call from Emporium Presents, a promotion company and subsidiary of Live Nation, when Alaska started easing its COVID-19 restrictions. Emporium wanted to promote Foo Fighters’ first concerts in Alaska, but the Sullivan Arena had since been pressed into service as a homeless shelter. The Alaska Airlines Center on the UAA campus was also not an option, temporarily closed to repair damaged flooring. At the same

time, Emporium was in discussions with Hayes about a show at the Carlson Center, which was preparing to undergo its own changes.

“The Parks and Recreation department has always owned the Carlson Center,” Hayes explains. “It’s always been a borough facility, but up until July 1 of last year, we always had a third-party management company taking care of it.” As in Anchorage, the Fairbanks arena had been managed by ASM Global, but it was closed for two years when the contract ended last

Meetings.

Activities.

Accommodations.

Donnie Hayes

This Is a Call Anchorage Convention Centers assistant general manager Therin Ferrin first heard rumblings about Alaska being on Foo Fighters’ radar in the fall of 2019. A concert promoter reached out to him to discuss the possibility of bringing the band to the Sullivan Arena, which is operated by ASM Global, the Los Angeles-based company that manages the Dena’ina Center and Egan Center in Anchorage.

After several months of discussions, the prospect of a Sullivan Arena show w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

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July and the borough reopened the building.

Despite not knowing what shape the arena was in, Hayes said he’d commit to the Fairbanks concert if promoters found a venue in Anchorage.

“They asked if it’s something we’d be interested in and I laughed and said, ‘Yeah, we’re interested, but I have no staff, the building’s not open, and I don’t even know what’s inside of it,’” recalls Hayes. “I told the promoter, ‘Look, we will make this happen because it’s the Foo Fighters and I will get strung up if the community found out that I turned down an opportunity to have the Foo Fighters in Fairbanks.’

I’d be taken out to the Parks and Recreation gun range and the firing squad would be set on me.”

For Anchorage, Emporium and Ferrin settled on the Dena’ina Center’s 47,400-square foot exhibit hall to hold two concerts on August 17 and 19 in front of a capacity crowd of 5,000.

Even though Ferrin had a pre-existing relationship with Emporium from when the company promoted Miranda Lambert and Luke Bryan concerts at the Sullivan Arena, the thought of

hosting Foo Fighters, a rock band founded in 1994 by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, seemed like a major undertaking.

“We don’t do a huge amount of concerts at the convention center,” says Ferrin, a thirty-year veteran of the events industry. “We do a lot of cruise ship hospitality rooms during the summertime, or we do some weddings and some dinners, things like that. As far as musical acts or comedy shows, we don’t do a lot of those. The promoter was talking to me about it and said, ‘The Foo Fighters must really want to come to Anchorage or Alaska if they’re willing to play in a convention center.’ These guys had just sold out Madison Square Garden about a month before they were due to come up here, so they’re not used to playing in a convention center in some little town.”

In Fairbanks, Hayes was beginning to lose faith after not hearing from Emporium or its co-founder Jason Zink.

“I had kind of given up,” he says.

“They knew we were interested, but the Anchorage situation sounded interesting, so I was just like, ‘I can’t

do anything about them down there.

I’m just going to cross my fingers and hope, but it’s probably not happening.’”

Finally, the call arrived during the first week of July.

“We got the official word saying, ‘Donnie, August—we’re doing it,’” Hayes remembers.

Foo Fighters scheduled a travel day after the Anchorage shows and tickets went on sale for an August 21 show.

Something from Nothing Although Ferrin and Hayes were hosting the same band, the Dena’ina Center and Carlson Center had different to-do lists in the weeks leading up to the concerts. The Dena’ina Center has the luxury of having its own food and beverage department, so it was able to run its own bar service—Ferrin estimates the convention center constructed forty bars—and handle concessions for both concerts. Hayes and the Carlson Center weren’t as fortunate; the borough’s Parks and Recreation department needed to quickly secure a food and beverage contract while they simultaneously built a staff after

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regaining control of the arena from ASM Global.

“When I finally got the word that the concert was on, there were four staff at the building: two janitors, an events coordinator, and a food and beverage manager,” says Hayes. “We hadn’t got our food concessions contract in place.

We didn’t have a production contract in place. We just got into the building and only had one working vacuum.

The building still had a brand new roof being put on because, during COVID, a huge flood affected the building and the roof gave way. When we pulled the bleachers out for the first time, we had sixty chairs that were busted and broken. It was nuts that we were saying, ‘Yeah, we’re going to do this.’”

Fairbanks-based Malemute, Inc., which owns and operates the Alaska Salmon Bake in Pioneer Park, was awarded the Carlson Center’s food and beverage contract under the name Riverside Eats and Drinks after responding to the arena’s request for a concessions vendor. Despite having the salmon bake in place, Malemute was “starting from scratch” inside the Carlson Center, according to

Malemute owner and general manager Beth Richards.

“The building hadn’t been used in two years, so we kind of got in and figured out what was still working and what wasn’t,” says Richards. “The borough was wonderful. They created a sort of back-to-school open house event that had some free food. It gave us a test run in the concessions a couple weeks before the concert, and we actually learned a lot from that.

We tried some mini pizzas, but there wasn’t a good place to hold them— we felt like the quality wasn’t good enough to sell after they held for a couple minutes.”

Food and beverages weren’t the only staffing issue the Carlson Center faced. Hayes turned to Fort Wainwright and Eielson Air Force Base for equipment and security while relying on other borough staff members to help prepare.

“Every department in the whole entire borough—our maintenance department, all of the other staff from the Parks and Recreation department—are sending people they don’t really have to give to us just to get the building up and ready,”

“We ran out of bottled water and had to get more in the middle of the concert. I honestly had no idea we would sell that much.

Between providing water for the band and crew and selling to guests, we went through 100 cases.”

Beth Richards, Owner and General Manager Malemute, Inc.

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Fairbanks North Star Borough Parks and Recreation Director Donnie Hayes (front left) takes a selfie with friends and family before the Foo Fighters concert August 21, 2021 at the Carlson Center in Fairbanks.

Donnie Hayes

Hayes says. “It was, without a doubt, a mass project for the whole entire community and everybody put in a little bit of time and effort.”

The Dena’ina Center’s biggest issue, with food and beverage services secured, was security. Ferrin says it helped that the convention center had purchased metal detectors about five or six years ago.

“We needed sixty security guards,” says Ferrin, who contracted guards for two nights through local security companies. “That was a challenge, especially coming out of COVID with not everyone back to work. They are the most high-profile band that we’ve had at the convention center, so security was tighter than what we’d normally do.”

Have It All Any doubts regarding the demand Foo Fighters would have in Alaska quickly vanished once tickets went on sale via Ticketmaster on July 14, 2021. Within three hours, the two Anchorage shows sold out of general 22 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

admission tickets priced at $129.50 plus fees. Although the Carlson Center show never quite sold out, Hayes says a little less than 6,000 people were ultimately in attendance for what he described as “like a bar setting—it was that intimate.”

While Emporium was in charge of providing sound, lights, and production equipment—Ferrin estimates the company needed four semi-trailer trucks to carry all of the gear—the venues were responsible for additional preparations beyond hiring staff. They needed to fulfill all the dressing room requests included on the Foo Fighters’ rider.

“I got the rider and my mouth dropped,” says Hayes. “I was like, ‘What?

This is a lot!’”

“They needed twelve dressing rooms and they wanted brand-new furniture— couches, stuffed chairs, end tables, coffee tables, and lamps,” says Ferrin.

“Most of the time, we take the furniture we have in the lobby at the convention center and put that in a room and call it the dressing room, and most people Alaska Business

are fine with it. With these guys, it was way more elaborate.”

Ferrin says the convention center worked with an Anchorage Rent-ACenter to build out the twelve dressing rooms, a task he says took the RentA-Center “five or six trips” with their moving truck due to all of the furniture that was needed. He notes that the catering requests for the dressing rooms was “over the top as well.”

“They had all different types of requests,” says Ferrin. “It was standard food, but they wanted individual chips and dips and orange juice. It was all stuff we could get at the local store, but it was just a lot, with there being twelve different rooms.”

The pre-concert preparations weren’t limited to food and furniture, though— there were production components the venues helped with. For Ferrin, that meant designing a rigging plot to hang all of the band’s lights and sound equipment from the Dena’ina Center’s ceiling, a process that required approval from a structural engineer to ensure the ceiling could withstand the weight. w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

In Fairbanks, Hayes says the Carlson Center provided metal detectors, chain-link fencing, the stage, stage barriers, and bike racks.

Both venues were presented with one last-minute change: due to an uptick in COVID-19 cases in early August, Foo Fighters requested a new COVID-19 policy that required attendees to either present a vaccine card or receive a negative test result within forty-eight hours of attending the concert.

“That was the hardest moment because we looked out to the community and the community was upset because they had already bought their tickets under one set of guidelines and now the guidelines were changing,” says Hayes. “That was a hard moment for us to work through, but we did it. We got nurses from the community, and the band paid those nurses to run tests in front of the Carlson Center for the two and a half days before the concert started.

We knew the hospital and our local clinics didn’t have the manpower to do that, so it was nice of the band to help make it right.”

Congregation Ferrin and the Dena’ina Center staff first recognized the significance of the concerts when they arrived early on the morning of the first concert.

“We had people that flew up from New York and stood in line at 7 a.m. the morning of the concert,” says Ferrin.

“They already had their tickets; they just wanted to be the first ones in. I think it was the fifth or sixth time this group of women had seen them—they buy tickets and fly all over the country.”

Ferrin estimates he met at least ten people who flew from out of state to attend the show. Hayes encountered a similar situation in Fairbanks.

“We had people calling us saying, ‘Hey, we’re flying in just for the show and then flying out, but all of the hotels are booked right now, and we just need a place to put our backpack,’” Hayes recalls. “People were buying U-Haul trucks just for the day so they could crash in them that night before they had to hop on a plane, or just to store their backpack and luggage. It was definitely a big deal.”

The finances surrounding the concert varied by venue. Hayes w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

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J u l y 2 0 2 2 | 23

Fairbanks North Star Borough Parks and Recreation Director Donnie Hayes (right) poses with his best friend, Brian Colõn, whom Hayes leaned on during the final week of preparations.

Donnie Hayes

says the Carlson Center made some money through its three-day rental fee of about $7,500, but he was quick to point out the real winners were the members of the community, who were able to witness the one-of-a-kind performance, and Riverside Eats and Drinks, which proved it can handle concessions at the Carlson Center for special events and UAF hockey games.

Richards says the company settled on selling tacos, chicken, and hot dogs, though she notes most money was made through beverage sales.

“We had three local beers plus Bud Light on draft, and we went through twenty-five full size kegs of beer—which is the equivalent of 3,100 pints,” says Richards. “We ran out of bottled water and had to get more in the middle of the concert. I honestly had no idea we would sell that much. Between providing water for the band and crew and selling to guests, we went through 100 cases.”

In Anchorage, Ferrin says the Dena’ina Center did well with its share of merchandise sales.

“They sent up over 200 boxes of T-shirts and records and posters and stuff,” says Ferrin. “That was huge. Our 24 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

share was about $60,000 or $70,000.”

My Hero While they both are proud of their respective venues for pulling off the feat, Ferrin and Hayes also recognize that major touring acts like Foo Fighters can bring a lot to their communities.

“I think there was a big economic impact for downtown,” says Ferrin.

“On Tuesday, most people showed up at the same time, right around when the doors opened. Thursday night’s concert seemed more like a weekend night; people came in sporadically and a lot didn’t show up until right before the band took the stage. I believe they were probably out at the local bars and restaurants getting something to eat or drink before the event.”

More than the financial gains, however, the Dena’ina Center and Carlson Center proved that Alaska can still welcome national touring acts, even in a post-pandemic world. Hayes expects more acts to visit Fairbanks after seeing how the Carlson Center handled Foo Fighters.

“We definitely believe there will be some bigger shows coming out Alaska Business

of this, but we also realize it’s Fairbanks and it’s Alaska and it’s not going to happen every other week,” says Hayes. “We have a bigname comedian that we’re working to bring up in December that had heard about the show and thought it was pretty rad.”

The Carlson Center also received glowing reviews from Emporium.

“The promoter came up to us afterwards and said, ‘This was a great show—we didn’t know what to expect out of Fairbanks,’” says Hayes. “At one point, I was in a back room totally mentally and physically exhausted while the concert was going on. I was crying because it happened—I couldn’t believe it happened, it was so emotional—and the promoter Jason walked by and saw me in the room and walked up and threw his arms around me. The two of us just cried and we were like, ‘We did it! We can’t believe we actually did it!’ I feel like we presented to the community that we can do this and to the promoters that, hey, Fairbanks can pull this off.

We also know that the next time we do it we’ll be way better.” w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

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JAHC

NO NP RO F I T

I

Art of the State

Public patrons fund Alaskan artists

By Rachael Kvapil

26 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

Alaska Business

n early May, Nancy DeCherney gave her last presentation as Executive Director of the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council (JAHC) to the Juneau City and Borough Assembly. With retirement on the horizon, DeCherney is shoring up JAHC program funding for the upcoming fiscal year before handing over the keys to current Operations Manager Reggie Schapp, who will serve as interim director. After sixteen years as JAHC’s executive director and more than ten years in various arts administrative roles, DeCherney understands the cycle of arts funding and the adaptation by arts organizations. Most recently, funding and adaptation came to the forefront as the COVID-19 pandemic affected budgets within the industry and health and safety protocols forced arts agencies, arts organizations, and individual artists to feature and sell their work using streaming and virtual technologies. w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

Anyone who’s heard the term “full-on Monet” could easily apply this concept when it comes to the importance of the arts industry: easy to appreciate from a distance but messy up close.

It’s easy to miss the full picture by looking at only one impact the arts have on a community. Stepping back to examine the interplay of fi nancial, educational, and cultural signifi cance reveals a greater contribution to the vitality of Alaska.

The Grantors Though local arts agencies existed in several Alaska communities prior to 1965, the establishment of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) increased funding opportunities. The NEA is the only funder, public or private, to support the arts in all fifty states, US territories, and the District of Columbia.

To help facilitate NEA funding, state art agencies (SAAs) were created by every US state and jurisdiction.

SAAs coordinate cultural policies and manage arts programming on behalf of, or as part of, state government. In 1967, the legislature established the Alaska State Council on the Arts (ASCA) to apply for NEA funds and manage funding requests from local Alaska arts agencies, arts organizations, and individual artists.

On this level, the process begins with the NEA designating 40 percent of its grantmaking budget to the state and regional arts organizations through partnership agreements. SAAs like ASCA must then match the federal dollars one-to-one with state government funds. Once matching funds are secure, ASCA develops grant programs to which local arts agencies apply on behalf of their local communities.

The one-to-one match between the NEA and SAA funding is the minimum to meet federal requirements. A state government can choose to allocate additional funds to an SAA, much like the Alaska legislature did during the ‘70s and early ‘80s during the construction of the Trans Alaska Pipeline System, when higher oil prices increased state revenue. Benjamin Brown, appointed board chair for the Alaska State Council on the Arts, says back then almost all of its budget was state and federal dollars.

“In the mid-’80s oil plummeted,” says Brown. “Our budget dropped from $6 w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

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million, and we’ve never returned to that level of funding again.”

According to the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies FY2021 State Arts Agency Revenues report, ASCA received $697,100 in legislative appropriations from the state’s general funds, a 0.5 percent increase from FY2020 when ASCA received $693,500. Despite the increase, ASCA did not receive funding for Arts in Public Places, the Governor's Arts Award, or program receipts in FY2021. Compared to the rest of the United States and six jurisdictions, Alaska ranks among the lowest for state allocations, with only Montana, Kansas, the US Virgin Islands, Northern Marianas, Guam, American Samoa, and Arizona providing less.

By the ‘90s it became clear to ASCA that additional funding from non-government sources was needed to provide grants to local arts agencies, Arts in Education programs, and individual Alaskan artists and to manage the Alaska Contemporary Art Bank (a collection of works loaned to public buildings).

In 2017, the legislature redesignated ASCA as a public corporation within the Department of Education and Early Development but with separate and independent legal existence. Brown says the redesignation exempts ASCA from the state’s procurement code, allowing it to operate more nimbly and obtain autonomy over its website.

“We weren’t the first state arts agency to go this route,” says Brown. “Public corporation doesn’t solve the world’s problems, but it does make some aspects of collaboration easier.”

Even with public corporation status, ASCA is still required to meet the NEA match requirements and partnership agreements. In 2019, ASCA nearly lost its entire $2.8 million budget when Governor Mike Dunleavy initially vetoed legislative appropriations. Though Dunleavy eventually approved a budget with arts funding, for a short time ASCA prepared to shut down its operations.

The Grantees Nationwide there are 4,500 local arts agencies with the mission of supporting arts and artists while making the arts widely accessible to all community members. In Alaska, there are 28 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

“A Walk in our Boots” on display at Fairbanks Arts Association’s Bear Gallery in May for the exhibition Forget-me-not: Art Therapy with Alaska’s Military Population, curated by art therapist Alexis Castriotta.

Nicole Wills

approximately six professionally staffed local arts agencies in Juneau, Ketchikan, Fairbanks, Homer, Seward, and Sitka, as well as a number of volunteer agencies in rural areas. Anchorage does not have a local art agency, opting instead for an Arts Advisory Commission that works within the local government.

Local agencies often use the term “umbrella organization” to describe their collaborations with artists and arts organizations.

Jess Peña, executive director of the Fairbanks Arts Association (FAA), says the role of a local arts agency changes with the needs of the community. In its earliest days, FAA hosted ballets, operas, and theatrical events not available in the Alaska Business

Interior at the time. Now, as performing arts groups increase in numbers, FAA primarily supports and amplifies artistic endeavors and arts education.

“At all times we seek to be a resource for artists and arts organizations,” says Peña. “We also raise awareness of the arts in Interior Alaska and encourage participation.”

Peña says FAA’s arts funding is a mix of federal, state, and local grants along with institutional and private donations. FAA is one of the local arts agencies that regularly applies for ASCA grants used in part for the operation and administration of agency arts programs and the Artist in Schools grant that partially pays for w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

artists to work directly with students on mid- to long-term projects. Peña says arts organizations and individual artists also receive foundation and corporation contributions and earned income through the sales of tickets, artworks, or some other goods or services. Charitable giving and ongoing memberships or subscriptions are other critical funding pieces. Both FAA and JAHC earn commissions from gallery and gift shop sales. DeCherney says most local arts agencies have a similar earned income setup from galleries, gift shops, or facility rentals.

The level of arts funding varies between communities, as do the programs that need additional funding.

Though DeCherney feels the arts community in Juneau is thriving, she is still bothered by the lack of affordable health insurance for artists. None of the arts organizations she’s worked for could provide those options until this year, when JAHC will offer a Reimbursement Health Arrangement.

“For what the arts community brings to our state culturally and economically, it doesn’t make sense why artists aren’t protected,” says DeCherney. “Artists create and manufacture things just like other industries. They should also have similar protection.”

For Peña, her biggest concern is the lack of funding for arts education.

She says budget cuts and political influence continue to disrupt arts programs in schools. However, Peña points to the educational benefit and skills developed through arts education including critical thinking and problemsolving, in addition to increased empathy, communication, patience, and an expanding worldview.

“The arts are often eyed for reduction or elimination when budget cuts are looming,” says Peña. “That’s when it’s most important to retain and strengthen arts education. It feels like a leap of faith investing in an area that contains ambiguity and the results can be difficult to quantify. However, we need to invest in our young people who will be the community leaders and decision-makers of tomorrow.”

The Impact Though the benefits of the arts industry can’t be entirely quantified, its economic contribution is measurable. w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

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J u l y 2 0 2 2 | 29

Students of UAF professor and local cartoonist Jamie Smith document the display of works by local K-12 students at the annual Up With Art exhibit at the Fairbanks Arts Association Bear Gallery in March 2022.

Jess Peña | Fairbanks Arts Association

Peña points to the 2016 Arts and Economic Prosperity 5 study by Americans for the Arts that showed $166.3 billion generated nationwide by the nonprofit arts industry. The US Bureau of Economic Analysis reports that in 2020, during the pandemic, arts and cultural production accounted for $1.3 billion and 2.6 percent of the Alaska economy. However, Alaskan employment in the arts during the pandemic decreased by 11 percent while overall state employment decreased by 7 percent. Even with this decrease, the same report shows the arts as a significant part of Alaska's economy with an impact larger than the utility, agriculture, and forestry industries.

On a local level, both JAHC and FAA report bringing around $18 million into their respective communities this year. Both organizations had to adapt financially and systematically to manage operations and events online instead of in person during the pandemic. DeCherney says this meant adding an online gift shop to JAHC’s website, reformatting the scheduled Artists In-School residencies for at-home participation by students 30 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

and parents, and presenting concerts online.

“It was a difficult time for everyone,” says DeCherney. “But it did force us to make changes that we needed to make anyway.”

FAA also found itself adapting inperson events for online delivery. This included a website featuring the annual K-12 “Up With Art” exhibition. Staffers spent hours photographing, editing, and uploading 200 works of art within days of the gallery’s closure.

“There was no way we were letting the pandemic take down the collective efforts of young artists, the teachers who installed the show, and the families who support their creativity,” said Peña.

Both DeCherney and Peña say local performing organizations got creative with social engagement and held virtual events and provided additional resources for the general public, parents, students, and instructors.

Aside from the economic factor, DeCherney says the arts industry is the foundation of cultural identity. When people travel, she says, they go to new places to eat, view performances, visit museums, sculptures, and monuments.

She feels there is a revival of indigenous Alaska Business

art in Juneau as indigenous people reclaim their heritage.

“There is a mental health benefit to be able to say who we are, what we are, and why we are those things,” says DeCherney.

During the pandemic, many organizations relied on federal CARES Act relief funds to make up for lost revenue. As in-person events return, Peña says the pandemic has spurred important conversations about the role of philanthropy and the reevaluation of programs. FAA is also participating in Americans for the Arts’ next study, Arts and Economic Prosperity 6. This study examines the economic impact of the nonprofit arts and culture sector in Fairbanks and 386 other communities in all fifty states and the District of Columbia.

As for DeCherney, she is already seeing a sea change in the Juneau community as a younger generation settles in the city, opens businesses, and brings new energy and fresh perspectives. She feels she has accomplished many good things during her career and is leaving a healthy vibrant organization for the next person with exciting ideas. w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

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Stocking Up on Staff

TO U RI SM

Finding employees to sell the Alaska experience

By Isaac Stone Simonelli

Lena Lee

L

32 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

Alaska Business

ast year was a record sales year for Forests, Tides & Treasures, a general store in Seward. With strong sales continuing through the off -season, co-owners Cliff Krug and Linda Chichester project a double-digit increase in sales in 2022.

“We survived the pandemic despite the big cut in hours because we were able to maintain an elastic business model and adapt to the challenges before us,” Krug says. “We continuously adapted our merchandise selection to reflect what the visitors who came to Seward wanted.”

That merchandise ranges from underwear and sleeping bags to jams, soaps, candles, jewelry, and art prints.

Krug and Chichester say they were surprised at how well the business managed to do despite cutting back on the number of hours they were open.

“Locals and our guests adapted to our hours seamlessly, and we were still able to be profitable in the end,” Chichester says.

Krug adds, “We were also able to overcome many of the logistical challenges in our industry by bringing in merchandise as soon as we could…

For the 2022 season, we started taking w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

inventory in as early as November of 2021.”

Krug describes the shop as a gateway to Alaska, providing not just sundries needed for an Alaska adventure but also a wide range of Alaska art, artisanal products, and other unique items.

“We fill our store with Alaskan artists, artisans, and vendors,” Krug says, “with the specific goal of connecting all of our guests with each and every one of them. They are able to experience what is best about Alaska first-hand in our store.”

Another big lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic is the importance of a healthy work-life balance. The reduction of store hours significantly improved that balance, Chichester says.

“We had to cut our store hours back because we didn’t have the personnel,” Chichester says. Last year, the team not only trimmed hours by three hours a day but also closed its doors two days a week.

Chichester says, “The reduction in hours significantly improved our experience of the crazy Alaskan summers and showed us the

opportunities it could provide our staff as well.”

Another Crazy Summer Kat Sorensen, the director of the Seward Chamber of Commerce, explains that Seward is particularly well positioned in the state to be able to cater to both cruise ship passengers and independent travelers.

“We are on the road and rail system, so we do get to see our fair share of independent travelers, but we also look forward to ship days and the business that they bring to town,” Sorensen says.

“We are really excited as a community for this upcoming tourism season.”

By May, many tour operators and hotels in Seward were already seeing high levels of preseason bookings, Sorensen notes.

“We are lucky to live in an industry where we can kind of see and predetermine what the season will look like based on the number of bookings,” she says.

About forty-one ships that are members of the Cruise Lines International Association are scheduled

to visit Alaska, which works out to about 630 voyages.

“We estimate that’s about 1.5 million passengers for the summer,” says Alaska Travel Industry Association (ATIA) President and CEO Sarah Leonard, assuming each ship is at full capacity.

The city of Ketchikan’s port and harbors department expects ships to be operating at about 70 percent capacity, which would mean just over 1 million cruise ship passengers arriving in 2022. That would fall short of the record season of 1.3 million cruise visitors in 2019 but far more than the 115,000 passengers who arrived in 2021.

Adventure Days The turnaround from 2021 is fueling optimism, yet challenges remain for 2022. One of the greatest of these is attracting employees to service tourism businesses.

“One big hurdle that we're facing is a worker shortage. That was definitely the biggest issue last year, and coming into this year, it's still an issue,” Sorensen says. “We live in a unique and distant

In addition to core staff, Seward’s Forests, Tides & Treasures fills the turnover of seasonal positions mainly by hiring through CoolWorks.com, which is aimed at job-seekers who crave adventure.

Lena Lee

w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

Alaska Business

J u l y 2 0 2 2 | 33

As a general store, Forests, Tides & Treasures has a generalized inventory, spanning not just souvenirs, handcrafts, and art but essential vacation gear.

Lena Lee

land, so it's not always the easiest to get workers up here.”

Attracting summer labor to Alaska has always been difficult, but travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic have compounded the issue. Immigration policies during the pandemic drastically reduced the J-1 Summer Work Travel cultural exchange program. This program historically issued nearly 2,000 visas annually for summer travel workers in Alaska. In 2020, that number dropped to 22, recovering only modestly in 2021 to 297. Traditionally, these employees have filled the ranks in restaurants, hotels, and other tourism businesses.

“Even before the pandemic there weren’t the numbers in the workforce to fill all the seasonal jobs, especially 34 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

during the busy summer season,” Leonard says. “So many of our businesses have relied on J-1 visas.”

Leonard says ATIA is urging the federal government to process the backlog of J-1 visas and relieve the program restrictions.

“We're advocating for Congress to release the cap on those visas so that businesses that are involved in those programs are able to hire, whether it's someone from Ukraine or just from another country, to fi ll some of those jobs,” Leonard says. She notes that ATIA has been exploring ways to offer job opportunities specifi cally to Ukrainian citizens fleeing the war in their home country.

In Seward, Krug and Chichester have been forced to think long and hard about what changes they needed to Alaska Business

make to attract and keep employees at Forests, Tides & Treasures.

“It was a matter of figuring out what is meaningful to our staff,” Krug says.

“With the Great Resignation, that really came front and center.”

Krug and Chichester looked at the wages they were offering, the employee perks they could make available, and the type of work/life balance they could create to allow seasonal employees to fully engage with the wonders of Southcentral.

“With the challenges that we had last year, we really spent a lot of time trying to learn from our employees, talking with local business owners, and utilizing the information and data available at the state and national level to find out how we could do a better job,” Krug says. “We just w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

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“One big hurdle that we're facing is a worker shortage.

That was definitely the biggest issue last year, and coming

kept adjusting our hire and benefits package to reflect the feedback that we were getting.”

One of the most meaningful benefits is offering staff adventure days. Every month, they shut down the store and take their employees out to experience an adventure available in Seward, from sea kayaking and whale watching to dog sledding and ziplining.

Cliff Krug and Linda Chichester posted their biggest sales year ever in 2021, relying on independent travelers and locals shopping at Forests, Tides & Treasures.

Lena Lee

into this year, it's still an issue… We live in a unique and distant land, so it's not always the easiest to get workers up here.”

Kat Sorensen Director Seward Chamber of Commerce

“And the added benefit of providing these opportunities to our staff allows them to promote Alaska and other tourism businesses, as it gives them adventurous stories to share with customers,” Chichester notes.

Ready Together To help tourism businesses stay on top of the evolving challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated 36 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

Alaska Business

best practices, ATIA launched its Ready Together campaign.

“We had many businesses work with us on industry protocols and operating in a more resilient way through our Ready Together campaign,” Leonard says.

Even with merchandise arriving in time, the supply chain of enthusiastic and knowledgeable employees is an uphill battle. A big part of that is finding somewhere for them to stay.

“We also live in a small community that doesn't necessarily have the housing infrastructure to support the workers if they are here,” explains Sorensen. “A lot of people have been renting out places year-round so that they can house workers there in the summer.”

This is exactly what Krug and Chichester are doing.

“I don't know anybody who's not struggling with employee housing,” Krug says. “We are renting two threebedroom apartments year-round to meet this challenge.”

Forests, Tides & Treasures currently has twelve employees, though the company is looking to hire three to four more. Krug and Chichester have had the most success hiring through the CoolWorks.com portal.

“It's geared more towards unique places full of adventure,” Chichester says. “It has been a great place to find quality people year-round. In fact, we have never stopped trying to hire since the pandemic started. We found many of our current staff at the end of last summer and fall. We have been very lucky.”

While CoolWorks advertises outdoor adventure jobs nationwide, ATIA created a jobs portal specifically for Alaska with jobs that range from seasonal positions to year-round work.

While looking to continue to grow their team, Krug and Chichester say they are laser focused on nurturing and developing the team they have, which will dictate how many hours they stay open. They made it clear they didn’t want to do anything that would jeopardize the balance they found during the pandemic.

Krug says, “In the end, everybody does better: the team does better, the business does better. Even the dog and cats do better.” w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

Best of A l a sk a Business

W

e recognize that the Best of Alaska Business (BOAB) honors are not defi nitive, ironclad proclamations of which business in Alaska is metaphysically “best.” That’s a pretty tall order for any award. But in our annual search for the best, we do ask the most qualified group of people we know: our readers. Your everyday interactions with these companies are the most accurate representation of how they work to reach new heights in providing goods, services, and an amazing Alaska experience.

Every year our editorial team reviews the BOAB categories to determine what to keep, what to retire, and what to add, taking into consideration how our readers voted the year previous, as well as suggestions from our sources and partners. This year we have more categories than ever before, which directly serves our goal of recognizing and celebrating as many businesses as we can.

New categories this year include Auto Dealership, Burger Joint, Cargo/Logistics Provider, Jewelry Store, Local Broadcast Media, and Outdoor Gear Retailer.

Another new category is Best Art Gallery; meet the winners and learn how they excel in “Art in the Right Place.” Creative ventures likewise earn accolades in the Best Startup Business category, as detailed in “Sweet, Snowy, Innovative Artistry.”

Small businesses like these are a critical component for economic opportunity in communities, a fact well known by Kirk Rose, CEO of the Anchorage Community Land Trust. The Trust’s Set Up Shop model is specifically geared toward helping such businesses get their start, which Rose explores in the article “Building from Within.”

Credit is also due to another guest author: BOAB voters. Until those 2,300 ballots were cast, we had nothing to print.

Now it’s time to celebrate the best, not simply in terms of scale or revenue but how a business achieves its mission and satisfies the public.

The envelope please?

38 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

Alaska Business

w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

Best of A l a sk a Business Spawn Ideas CEO Karen King (kneeling, center) worked on national ad campaigns for Coca-Cola and General Mills before launching her own Denali-winning Best Advertising/Creative Agency (pg 40). Ever heard of Major Marine Tours, Northrim Bank, or Ravn Alaska?

That’s partly because Spawn helped shape their brand.

Kerry Tasker

Best Accounting Firm

Best Law Firm

While they range in size—Swalling & Associates has two offices while BDO has more than seventy US locations—all three of these firms are committed to partnering with the businesses they serve. Altman, Rogers & Co. is Alaska’s largest independent CPA firm and offers more than 100 years of professional experience to its clients. BDO’s Anchorage location serves clients throughout the state and provides them access to a “depth and breadth of resources that can only be found at a leading global accounting firm.”

And Swalling & Associates has found its niche partnering with mid-size, “closely-held” Alaskan businesses and their owners.

We’re happy to say, “Hi again!” to last year’s cohort of best law firms. While Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt and Landye Bennett Blumstein have switched positions, Birch Horton Bittner & Cherot remains the top pick. Birch Horton Bittner & Cherot bills itself as “the right blend of creativity, skill, and experience,” which it has earned over more than fifty years of operations. Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt “offers a new type of client experience based on deep industry focus,” which it provides via 170 attorneys. Landye Bennett Blumstein’s credentials are straightforward: “We’ve built our practice around great lawyers who are leaders in their areas of expertise.”

DENALI

FORAKER

Altman, Rogers & Co. altrogco.com

DENALI

Birch Horton Bittner & Cherot birchhorton.com

BDO

Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt

bdo.com/about/us-locations/anchorage-office

schwabe.com

Swalling & Associates

Landye Bennett Blumstein

swallingcpas.com

lbblawyers.com

More Favorites: Thomas, Head & Greisen; KPMG w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

More Favorites: JDO Law Alaska Business

J u l y 2 0 2 2 | 39

Best of A l a sk a Business Entering BOAB with a Denali placement for Best General Contractor, the crew at Watterson Construction is currently busy with projects for the US Army and Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.

Kevin Smith | Watterson Construction

Best Advertising/Creative Agency

Best General Contractor

It’s always a good sign when advertising and creative agencies demonstrate the ability to promote themselves, so congratulations to the winners of this category for clearing that hurdle with ease. Fully integrated advertising agency Spawn Ideas, which assures businesses that it can help them “stand toe-to-to with their biggest contenders” snagged the Denali spot. Yuit Comms promises to “tell your story like never before,” and explains the “Yuit difference” is that it works better when working together. ARM Creative, which has appeared in this category many times, says it’s “all about reach,” which includes reaching in, reaching deep, and reaching out.

We’re pretty confident that almost every Alaskan has visited a building constructed by the winners of this category. This year’s best general contractors have more than 105 years of combined history working on hundreds of critical facilities in the state, including public and private buildings providing retail opportunities, financial services, education, healthcare, hospitality, office space, government services, and more. Not only that, they’re doing it safely: Cornerstone has received eight consecutive Alaska Safety Excellence Awards, Davis was recognized nationally by the Associated General Contractors of America in the Safety Excellence Building Division, and Watterson has not had any OSHA lost-time incidents in more than nine years.

DENALI

Spawn Ideas spawnideas.com

DENALI

Yuit Comms goyuit.com

FORAKER

Davis Constructors & Engineers davisconstructors.com/safety

ARM Creative arm-creative.com

More Favorites: Brilliant Media Strategies; MSI Communications 40 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

Watterson Construction wattersonconstruction.com

Cornerstone General Contractors cornerstoneak.com/firm

More Favorites: ASRC Construction; Tutka Alaska Business

w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

Best of A l a sk a Business

Best Cargo/Logistics Provider Moving stuff in, out, and around Alaska can be complicated, time consuming, and require a truck, train, boat, or plane—and maybe all of the above. The good news is there are companies that like providing transportation and logistics services and have been perfecting their craft for decades. Top contender Lynden’s multi-modal capabilities allow its clients to “balance speed and budget by shipping via air, land, or sea.” Carlile moves all sizes of cargo on its fleet of trucks, “everything from less than truckload to full truckload freight.” And Northern Air Cargo’s team of shipping experts can handle everything from hazardous materials to extra-large shipments.

Color Art Printing is honored to receive the 2022 Best of Alaska St. Elias Award for Business Printing.

Lynden

DENALI

lynden.com

ST. ELIAS

carlile.biz

Carlile Northern Air Cargo nac.aero

More Favorites: Span Alaska; Alaska Air Cargo

Best Swag Supplier At Alaska Business we attend a lot of events, conventions, and conferences, and you can see the evidence around our office: pens, eyeglass cleaners, magnets, notebooks, and bags, all of which we use. So how’s your swag game? Have you contacted the right people—conveniently listed here—to make sure your logo is living in offices across the state? For Stellar Designs, “promoting your business is our business,” and it’s been doing so since 1981. Alaska Serigraphics has completed more than 200,000 projects as they help companies achieve their goals through branded merchandise.

And BOAB newcomer Skiff Chick Custom Designs offers custom apparel, signs, decals, magnets, and stickers out of Homer.

We feel we have the best team of talented professionals in the state!

After 64 years of continuous service, we know we’re just getting started!

it’s what we do.

Stellar Designs

DENALI

stellar-designs.com

ST. ELIAS

akserigraphics.com

Alaska Serigraphics Skiff Chick Custom Designs facebook.com/skiffchickcustomdesigns

More Favorites: Bore Tide One Source; Sunshine Custom Promotions

430 W. 7th Ave., Ste. 10 Anchorage, AK 99501 FREE LOCAL DELIVERY CALL FOR A FREE ESTIMATE

907-277-2409

www.colorartprinting.com w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

Alaska Business

J u l y 2 0 2 2 | 41

Best of A l a sk a Business

Loren Dixon (left) is director of programming and Charles Sather (right) is chief operating officer of Koahnic Broadcast Corporation, the CIRI spinoff that operates KNBA 90.3, the sole radio-only selection among the top three in the first ever Best Broadcast Media (pg 44) voting for BOAB. The station wins the Foraker slot for its non-commercial mix of eclectic music, culture, news, and talk from an Alaska Native point of view.

Kerry Tasker

Best Printing Services Provider

Best Bank/Credit Union

According to Pip, “If you can visualize it, we can print it.”

The printer offers quick turnarounds, professional service, and the expertise necessary to execute complex projects ranging from signs to business cards. Color Art Printing, which has been operating in Alaska for more than sixty years, says, “Our success and growth has been the result of building business partnerships in Alaska, and not just filling orders.” Alaska Printing also has a long history in Alaska, more than forty years, and it recently acquired Northern Printing, step one in owner Adam Williams’ plan to consolidate Alaska’s printing industry.

Alaskans remain confident in their financial providers, as their opinions about the best financial services in the state didn’t shift at all this year. Top winner First National Bank Alaska is celebrating 100 years of providing banking solutions to Alaskans and Alaska businesses. Next year Alaska USA Federal Credit Union will mark its 75th anniversary, even as it continues expand within and outside of Alaska. The youngest winner, Credit Union 1, still has seven decades of operations under its belt and has the daily mission to “lead change, uplift others, and value people.”

DENALI

PIP pip.com/AnchorageAK500

DENALI

First National Bank Alaska fnbalaska.com

Color Art Printing

Alaska USA Federal Credit Union

colorartprinting.com

alaskausa.org

Alaska Printing

Credit Union 1

alaskaprintinginc.com

cu1.org

More Favorites: Digital Blueprint; Great Originals 42 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

More Favorites: Northrim Bank; Wells Fargo Alaska Business

w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

Best Telecommunications Provider

It’s kind of surprising that this is the first year we’ve had this category, as we love trade organizations, which promote safety, job growth, training, and economic opportunities in their various fields. Associated General Contractors of Alaska and Associated Builders and Contractors of Alaska are both local branches of national advocacy groups, which provides them even better tools to pursue their missions on behalf of their members. The Alaska Travel Industry Association is all-Alaska, but you’d be hard pressed to find an organization with a more comprehensive reach across Alaska as it works to promote every inch of the state as the world’s destination of choice.

The pandemic demonstrated how essential communication is. As hard as it has been, it would have been immensely harder without our communications devices. As a homegrown company, GCI is well aware of Alaskans’ needs and has taken unprecedented steps to provide internet access to Alaska’s remote locations. AT&T’s coverage in Alaska has grown over the years, and it now serves Anchorage, Eagle River, Fairbanks, North Pole, Homer, Kenai, Soldotna, Kodiak, Palmer, Wasilla, Ketchikan, Juneau, and Sitka. MTA remains a 100 percent wholly owned co-op, which ties it directly to the communities it has served in Southcentral since 1953.

Associated General Contractors of Alaska

DENALI

agcak.org

ST. ELIAS

DENALI

Associated Builders and Contractors of Alaska

AT&T att.com

abcalaska.org

FORAKER

GCI gci.com

MTA

Alaska Travel Industry Association

mtasolutions.com Treeforms Furniture Gallery has specialized in hardwood furnishings since opening in Alaska in 2001, earning a Foraker ranking in the Best Furniture Store (pg 46) category.

alaskatia.org

More Favorites: IBEW Local 1547; Alaska Support Industry Alliance

More Favorites: Alaska Communications; Verizon

Carter Damaska | Alaska Business

!

U O Y

Thank you for your vote of confidence

Are

g n i h t y r eve

— again! —

. s u to

and the honor of helping your business grow.

Best Accounting Firm Best Place to Work (1-250 employees) Anchorage age | Juneau | Soldotna AltRogCo.com | 907 AltRogCo 907-274-2992 274 2992 w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

Alaska Business

J u l y 2 0 2 2 | 43

Best of A l a sk a Business

Best Trade Association

Best of A l a sk a Business Heather Robuck (right) and her husband Roy Habib (left) took over her father’s 5th Avenue Jewelers shop in downtown Anchorage in 2018. The St. Elias ranking in the debut of Best Jewelry Store (pg 45) as a BOAB category nudges ahead of another Robuck family store, Michael’s Jewelers.

Kerry Tasker

Best Local Broadcast Media

Best Florist

KTUU-TV, or Alaska’s News Source, has a history dating back to 1953, when KFIA (First in Anchorage) was issued a broadcast license. Over the years its identity has changed, but its purpose has remained: informing Alaskans of local news. Alaska Public Media (founded in 1975 as KAKM TV) uses multiple platforms to “make a more informed and connected life possible for all Alaskans.” In addition to playing music, KNBA 90.3 incorporates programming from National Public Radio, Native Voice 1, Public Radio International, and APRN. Its debut was in 1993 as KANH; it changed its call sign two years later to KNBA.

There’s nothing quite like flowers to brighten someone’s day, and there’s nothing quite like voting for your favorite florist to brighten theirs. On the surface florists sell flowers, but as Bagoy’s Florist & Home puts it, “the floral business is one that creates a connection between people.” Jeff and Mineko Hummel, who founded their eponymous shop, would agree, as they started with the dream to “bring joy to people every day, be that through flowers or through a smile and a conversation.” Uptown Blossoms also sees the beauty in its trade as is focuses on “upscale, creative floral artistry.”

DENALI

Alaska’s News Source alaskasnewssource.com

DENALI

Bagoy’s Florist & Home bagoys.com

Alaska Public Media

Uptown Blossoms

alaskapublic.org

uptownblossoms.net

KNBA 90.3

Hummel’s Flowers

knba.org

anchorage-ak-hummelsflowersinc.quickflora.com

More Favorites: KENI 650 44 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

More Favorites: Oopsie Daisy Alaska Business

w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

Best Jewelry Store

Without signage on the street, Stephan Fine Arts is hidden inside the Hotel Captain Cook. Hidden, that is, except for a nearly fifty-year reputation as dealers of wall art, jewelry, and glassware from Alaskan and out-of-state artists. Staging virtual showings through the COVID-19 shutdown helped the family-owned gallery boost its profile. A few blocks away, Sevigny Studio began as an outlet for the owner’s creations; now Katie Sevigny stocks dozens of Alaskan artists, plus lightweight trinkets for tourists to take home. Outside of downtown Anchorage, Dos Manos quickly established itself in Midtown/Spenard, specializing in 100 percent Alaskan, hand-crafted art and “funktional” housewares and clothing.

Family-owned shops stand toe-to-toe with a nationwide chain.

Helps to have a big family. In 1967, Doug Robuck started both 5th Avenue Jewelers in downtown Anchorage and Michael’s Jewelers in Kenai, named for his son. Michael’s later moved to midtown Anchorage (and son Mike took over the family’s third business, Alaska Mint). Mike’s brother Dave now co-owns Michael’s with his wife, while sister Heather and her husband run 5th Avenue. A relative latecomer, Fred Meyer Jewelers was launched in 1973 by supermarket founder Fritz Grubmeyer himself. The chain leverages the size of parent company Kroger to stock ten locations in Alaska.

DENALI

DENALI

Stephan Fine Arts stephanfinearts.com

Fred Meyer Jewelers fredmeyerjewelers.com

5th Avenue Jewelers akdiamondco.com

Dos Manos dosmanos.com

Michael’s Jewelers akjewels.com

Sevigny Studio sevignystudio.com

More Favorites: Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center; Aurora Fine Art Gallery

More Favorites: Zales Jewelers; David’s Jewelers

Alaskans vs. technology Setting a higher, more human, consulting standard – because Alaskans deserve custom technology solutions that meet their unique needs. ampersandtech.com | 907.792.4600 (Anchorage) | 907.459.4900 (Fairbanks) w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

Alaska Business

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Best of A l a sk a Business

Best Art Gallery

Best of A l a sk a Business Salmon Berry Travel & Tour employees, referred to fondly as the SalmonBerries, strive to ensure every guest has the best Alaska experience they can, which is what snagged this company the Denali award for Best Travel/Tour Company (pg 48).

Salmon Berry Travel & Tours

Best Cannabis Retailer

Best Furniture Store

Since legalized sales began in 2016, cannabis retailers have sprouted like weeds (pardon the expression). To stand out among almost 150 licensed retailers statewide, size matters.

Having multiple locations helped all three winners grab votes.

Great Northern Cannabis has three shops in Anchorage, earning the people’s choice at the 2021 Anchorage Budtender Awards and selling candies, CBD bath bombs, and hybrid flowers that won top marks at the 2021 Alaska Leaf Bowl.

Catalyst Cannabis and Uncle Herb’s, both repeat BOAB selections from 2021, each boast two locations across Anchorage, and Uncle Herb’s has a third outlet in Homer.

The top picks are a lock for a third year in a row. Both Bailey’s and Sadler’s have grown into chains with locations in Anchorage, Soldotna, and Fairbanks, though Bailey’s has the greater reach with a store and clearance center in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, as well. The true upstart is Treeforms, which brought Amish-style hardwood furnishings to Anchorage in 2001. With a second showroom in Wasilla, Treeforms bumps perennial favorite Scan Home to ranks of the also-liked.

DENALI

Great Northern Cannabis greatnortherncannabis.com

DENALI

Bailey’s Furniture baileysfurniture.com

Catalyst Cannabis Co.

Sadler’s Home Furnishings

catalyscannabisco.com

sadlers.com

Uncle Herb’s

Treeforms Furniture Gallery

uncleherbs.com

treeforms.net

More Favorites: Samuel Croker; Raspberry Roots 46 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

More Favorites: Scan Home Furniture Alaska Business

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Best Outdoor Gear Retailer

This category is new to BOAB, yet two winners have appeared before. Kendall and Continental were recognized in 2020 for outstanding car care, and what’s good for service is good for sales. Kendall grew from an Oregon dealership to sell Ford, Chrysler, Volkswagen, Toyota, Honda, Subaru, and Kia vehicles in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Wasilla, Soldotna, and Kenai. Continental is an Alaskan family-owned cluster in midtown Anchorage, also dealing Honda and Subaru, as well as Nissan, Mazda, and Volvo. That leaves the Alaska branch of Oregon-based Lithia Motors to specialize in BMW, Chevrolet, Kia, and Hyundai at its Anchorage, Wasilla, and Fairbanks locations.

By striving to combine the expertise that smaller, local shops provide with all-under-one-roof selection, nationwide superstores cater to customers wishing to commune with nature and those who wish to show nature who’s boss. REI is the senior chain, founded in Seattle in 1938. Cabela’s came next, started in Nebraska in 1961; it was bought by Bass Pro Shops (established in 1972), whose votes could be combined but not enough to change the standings. And lastly, Utahbased Sportsman’s Warehouse came around in 1986; it nearly became part of the Bass Pro/Cabela’s family in 2020, but the Federal Trade Best Swag Supplier (pg 41) Commission blocked the Foraker winner Skiff Chick merger.

Custom Designs is brand

DENALI

Kendall Automotive

Group kendallautoalaska.com

Continental Auto Group

new to the BOAB ranks this year. From left is Dawn Cabana, a Skiff Chick artist; Jennifer Cabana, the owner and graphic designer; and Michelle Melchert, also an artist. Skiff Chick Custom Designs operates out of Homer.

ST. ELIAS

Sportsman’s Warehouse

sportsmans.com

FORAKER

Cabela’s cabelas.com

More Favorites: Alaska Mountaineering & Hiking; Big Ray’s; The Hoarding Marmot

Lithia Motors lithia.com/alaska/ car-dealers

Best Law F i r m

w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

rei.com

Skiff Chick Custom Designs

continentalautogroup.com

REI

DENALI

Alaska Business

2022

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Best of A l a sk a Business

Best Auto Dealership

Best of A l a sk a Business

Best Travel/Tour Company

Best Brewery

Last year’s one-two-three repeat this year, so Salmon Berry Travel & Tours must be doing something right to rank among giants. Since 2005, the company founded by Candice Kotyk has packaged Alaska in bite-sized chunks for visitors. At the other end of the scale, Holland America and Princess, as West Coast subsidiaries of global cruise titan Carnival, carry almost 1,500 tourists at a time. And with its own fleet of three catamarans, Kenai Fjords has been showing off glaciers, islands, and rainforests around Seward since 1974.

Since its BOAB debut in 2016 as Best New Startup, 49th State has appeared on every annual list. The venue overlooking Ship Creek is superb, and this year its liquid output gets top honors. On the south side of Anchorage, King Street supplies retailers and restaurants statewide with IPA and stout.

Rounding out the redux of last year’s top brewers, Midnight Sun offers more than a dozen beers, ranging from barley wines to Belgian ales. Raise a glass to the Big Three, floating to the top of a crowded field.

DENALI

FORAKER

Salmon Berry Travel & Tours

DENALI

salmonberrytours.com

49th State Brewing 49statebrewing.com

Holland America & Princess

King Street Brewing Co.

hollandamerica.com | princess.com

kingstreetbrewing.com

Kenai Fjords

FORAKER

kenaifjordscruise.com

Midnight Sun Brewing Co. midnightsunbrewing.com

More Favorites: Major Marine Tours

Best Hospital

Best Hotel Visitors can find hotels at any price point, so the top picks distinguish themselves with exceptional amenities. Alyeska Resort is perfectly situated for out-of-towners or for locals in need of a getaway less than an hour’s drive from downtown Anchorage. In downtown, Hotel Captain Cook looms large, also hosting a BOAB-winning restaurant and art gallery. In its literal shadow, the Copper Whale Inn is tiny, a historic house built in 1939 for Dr. Howard Romig and expanded in 1996 to fifteen rooms. Its affiliation with BOAB-dominating Salmon Berry Travel & Tours explains its strong showing among voters.

DENALI

Hotel Captain Cook

The biggest is the best: for a fifth year in a row, Providence earns the most votes. Part of a nonprofit network that operates in Anchorage, Eagle River, Seward, Valdez, and Kodiak, Providence is practically synonymous with hospital care in Alaska. Not to be outshined, for-profit Alaska Regional distinguishes itself with the state’s only “A” grade for safety from the Leapfrog Group, a national watchdog. Meanwhile, Alaska Native Medical Center blazes its own path with the Nuka System of Care developed by Southcentral Foundation, the hospital’s co-owner, which blends emotional and spiritual wellness with physical and mental health.

DENALI

captaincook.com

Alaska Regional Hospital alaskaregional.com

Alyeska Resort alyeskaresort.com

Alaska Native Medical Center anmc.org

Copper Whale Inn copperwhale.com

More Favorites: Hilton; Marriott

Providence Alaska Medical Center providence.org

More Favorites: Fairbanks Memorial Hospital; Mat-Su Regional Medical Center

Chugach Alaska enters the BOAB listings for the first time with a hat trick: a St. Elias selection for Best Place to Work 250+ Employees (pg 53) and Denali rankings for Best Business Adaptation to COVID-19 (pg 53) and Best Corporate Citizen (pg 56).

Chugach Alaska

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Alaska Business

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Best International Cuisine

Java junkies can find Kaladi Brothers roasts just about anywhere, but the category is for Coffee Spot, singular. Voters might’ve chosen the flagship café in South Anchorage or any of a dozen other Kaladi spots in Anchorage, or one in Wasilla, or two in Soldotna. Relative upstart SteamDot has expanded from its original roastery near Ship Creek into a chain of three retail spots across Anchorage. Meanwhile, the one and only Jitters is a go-to gathering place in Eagle River, growing from an art gallery into an ersatz reunion venue for ex-students of co-founder Dennis Johnson. (Hi, Mr. Johnson!)

Ray’s Place in Anchorage and Basil Ginger in Wasilla are repeat selections from last year. Ray’s Place serves Vietnamese food at the north end of Spenard Road, while Basil Ginger specializes in sushi as well as Chinese and Thai-inspired entrees. Asian cuisine sweeps the category with the addition of Bombay Deluxe, which has built a following for home-style Indian dishes from its Midtown location and south Anchorage spin-off. Carnivores can enjoy spiced meats, while vegetarians and vegans have a wide selection as well, and everyone loves tearing into a round of naan bread.

DENALI

Kaladi Brothers Coffee kaladi.com

DENALI

Ray’s Place raysplaceak.com

Jitters

Bombay Deluxe Indian Restaurant

jitterseagleriver.com

bombaydeluxe.com

SteamDot

Basil Ginger

steamdot.com

basilginger.com

More Favorites: The Drip; Black Cup

More Favorites: Siam Cuisine; Turkish Delight

Set Free Alaska, the St. Elias Winner of the Best Place to Work 1-250 Employees (pg 52) category, works to address substance misuse and mental illness, offering outpatient and inpatient services. “We work hard to hire passion and talent and then walk with our team as they flourish,” the company states.

Set Free Alaska

LBB Partners 2000

We represent Alaska Native Corporations in every region of Alaska. Our work includes corporate advice; land management and resource development; permitting and environmental compliance; tax; mergers, acquisitions, and real estate transactions; and government contracting.

LBB Partners 2021

Growing with ANCSA since 1976.

VISIT OUR ANCSA RESOURCE CENTER ancsa.lbblawyers.com

We know Alaska. w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

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Best of A l a sk a Business

Best Coffee Spot

Best of A l a sk a Business The Copper Whale Inn bills itself as “Alaska’s Favorite Boutique Hotel,” and voters for Best Hotel (pg 48) agree, awarding a Foraker ranking. “The Gem of Downtown Anchorage” is located in a historic house with a view of Cook Inlet and walking access to the Coastal Trail and the city center.

Kerry Tasker

Best Fine Dining Restaurant

Best Pizzeria

Voters go back for seconds, returning two restaurants to the top of the category. In midtown Anchorage, Altura invents and reinvents “New American” cuisine, like the quote-unquote “Classic” Cheeseburger made with a filet mignon/bacon patty on a challah bun. Downtown, Simon & Seafort’s has been a favorite since this category was Best Business Lunch and Best Business Dinner, yet surf and turf is fine for any occasion. And atop the BOAB-winning Hotel Captain Cook, the Crow’s Nest adds to the appeal with its menu overseen by Chef de Cuisine Cameron Richardson and its unmatched 360-degree skyline view. Food worth dressing up for.

One of seven Alaska restaurants with a Wikipedia page (and the only one of those not notable for being a historic building), Moose’s Tooth has been a BOAB winner every year.

Its consistent popularity is reflected by the constant crowds craving the dazzling variety of pizza combinations and prize-winning brews. Uncle Joe’s, with four locations across Anchorage, is a bit more traditional, while The Hungry Robot seeks meat and vegetables from around Fairbanks whenever possible. All three had a lock on last year’s list as well. Any pizza beats no pizza, and these pizzas beat all the rest.

DENALI

DENALI

Altura Bistro

Uncle Joe’s Pizzeria

907-561-2372

unclejoespizzeria.com

Simon & Seafort’s simonandseaforts.com

Crow’s Nest captaincook.com/dining/crows-nest

50 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

Moose’s Tooth moosestooth.net

FORAKER

The Hungry Robot thehungryrobot.org

More Favorites: Saverio’s Pizzeria; Hearth Artisan Pizza Alaska Business

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Best Burger Joint

An industry rising like a well-proofed dough attracted votes What is a chicken restaurant doing in the burger category? for plenty of favorites. Fire Island Rustic Bakeshop tapped Well, Lucky Wishbone serves some dang fine beef patties, into the market for fine, crusty bread baked fresh at three according to BOAB voters. And after sixty-three years on locations in Anchorage. Sweets are on the menu, too, but the edge of downtown Anchorage, word has gotten not to the degree of Sweet Innovations by Bri. The newest around. Arctic Roadrunner, a.k.a. Local Burgerman, is also entry on the list offers elaborately decorated cakes and some aged beef, enticing eaters to the banks of Campbell chocolate “breakables” for Creek since 1964, when that Basil Ginger is a repeat selection for Best International special occasions. Flying was the outskirts of Cuisine (pg 49), earning a Foraker ranking for its Asian Dutchman explores the Anchorage. Compared to fusion dishes. No, the Monkey Brain is just deep fried tuna and crab in avocado range of pastry, from those, Tommy’s is a burger puff-wrapped meats to baby, born in Spenard in 2002, Carter Damaska | Alaska Business tarts, rolls, and cookies, offering Cajun-inspired fare as as well as a full spectrum well as Philly cheesesteaks of cakes. and po’ boys. It’s billed as an “eclectic dive/diner,” which Fire Island Rustic DENALI seems to describe where all Bakeshop the best burgers are found. fireislandbread.com Sweet Innovations

by Bri

DENALI

Tommy’s Burger Stop tommysburgerstop.com

sweetinnovationsbybri.com

Arctic Roadrunner FORAKER

907-561-1245

The Flying Dutchman

Lucky Wishbone

ravenchocolates.com

907-272-3454

More Favorites: Charlie’s Bakery & Chinese Cuisine; Benji’s Bakery & Café

w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

More Favorites: Long Branch Saloon; Burger Jim

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Best of A l a sk a Business

Best Bakery/Dessert Spot

Best of A l a sk a Business

The Flying Dutchman was Anchorage’s first European pastry shop, established in 1982 by Ben and Tina Koper. The Foraker Winner of Best Bakery/Dessert Spot (pg 51) was named after Ben, a Dutchman by birth with a lifelong dream to fly—which he achieved, earning his private pilot's license in 1982.

Kerry Tasker

Best Catering Service

Best Place to Work 1-250 Employees

The town in Our Town is Sitka, punching way above its weight alongside heavy hitters in Anchorage. Since 1993, Our Town has catered private parties and large weddings with Mediterranean cuisine based on local ingredients.

Peppercini’s menu also skews Mediterranean with a wide selection of easy-to-love choices for breakfast, lunch, or special events. The eatery has grown since 2007 from a sandwich shop into a 24-7 deluxe delicatessen. Main Event cooks up elaborate surf and turf, pasta, barbecue, and burgers as takeout, buffet, plates, and boxes.

Accounting firm Altman, Rogers & Co. is on the list for a fifth year in a row. Why? “Great pay and benefits, amazing atmosphere, excellent and supportive leadership,” says one voter. “Takes good care of and is accepting of all kinds of employees,” says another. New to the list, substance abuse treatment center Set Free Alaska earns praise for friendly, respectful, compassionate staff. Put simply, “They help people get off drugs, and it actually works.” And Coffman Engineers is singled out for its “great culture,” “dynamic energy,” and “rewarding work.” Small employers, take note.

DENALI

Peppercini’s Deli & Catering alaskadeli.com

DENALI

Altman, Rogers & Co. altrogco.com

Main Event Catering

Set Free Alaska

maineventcateringak.com

setfreealaska.org

Our Town Catering

Coffman Engineers

ourtowncatering.com

coffman.com

More Favorites: Mo’s Deli; Dianne’s Wild Fork Catering 52 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

More Favorites: Cook Inlet Region Inc.; Watterson Construction Alaska Business

w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

Best Business Adaptation to COVID-19

A seventh year of love for FNBA. Now in its second Nobody wants to see this category again, but while the century, the bank’s stated belief is that what’s good for SARS-CoV-2 virus is around, businesses live in its world. employees is good for customers and the community, Chugach Alaska Corporation earns kudos for “mandatory and vice versa. The vaccines, strict quarantine,” for dominance in the category “consolidated supply ordering,” indicates FNBA lives up to and for “great communication” that promise. MTA is via an employee survey. another repeat selection, “Chugach was early to see the thanks to “great benefits COVID threat,” said one and employee support” and nominator. FNBA gets credit “great working for closing lobbies as needed Feeding Fairbanks with specialty pizzas topped with dill pickles or environment.” “They treat while keeping almost all five kinds of mushrooms, the Hungry Robot defends its claim as Best you like family,” says one branches open daily. “They Pizzeria (pg 50) with a Foraker ranking. nominator. New to the list is make you feel comfortable The Hungry Robot Chugach Alaska, the Alaska and safe,” one voter Native regional corporation commented. And eight MTA for Prince William Sound. Their secret? “Monthly team staff praised their company specifically for partnerships with goals,” “family environment,” and “making employees feel Mat-Su Health Foundation. appreciated by doing employee appreciation activities.”

Chugach Alaska Corporation That’s how it’s done.

DENALI chugach.com DENALI

First National Bank Alaska

First National Bank Alaska

fnbalaska.com

fnbalaska.com

Chugach Alaska Corporation

MTA

chugach.com

FORAKER

MTA

More Favorites: Bear Tooth/Moose’s Tooth; Cook Inlet Tribal Council

mtasolutions.com

mtasolutions.com

Thank You Readers of Alaska Business Magazine

for voting PIP Marketing, Signs, Print

Best Printer!

(907) 274-3584 • PIPALASKA.COM • 833 E. 4TH AVE. ANCHORAGE, AK 99501 w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

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Best of A l a sk a Business

Best Place to Work 250+ Employees

Best of A l a sk a Business A beautiful day in Sitka, where Our Town Catering earned a Foraker ranking for Best Catering Service (pg 52). Chef Edith Johnson opened the business in 2016 after cooking for pro athletes, including the St. Louis Cardinals and Rams and Seattle Seahawks. (Back L-R): Teresa Baines, Mike Vandal, Dylan Weis, and (front) Edith Johnson.

Caitlin Blaisdell

Best Startup Business Among ninety suggestions by BOAB voters, three bouncing baby businesses are instant hits. Sweet Innovations by Bri already cracked into the top BOAB bakeries. “Her treats are amazing,” said one voter about Brittanni Foster’s cakes.

Another said, “She is great! Works hard and always has beautiful creations.” Appealing to the sweet tooth also won raves for Snowy Berry, rapidly gaining fame for “Best Hot Chocolate Bombs year-round!” Meanwhile, Julie Moraes applies her artistry toward helping others unleash their inner sparkle at her workshop in Spenard. “Such creative and unique art classes,” said one nominator. We wish other startups the best of luck and hope to see them in BOABs to come.

54 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

DENALI

Sweet Innovations by Bri

sweetinnovationsbybri.com

Snowy Berry snowyberry.shop FORAKER

Julie Moraes Artistry

sparkletribe.net

More Favorites: Northern Wings Café; Spinz Pollo a la Brasa; Raven’s Ring Brewing; Fresh Cup Playhouse

Alaska Business

w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

The CU1 Mobile Branch In our communities and on the road, we bring the very best in service to Alaskans.

In 2022, you’ll get to see our one-of-a-kind mobile banking truck on the road! The CU1 Mobile Branch is equipped to provide account service to any community on the road system – and we already have plans to visit Kenai, Palmer, Fairbanks and more this summer.

We are proud to provide innovative and community-focused financial service to all areas of Alaska, from Ketchikan to Nome.

This people-first spirit started in 1952, when we were founded as an Anchorage teachers credit union! Over time, Credit Union 1 has grown into Fairbanks, Soldotna, Kodiak and more – and we remain uniquely committed to the financial health and happiness of our home state.

This year marks our 70th year serving Alaskans. In the spirit of always moving forward, where could we go next?

Visit cu1.org/mobile-branch to learn more.

Best of A l a sk a Business

“It seems it is part of [Matson’s] ethos to be involved in the community, ”says one of our readers, and the editorial department agrees, which is why Matson won the St. Elias award for Best Corporate Citizen. Here, the Matson team joins forces with other volunteers to clean up Ship Creek as part of their Caring for Alaska program.

Matson

Best Corporate Citizen Editor’s Note: The Best Corporate Citizen winners are selected by the editorial team; we use the votes and input of our readers to determine which companies excel at mindfully operating in their communities. The comments below are quotes from our readers.

ConocoPhillips Alaska: “They sponsor everything, frequently under the radar.” | “They saved the Sea Life Center.” | “They provide extensive philanthropy to many nonprofits.” | “It supports the local community in big ways and provides jobs and drives the Alaska economy.”

Chugach Alaska Corporation: “Chugach Alaska Corporation lives up to its core values—We do things the right way. We create meaningful value. We empower people. We build community. We leave things better than we found them.—at each and every one of its subsidiaries!” | “Chugach cares deeply about its Alaskan Heritage and is a socially responsible corporate citizen. Chugach embraces diversity not only in its investment portfolio but also in its employee base. Chugach provides essential services to the United States Military.” | “I don’t know of any business that going to the length that Chugach does to support the local community, Alaska Natives, and their culture!”

Matson: “They created the Caring for Alaska program to reward nonprofits for doing environmental stewardship projects.” | “Matson has really stepped up their game with the support and sponsorship of Citywide Cleanup.” | “It seems it is part of their ethos to be involved in the community. They also sent multiple containers to earthquake and tsunami affected areas in the South Pacific.”

DENALI

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Alaska Business

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Thank you to all who voted

We are honored and proud of our Associates, Managers, and stores for being voted the 2022 Best Jewelry Store.

FREDMEYERJEWELERS.COM

Visit our locations inside Fred Meyer stores located in Anchorage, Soldotna, Juneau, Fairbanks, Wasilla and Eagle River or online at fredmeyerjewelers.com

Best of A l a sk a Business

Sweet, Snowy, Innovative Artistry

Three creative startups from 2021

C

OVID-19 allowed (or enforced) a pause for reflection, a strategic regrouping that led many Alaskans to seriously consider starting a business. While the class of 2021 is barely past, or still approaching, the first anniversary of their launch, a few of its members have already made enough of a splash that they can be confi dent of being around for many years to come.

Sweet Innovations By Bri As a single mother caring for four daughters, Bri Foster found herself cooking more meals at home and entertaining and homeschooling her children during the COVID-19 pandemic. “My girls and I would try new recipes for dinners and desserts,” says Foster. “We would use the time to learn how to read recipes, how to work with

Snowy Berry

By Alexandra Kay

58 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

Alaska Business

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“I knew when I decided to take that leap of faith in starting the business and just going for it that it was the best decision I could have made… This is what I could do and build for my daughters and me.”

Bri Foster, Owner, Sweet Innovations by Bri

W e k n o w y o u r b u s in e s s l i k e n o b o d y ’ s business.

We don’t just settle on knowing your industry.

We live it.

Spotting trends and navigating turbulent waters c a n ’t h a p p e n f r o m b e h in d a desk.

Th e i n s i g h t s c o m e w h e n w e p u t o n o u r h a rd h a ts a n d m e e t o u r c lie n t s w h e r e they are.

Pair this knowledge with h u m a n , a p p r o a c h a b le le g a l s e r v ic e s a n d y o u ’ll s e e w h a t it m e a n s t o b e represented by Schwabe.

In the early days of her business, Bri Foster made chocolate breakable hearts, cocoa bombs, and chocolate covered strawberries.

ank

Th

Sweet Innovations By Bri

“I never expected to get so busy so fast,” Foster says. “My first huge sale was Valentine’s Day. Word of mouth got out, and I started to get more and more customers.”

Sweet Innovations By Bri now provides all kinds of sweet items and gifts, including holiday gift boxes, cake stands and dessert table trays, candy w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

Yo u

Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt P.C. 4 2 0 L St r e e t , Su i t e 4 0 0 A n c h o ra g e , A K 9 9 5 0 1 (9 0 7 ) 3 3 9 - 7 1 2 5

a

!

sk A la Alaska Business

schwabe.com

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Best of A l a sk a Business

fractions and basic math. This helped us with homeschooling.”

Foster and her daughters made meals and treats for loved ones they were missing. Foster posted pictures of the desserts on her personal social media accounts, and suddenly people were asking if she could make items for them. “I started out making chocolate breakable hearts, cocoa bombs, and chocolate covered strawberries for friends and family before gaining my business license and credentials,” she says. Foster and her daughters chose the name “Sweet Innovations By Bri” because they thought it suited their desire to make and innovate different types of sweets.

Seeing a demand for the types of desserts she was creating, Foster then had to learn the rules and regulations for a cottage baker as well as how to price items and set menus. She started pages for her business on Facebook and Instagram to build a customer base beyond friends and family. She posted pictures of the creations on the business’ social media pages, which earned some likes and shares, so she tried advertising on Facebook Marketplace and in a few different groups. Business took off.

Best of A l a sk a Business

“Getting started was a challenge because of creating an LLC, but I’ve wanted to do something like this for a long time, and once I realized I could do it, it was a no brainer.”

Amanda Solis, Owner, Snowy Berry

The Snowy Berry’s kiosk is located in the Midtown Mall in Anchorage.

Snowy Berry

grapes, wedding cakes, and more.

Foster also caters all types of functions from birthdays and baby showers to weddings and retirements. “I started creating new treats and special gift boxes and have now branched out from cakes and other treats to catering full events, such as being booked for weddings and other special functions,” Foster says.

And Foster loves what she does. “I knew when I decided to take that leap of faith in starting the business and just going for it that it was the best decision I could have made,” she says.

“This is what I could do and build for my daughters and me.”

Though a “made-to-order only” bakery at the moment, Foster has lots of plans for the future. She’s done some vendor shows and plans to do more. She also wants to hold flash sales during the week when she’s not busy with orders for events, 60 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

and she has also been looking into how to ship items. “I’ve shipped to rural villages in Alaska, and I loved being able to do that.” Eventually, she hopes to be able to open a store and hire employees. “I’d love to have a storefront/lounge for all my customers to come and enjoy, and I’m saving up for it,” she says.

“I try my best to accommodate each and every customer as best as I can,” Foster says. “I am truly blessed and humbled to have been thought of.”

Snowy Berry Hot cocoa bombs exploded in popularity from a kiosk in Anchorage’s Midtown Mall, but the fuze was lit in Florida.

Amanda Solis started baking when her husband was stationed in Melbourne, Florida, south of Cape Canaveral. The Florida Academy of Baking is nearby, and she wanted to Alaska Business

take their classes. Because the classes were a bit pricey, she would take one, sell the products she made during the class, and put the money toward the next class she wanted to take. “I was a key spouse for my husband’s chain of command,” she says, “so the chain of command seemed like a really supportive group of people to start something like that.”

Solis ended up taking six of the Florida Academy classes, and when her family moved to Alaska last June after her husband retired from the US Air Force, she brought that baking experience with her. “With the experience I had in Florida, I brought it to Alaska, and there was just so much support from the community and demand for my products, it was crazy,” she says.

The business, Snowy Berry, officially opened in August of 2021 when Solis realized Alaska would be her family’s permanent home, but she actually started selling chocolate bombs and cupcakes in pop-ups at local Anchorage markets about a month or so earlier. “Getting started was a challenge because of creating an LLC, but I’ve wanted to do something like this for a long time, and once I realized I could do it, it was a no brainer,” she says.

In addition to chocolate bombs, which Solis says are her best seller, Snowy Berry sells wedding confections w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

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In just a few years, Julie Moraes went from learning to make epoxy resin art to selling it and then teaching the technique.

Julie Moraes Artistry

like chocolate dipped strawberries and meringue cookies, breakable chocolates with things like gummy bears inside, French macarons, cookies, and chocolate dipped pretzels. Solis sells quite a bit of product through her online shop as well; however, she only ships within the state of Alaska because of the perishable, fragile nature of her chocolate products. And Solis’s most cherished order? A shipment to Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow). “Barrow is like at the top of the world, and the woman left a really nice review,” she says.

Solis says she is always looking to add unique and exciting products to Snowy Berry’s offerings and is currently working on several new ideas, including glitter bombs in carbonated drinks. (Think of a champagne fountain.) She also hopes to expand in the future. She opens her mall kiosk only one day a week— or more during busy times. “I think eventually I’d like a Snowy Berry kiosk at every mall in town,” she says. “Longterm I’d also like a small commercial space to sell and work out of.” Solis hopes to accomplish her goals within the next year or two, noting that she started out with a 6-foot table and has moved up to the kiosk, so she’s “moving in the right direction.”

Solis is thankful for her customers who are so enthusiastic about her business. “It makes me happy and encourages me to work even harder and get better,” she says. “A lot of people focus on tourists, but for my business we focus on the 62 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

actual community, in Anchorage.”

on

customers

Julie Moraes Artistry When COVID-19 waned in the summer of 2021 and people were ready to come together again, Julie Moraes created a new space and a new activity.

She shared skills that her customers might someday use to launch their own startup, skills that she picked up only a few years earlier.

It started with drink tumblers. In 2017, Moraes saw some drink tumblers made of epoxy resin on Pinterest, and she fell in love. She started researching how to work with epoxy, and she discovered that the material could make all kinds of unique and amazing art, not just cups.

Enchanted with the technique and its look, Moraes took art classes online.

She began making functional art pieces like charcuterie boards, wine glasses, wall hangers, wood trays, ornaments, and necklace pendants. Eager to sell her work, she started participating in local arts and crafts fairs to sell her resin art.

In late 2019, Moraes was approached at the Alaska Chicks Vintage Market and asked to teach a class on how to make resin charcuterie boards. In January of 2020, Moraes started teaching after hours at her friend’s reMADE boutique.

“It just took off from there, as there weren’t really any other artists teaching resin classes like mine in Anchorage,” she says. Moraes decided she wanted to make and teach more than food serving boards, so she also began creating ocean- and Alaska-themed Alaska Business

wall art and home décor, which she says she loves.

Business was so good that Moraes was able to open her own studio on September 1, 2021, to teach art classes. Located in the Turnagain Arts Building in the heart of Spenard, Julie Moraes Artistry offers a “Just For Kids Painting Class,” mosaic classes for both adults and kids, an adult resin art class, a kids 3D painting class, an Alaska flag suncatcher class, a class on making tumblers with alcohol inks, private classes, and more. Many of her classes are sold out, and Moraes credits her popularity in part to the uniqueness of her classes. “I try to do different types of art classes and projects that no one else is doing. Julie Moraes Artistry isn’t your typical ‘paint night,’” she says. She’s even purchased a Glowforge laser printer so she can cut her own wood shapes for resin and other art projects as well as do custom engraving.

In the not-so-distant future, Moraes plans to move into a larger studio, as she is “quickly outgrowing” her present space. She also wants to add more children’s classes when she has more space. Furthermore, she plans to have other artists and makers teach classes on their specialties.

Moraes’ favorite thing about her work is her interactions with students.

“I love seeing the reactions of students when they create something they didn’t think they could do,” she says. “I have people come in and say ‘I’m not creative at all,’ and I always tell them I promise you will make something amazing, and they do!” w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

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When we look at the people that make up MTA’s workforce, we see the spirit of Alaska.

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Whether we are connecting Alaskan residents throughout the state, partnering with our communities, or modernizing the way our team works, the focus remains on our people.

In today’s world, the health and education of our communities is dependent on us being connected, and MTA will always remain at their side to make sure Alaskans have what they need.

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Art in the Right Place

Galleries sell slices of Alaska

By Scott Rhode

A

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Stephanie Johnson

week before her first showing at Stephan Fine Arts, the painter was, in her words, “freakin’ out.”

She had been painting for only three years since a midlife crisis prompted her to convert her oversized master bedroom into a studio. Her work, she says, is “very emotional,” arrangements of high-contrast colors, sometimes with expressive drips. A departure from the birds, fish, and mountains portrayed on most of the gallery’s walls.

The artist need not have worried.

When the First Friday in May arrived, she was among friends. After all, the gallery is hers.

Becky Stephan grew up in the art business. Her father, Pat, a realtor by trade, opened the gallery inside the Hotel Captain Cook in downtown Anchorage in 1977 and pulled her into meetings when she was as young as eight. She’s run the family business for the last seventeen of its forty-five years, building her reputation as an owner, not an artist.

Kara Kirkpatrick has known Stephan in both roles. “When I talk to Becky Stephan, I’m in awe. ‘You’re Becky Stephan of Stephan Fine Arts!’ She’s definitely a very prominent person in my world of looking up to,” Kirkpatrick Alaska Business

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says. Kirkpatrick co-owns Dos Manos, a gallery in midtown Anchorage where Stephan’s paintings went on sale first.

“I wanted to make sure I got into another gallery before I ever put it in my own,” Stephan says. “I also wanted to make sure I did the typical route, which was going to restaurants, hanging in restaurants, hanging in cafés, and doing all that before I went into, like, a fine art gallery. Which would be myself.”

As an owner, Stephan had to make sure that her paintings fit alongside the fifty established artists in stock.

Stephan Fine Arts is one of the few true galleries in Alaska, as Susan Peters sees it. Peters owns Scanlon Gallery and Custom Framing in Ketchikan, which marks its 50th anniversary this fall as perhaps the oldest art retailer operating in Alaska. Too many galleries “don’t specifically just do handcrafted art,” she says. “That’s what a gallery usually has versus mass productions.”

Stephan qualifies, in her view, as does 2 Friends Art Gallery in Midtown.

However, as Kirkpatrick points out, “Everybody does it different, and everybody has their own twist on it.”

Stephan Fine Arts owner Becky Stephan (right) explains her painting technique to Dos Manos co-owner Kara Kirkpatrick at a First Friday event in May. Alaska Business

From the Heart Making art is not a prerequisite for selling art. For instance, Peters is not an artist herself, but she does enjoy oil paintings of landscapes.

Katie Sevigny paints landscapes, animals, and portraits—and she sells them in her gallery, Sevigny Studio, in downtown Anchorage.

“There was this one moment for me where I was really trying to get into a gallery that I thought was the top of the top, and I knew that I was selling well,” Sevigny recalls. “I walked out of that meeting and walked down the street and saw a ‘for lease’ sign, and I was like, ‘Okay, this is it. If they don’t think I can do it, I’m gonna show ‘em I can do it.”

Kirkpatrick followed a similar path with her Moonshine Designs label. “I didn’t want to do the Saturday Market anymore or any of that kind of stuff. I wanted a store,” she says. “I talked to a lot of different artists at the time that were, like, ‘I wish there was a place that I could just put my stuff and be seen.’” She describes a catch-22 where galleries won’t accept artists who aren’t w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

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established, yet the only way to be established is to be in a gallery.

In 2006, Kirkpatrick teamed up with Stephanie Johnson, then a server at Bear Tooth Theatrepub, to open Dos Manos. And they opened wide: the shop stocks 130 artists, including Kirkpatrick and her husband Mike’s Screamin’ Yeti Designs, with more on a waiting list.

“Steph and I, neither one of us has a business major. Neither one of us went to school for art. It’s more our heart,” Kirkpatrick says.

One way for right-brained artists to manage a left-brained business is to team up. Juneau Artists Gallery has been a co-op for more than thirty years, run by its members. “We all collectively make the decisions about hours of operation, methods, policies, and procedures,” explains Jayne Andreen, a jewelry maker and co-op president.

The co-op divides management responsibilities, with a bookkeeper the only paid staff. Each artist has a voice in the layout of the space and the use of money.

“We are individual artists, and we are normally doing our art in a solitary way,” says Andreen. “Being able to come together with this mutual priority of having a viable gallery that really highlights all of our work could be very challenging—I’ll say, at times it is; it can be a little challenging—but we are also focused on the greater good. It’s amazing how well we work together.”

Who Buys Art

"Maritime artist" Brenda Schwartz-Yeager customizes a piece at May's First Friday Art Walk and Celebration of the Sea in Ketchikan, hosted by Susan Peters (right), owner of Scanlon Gallery Fine Art & Custom Framing.

Scanlon Gallery

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Alaska Business

Art galleries are surprisingly recent in the Alaska landscape. In 1971, Tennys Owens pioneered the field when she opened Artique, Ltd. in downtown Anchorage. Not an artist herself, Owens brightened up Alaska by distributing prints to retailers statewide and by furnishing decorations for hospitals and lawyers’ offices.

“Nobody has ever done that as good as Artique,” says Stephan. “Artique was amazing at that. They had, I think, a commercial portion of their business that really focused on that.”

Artique closed a few years ago, yet paintings still hang in the shop on G Street. It’s where Sevigny moved her w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

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gallery from its original location around the corner on 4th Avenue.

“I feel fantastic about being in a space where there was a gallery for so long and also such a big part of the history of the city. I feel really lucky and blessed that we were able to take over that space,” Sevigny says.

The G Street location was risky, though, because Sevigny had been depending on the flow of tourist traffic.

Turns out that art galleries are functionally a branch of the tourism industry.

“Tourism is a major factor in our survivability,” says Andreen of the Juneau co-op.

Ketchikan likewise relies on cruise ship passengers, and Peters is happy to sell them souvenirs. “People love art, and they love to buy art from where they visited. I do so myself,” Peters says.

Stephan also benefits from highdollar business travelers staying at the Hotel Captain Cook. She observes that the 2021 season, absent cruise ship visits, brought the type of tourists willing to pay more for art. “The independent travelers typically are spending a lot more money on their trips, and they have time. Cruise ships come in late and leave early, and independent travelers might be spending a whole day in Anchorage,” Stephan says.

However, many visitors found their way to galleries thanks to local guides. Sevigny observes, “It was mostly community members that were bringing in friends and family that were visiting.” She also says she was amazed to see that late-year holiday shopping rivals tourist season. For that reason, Sevigny makes sure to return the community’s support by, for example, donating items to fundraising auctions.

Juneau Artists Gallery also has steady year-round local clientele. “One of the things we do to recognize that is the first week in October we host a local appreciation sale. We do that as soon as the cruise ships leave town so that we can really let people know how much we appreciate their ongoing support,” Andreen says.

In fact, Dos Manos’ location in Midtown, off the tourist track, is somewhat unusual. “We didn’t want to be downtown because there’s plenty of other businesses downtown,” Kirkpatrick says. “We more wanted to Alaska Business

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Each member of the Juneau Artists Gallery co-op receives a section of wall or floor space, and the size corresponds to their obligations to the organization.

Christine Kleinhenz

go for local shoppers as opposed to tourists because we felt that local was a way to keep it going throughout the year, not just seasonal.” She put her shop in a busy section of Spenard, in the former headquarters of the Anchorage Bucs baseball team.

Location doesn’t matter for online sales, of course. “That has opened up a whole avenue for people to find art and not necessarily visit,” says Peters.

Stephan takes particular pride in her gallery’s digital storefront. “I think you’d quickly see that we have the very best website by far. We actually have our artists on there, and they actually go to product. That’s a huge task, and I have one person who works on that and maintains it,” she says.

Stephan Fine Arts is a little unusual among Alaska galleries in that onethird of the artists in stock are from out of state. “We have an international clientele. Yes, we want to have Alaskan, for sure,” Stephan says, but “my dad started the gallery with his own collection so that Alaskans could see international and national artists. That’s why he started the gallery. We’ve always stuck with that. We bring in artists from elsewhere so that locals can see something that’s not local.”

Still, Stephan concedes that tourists and business travelers want a slice of Alaska. That means galleries must stock products that fit in suitcases.

“Our biggest skew is, you might call it, our prints and handcrafted jewelry.

And it’s been that consistently since I’ve been in this business,” says Peters.

“People like prints. They’re affordable, easy to pack for a traveler.”

Sevigny agrees, as both an artist and a dealer. “I do well with originals, and I do a lot of commissioned originals, 68 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

but I would say what keeps the gallery going is definitely prints for sure,” she says.

The Hard Part Some works of art are priceless, but galleries have price tags. Each artist picks the number. For example, Stephan’s paintings range from $600 for a relatively small canvas to $1,500 for a larger, 4-foot-square canvas.

Another picture, the same size, sells for $2,700.

“Pricing is the hardest part, I think, for every artist,” says Kirkpatrick.

Generally, the price compensates the artist for the time invested. Kirkpatrick explains, “To a person that doesn’t maybe know what it takes to paint that, it could be like, ‘Oh my gosh that’s so expensive,’ but you also don’t know how long it takes that person to do that.”

The same goes for Andreen’s jewelry.

“It took me quite a while to figure out, as a jeweler, what was realistic. I finally reached the point where I take the prices of the materials... and I keep track of that as I’m building a new design,” she says. Andreen also figures the cost of packaging and overhead, but the final number is a judgment call.

“It’s so hard to have a market value price because a lot of times artists are dealing with emotions,” says Sevigny.

She figures artists are more wary of charging too much.

The gallery has a choice of either buying art wholesale and then selling the inventory or taking items on consignment, selling them on behalf of the artist.

Dos Manos doesn’t have the budget to buy inventory, so most items are consignment. “Sometimes it works best with consignment because then Alaska Business

we don’t have huge overhead, and we can display people’s work without having such a ‘We have to sell this!’ to make money or whatever,” Kirkpatrick says. “Takes the pressure out of it, I guess.”

At Sevigny Studio, the wall art is all consignment, but Sevigny says it’s not her preference. “Consigning, I would say, we do not make as much on the profit, but it’s a nice way to get artwork that is different than mine and that we can’t afford to buy [wholesale].”

Scanlon is mostly wholesale, and it took years to build up inventory.

“Consignment is very difficult. It’s a lot of paperwork,” Peters says. “You don’t get the full percentage, either… There’s not that big of a mark-up in art, so if you cut it down even more… it doesn’t make the numbers you need to cover your overhead.”

The other model is a co-op, like Juneau Artists Gallery. Parcels of 80-inches of wall space are rented monthly. The gallery keeps a percentage of sales. Andreen says the cut is 12 to 15 percent, whereas the industry standard is 50 percent. Members are also obligated to work a number of hours proportional to their display space, but they only earn money on sales of their own items.

Selling art, unlike selling commodities, sometimes takes a personal touch. “We know that art pieces are a piece of that artist’s heart, a piece of them that’s out there,” Kirkpatrick says. “If somebody’s gonna take the time to love a piece of art and pay for it, we’re very excited. It is kind of like an adoption. ‘Take a picture of it on your wall and send it to us!

We would love to see what it’s like in your home.’”

Peters agrees. “I’m always interested in where it does go, to what type of home. People are drawn to art. It’s real personal sometimes,” she says.

“When I have customers looking at art, I often suggest they get it home first,” Stephan says. “I think it has to live in that space. It can look so different in the gallery.” If the customer doesn’t like it, the art can be returned for a refund.

In the end, Kirkpatrick says she enjoys cutting checks for artists, knowing the money enables more creativity. “We’re running the store, but all the artists are the ones doing all the work,” she says.

“We just get to play in the art all day.” w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

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Inclusive neighborhood entrepreneurship

By Kirk Rose Akela Space

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Building from Within

T

he data shows we haven’t done enough to make business ownership attainable for the many communities that call our state home.

Women, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color are particularly underrepresented in business ownership across Alaska.

At Anchorage Community Land Trust (ACLT), we know that to ensure that the next generation of Alaskan business owners reflects our great state, we must do one simple thing: We must believe in and invest in the talented local entrepreneurs that call our city and state home.

Our Alaska story is all about the potential of entrepreneurs and small business owners and what they bring to our communities. By supporting business creation, we build communities from within and empower the next generation of community leadership.

ACLT has spent the last twenty years disrupting concentrated poverty by bringing investment and opportunity to where it matters most. We invest in neighborhoods with a block-by-block 70 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

approach, working to build generational prosperity from within.

Gene Gray came through our Set Up Shop business training program in the spring of 2020, when business owners everywhere were reeling. But Gene didn’t listen to the messages telling him to scale back, or that it wasn’t the right time. Gene began his business selling traditional Polynesian baked goods out of his home, bringing the flavors of Samoa to Anchorage. As his business grew, Gene had the courage and the moxie to build his dream brick-and-mortar restaurant in the heart of Spenard, launching Tatilani restaurant successfully in the middle of the pandemic. Gene operates the business with his family, now a gathering place for the Polynesian community and an example of what is possible. Tatilani's cuisine has gained so much popularity that Gene is already considering an expansion.

Our Set Up Shop model is driven by entrepreneurs like Gene. Set Up Shop's pipeline of support provides training, business services, access Alaska Business

to capital, and real estate assistance, with one-on-one support throughout the process. Since we launched the program fi ve years ago, we have trained more than 250 entrepreneurs, provided more than 3,000 hours of technical assistance, deployed more than $250,000 in small business microloans, and launched twentytwo neighborhood businesses into their own brick-and-mortar spaces.

Moreover, we are serving communities which have been under-represented for too long in business ownership.

Among our clients, 70 percent are women and 80 percent identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color.

When Gene and Tatilani succeed, the Spenard community does with him.

Tatilani is more than just a restaurant; it’s a place where culture is shared and experienced, a gathering place after church and to celebrate life’s special moments like graduations, and a place where vibrancy has replaced vacancy on Spenard Road. We know that when neighborhood business owners thrive, they become role models, advocates, w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

Community Prosperity and Equity Our Set Up Shop program empowers neighborhood entrepreneurs from underserved communities to build the businesses of their dreams.

Entrepreneurship is a way to create greater equity and community prosperity. It’s an approach that supports the talents and people that exist already in our communities rather than attracting talent or importing it from outside.

Our model counteracts obstacles that have been hampering our growth. It’s about a Mountain View neighborhood cut off and isolated from Anchorage, rezoned overnight and rebuilt with low-quality, high-density housing. On a Spenard Road, the city’s former redlight district damaged by decades of disinvestment, social inequity, and concentrated poverty. Of a Fairview where a highway project decimated a neighborhood and redlining separated a community. We work in neighborhoods like these that show visible and invisible signs of systemic disinvestment. Our model is about the people who call these neighborhoods home, and who, like their neighborhoods, have been overlooked and underestimated.

For each of these obstacles, there are hundreds of entrepreneurs and business owners making a difference every day, with the drive and daring to become the leaders in their neighborhood’s next steps. Our model is about our city as it should be—a place full of opportunities for everyone, no matter where they live or what their background. When successful small businesses owned by the community populate corridors like Spenard Road, Ingra/Gambell, or Mountain View Drive, we grow wealth, create opportunity, and change trajectories for our Anchorage families.

That is the story of Missy Simms, the owner of Sweet Creations Lollipop Boutique, Mountain View's beloved neighborhood candy shop. Missy came through our first ever training cohort of Set Up Shop and began her business out of her home, selling candy and custom sweet treats to friends and family. Demand for her candy grew, w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

and soon Missy was selling across the city at markets and events. Once she was ready to scale, Missy launched into a brick-and-mortar retail space in the heart of Mountain View Drive. Now, her storefront is a treasured community space in the neighborhood and an example to others that businesses can grow and thrive in Mountain View.

Leap of Courage Opening a business takes a leap. It takes an enormous amount of time and money, support from friends and

family, and belief in yourself and your idea. It is also a difficult journey, even if you have the best idea in the world.

There is a huge pool of untapped talent in our community—neighbors like Missy or Gene who want to open their own businesses and are already selling food by the plate, painting houses, or baking cakes for parties and events.

We know that 64 percent of Alaska businesses were started with personal savings. But if you’re part of a community with low access to capital and few friends and family members

HONORARY CELEBRATION TO OUR EMPLOYEES.

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leaders, and changemakers. They signal to residents what is possible.

Gene Gray’s Tatilani Restaurant in Spenard serves Polynesian favorites such as oka, poke, and taro, plus a variety of fried desserts.

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who have the money to invest in your business or support you in lean months, that can be hard to do. That’s why only a quarter of small businesses in our state are women-owned, and only 11 percent are Black-, Indigenous-, and People of Color-owned. Even with those barriers to entry, we still meet people every day who are ambitious and eager to make the leap into business ownership.

How do we ensure entrepreneurs like Missy and Gene can succeed? It takes investment. Our staff spends every day providing training and hightouch technical assistance to help troubleshoot the challenges. Often the capital needed to start or grow is out of reach. We have created a new microloan program in partnership with Cook Inlet Lending Center to provide access to capital to earlystage businesses. These microloans of up to $50,000 are the small-scale capital that businesses often need to grow but often can’t access through traditional financing.

It also takes space to operate.

ACLT has worked in real estate nearly twenty years and owns transformative properties, connects entrepreneurs to physical spaces, and invests in our neighborhood commercial 72 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

corridors. With 60 percent of our Set Up Shop clients operating food-based businesses, there has been one primary limitation: Anchorage has an almost non-existent supply of affordable, available, and permitted kitchen space needed to make their products. We knew we needed to invest in new infrastructure for our hospitality industry. Thus, we are building a shared commercial kitchen that food-based businesses can rent by the hour to grow and scale.

Since Set Up Shop launched, we have been working to ensure the program serves entrepreneurs that reflect the many communities in our city, to ensure that business ownership is accessible and attainable for everyone. With the Alaska Native community representing 20 percent of our state’s population but only 3 percent of Alaska business owners, it was important to ensure small business programming was reaching the Alaska Native community.

In partnership with Cook Inlet Tribal Council and Cook Inlet Lending Center, we have now launched Indigenous Peoples Set Up Shop, a line of training and programming specifically for Alaska Native and American Indian entrepreneurs. I can’t wait to see what Alaska Business

more Alaska Native small business owners bring to our city.

Now more than ever we invite our community to join in our effort to transform our city from within. We hope you’ll frequent these businesses and show your support. If your organization or company is interested in learning more about what you can do to support neighborhood business owners, please get in touch. I send my congratulations to each of the businesses featured in this issue, and to all of the entrepreneurs and business owners who have had the courage to try. Let’s prove to them that business ownership is meant for anyone who has the courage to try.

Kirk Rose is CEO of Anchorage Community Land Trust, a nonprofit working to improve quality of life in Anchorage neighborhoods.

Rose is a 2020 Alaska Top 40 Under 40 recipient as well as a 2017 Next City Vanguard.

During his tenure with the organization, ACLT was awarded the National Development Council's highest honor as the Most Innovative Community Development Project in the United States.

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Swinging North

A national tournament elevates Alaska golf

By Amy Newman

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G

olf courses in every state and the District of Columbia have hosted a championship for the United States Golf Association (USGA) during its 128-year history. Every state, that is, except Alaska—until this summer.

The 2022 US Senior Women’s Amateur Championship tees off at Anchorage Golf Course on July 30, finally completing the USGA’s scorecard of states.

“It’s a monumental occasion for us to bring a championship to Alaska, something that has been a long time coming,” USGA CEO Mike Davis said in an October press release announcing Alaska’s selection.

“Players from all over the country dream of becoming USGA champions, so it is important we bring our events to all corners of the United States to expose golfers and golf fans to the inspiration and competitiveness of our championships. We’re so thankful to Anchorage Golf Course for working with us to make this dream a reality.”

Turning that dream into reality didn’t happen overnight. When the first golfer steps onto the greens at the end of the month, it will mark the culmination of five years of work by Anchorage Golf Course staff and volunteers to design and implement course

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Carter Damaska | Alaska Business

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improvements, recruit volunteers to run the tournament, and raise the funds needed to bring it all together.

And it will be a feather in the cap for the thirty-five-year-old course.

“Having a USGA event at your facility as kind of a nod to a profession is really nice,” says Rich Sayers, general manager of Anchorage Golf Course, a city-owned facility off O’Malley Road.

“It’s fascinating for myself and all the staff to be involved in so many facets of this event. It’s been pretty exciting.”

Road to the Championship Bringing a USGA championship tournament to Anchorage was a lesson in patience, persistence, and timing.

For years, Sayers and architect Forrest Richardson, who has designed several projects for the course over the past fifteen years, “put the bug in the ear” of USGA officials.

Sayers’ desire to host a USGA tournament is part personal, part professional. A competitive junior and collegiate golfer with local and national tournament wins under his belt, golf has been a lifelong passion. He took a step back after college graduation when he

moved to Alaska and took a job on the North Slope, but he gravitated back to the sport and began working as an assistant golf pro and instructor at the Anchorage Golf Course in 1988. In 2008, he was named general manager.

But it wasn’t until 2017, when Davis became CEO of the USGA, that the organization began to show real interest in Alaska, Sayers says. Davis and members of the USGA’s future sites committee came to Anchorage to play a round of golf and conduct a preliminary assessment to determine whether Anchorage Golf Course was a viable host facility. That trip was followed by an invitation for Sayers to attend the 2017 Senior Women’s Amateur Championship in Portland, and the championship tournament in Florida the following year, to provide a first-hand look at what goes into organizing and hosting a championship.

For the Florida trip, Sayers invited Jim and Bobbi Olson, former organizers of the Great Alaska Shootout college basketball tournament, to join him.

“We went down there and saw what a really amazing program they have,” Jim Olson says. “The USGA

“I definitely think it’s going to be a little bit different… I don’t think a lot of people have seen moose or bears on the golf course, and certainly there’s the scenery.

I think it’s going to be pretty impactful for those players who advance and get to compete.”

Tracy Parsons, Director of Competitions, USGA

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To prepare for the USGA, bunkers have been reshaped and their drainage improved. On the right, a tarp covers grass to warm it up, changing the growth of the turf.

Carter Damaska | Alaska Business

is first class at everything they do, and it just overwhelmed us at how wonderful it would be to host one of these in Anchorage because it’s never been done.”

The USGA also needed to determine whether the Anchorage Golf Course could accommodate everything needed to host a championship.

“When you look at the championship week, it’s a marathon of golf,” says Tracy Parsons, director of competitions for the USGA and manager of the US Girls’ Junior and US Senior Women’s Amateur championships. “Not only do we have a registration day, two practice days, two days of match play, [but] they’re hosting different types of social functions, and there are different homes we have to find for communications, directors, player hospitality, so it’s really important that we find a facility that can support those kinds of things.”

With 132 players, the Senior Women’s Amateur is one of the USGA’s smaller fields—other championships can be as large as 156 players and require two courses—making it a good fit for Anchorage, Parsons says. But it isn’t the 76 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

only factor that goes into choosing a host facility, she adds.

“Beyond the facility, I think another thing that is really factored into [site selection] is the community,” Parsons says. “Is the community going to get behind it? Are they going to get involved? Are we going to have issues finding volunteers?”

That’s where the Olsons came in. Although the USGA dictates the championship layout and hole location and brings in its scorers and judges, the host site is responsible for dayto-day tournament operations. All of that, Jim Olson says, requires money and volunteers.

“Private clubs don’t need fundraising,” he says. “They just ask their members to help them out. That’s not the case up here.”

The Olsons created the nonprofit Anchorage Golf Legacy and drew on their thirty years of experience and contacts in sports fundraising to recruit and assemble a 22-member committee—95 percent of them golfers, Jim Olson says—to spearhead the effort. As of May, the committee Alaska Business

had raised more than $500,000, and was on its way to recruiting close to 200 volunteers to act as course marshals, serve meals to USGA officials and players during the tournament, help in the medical and hospitality tents, run registration, and perform other tasks to keep things running smoothly, he says.

Businesses also donated time, materials, and equipment to help with course renovations, Sayers says.

Retired contractor Jim St. George donated his time to help with course upgrades and arranged for members of the Associated General Contractors of Alaska to donate equipment, Sayers says. B.C. Excavating also provided their time at a discounted rate.

“It’s going to be kind of a status thing, that you were part of the committee that put on a national event in Alaska,” Olson says of the eagerness of community members and businesses to step up and volunteer. “If you’re a golfer, you want to do that.”

Bringing the championship to Anchorage also meant the USGA had w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

to rearrange its tournament schedule, Sayers says. The Senior Women’s Amateur is usually held in the fall, “but for us to host this event—we obviously couldn’t do it in October—they had to find a hole in their schedule and move some things to accommodate it.”

A Long-Term Investment Beyond the flex that comes with hosting Alaska’s first professional golf championship, there are long-term, tangible benefits to the Anchorage Golf Course and the golf community as a whole—benefits Sayers hadn’t truly considered until several years ago when the US Cross Country Ski Championships were held at Kincaid Park. He recalls a friend mentioning that after the championships were finished, Anchorage skiers would have use of the upgraded facilities for years to come.

“It just kind of struck me at that point, that’s a great way to help get upgrades to facilities,” he says. “We’re a municipal course, and we’re 99 percent local play, so I always thought that’s a big way we can package that altogether. We w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

can have a USGA event, we can have improvements, and when it’s all said and done, we can have an upgraded course for years to come.”

Olson says the long-term benefits are a focal point of the committee’s fundraising efforts.

“We’re hosting a golf tournament, but we’re really using it as a vehicle to improve the golf course and improve the community through the golf course,” he explains. “We’re developing this place that’s really health-conscious and environmentally conscious, and this is a way you can do that in just a normal fashion and have some fun at the same time.”

The USGA didn’t mandate any specific upgrades to the course as a prerequisite for hosting the championship, Sayers says, though they’ve been supportive of the changes. The USGA dictates the pin placement and length of the course, the bunkers have been reshaped, and Sayers is working to increase the speeds of the green—“They like a fast green,” he says.

Beyond that, the renovations and upgrades were a mix of capital Alaska Business

improvements and additions Sayers believes were necessary.

“The golf course is now thirty-five years old, and golf courses are not just built and then go stagnant,” he says.

“They need funds and improvements in a capital sense. You don’t build a sand trap and it stays a sand trap. It degrades. And quite honestly, there were certain things done in the [original] construction period that wouldn’t necessarily be considered best practices now.”

Some of the improvements, like upgrading drainage in the bunkers, won’t necessarily be noticed—nobody pays attention to drainage unless a bunker floods, Sayers says. Other improvements, like expanding the driving range and adding a second practice tee on the back end of the range, will have an immediate impact.

“Any professional golf course needs to have a practice facility where you can practice your short game with bunkers, and that was lacking here,” Sayers says. “We widened and lengthened the range, then added an additional practice tee on the back end J u l y 2 0 2 2 | 77

Built thirty-five years ago, Anchorage Golf Course was due for upgrades to antiquated construction techniques.

Carter Damaska | Alaska Business

of the range. It is now a fully operational practice facility, not just a driving range.

If we want to show them a first-class golf course, then these were things that needed to be done.”

Fill taken from the area near the 18th hole to expand the practice facility had the added benefit of improving the course’s already spectacular views.

The overall result, Sayers says, is “the prettiest range I’ve ever seen.”

“Now when you play the 18th hole, you’re on the tee box on the fairway, looking toward the green, and Denali is in your view right on the horizon,” Sayers says. “You could really never see Denali from the golf course—you could see it from the clubhouse—so now as you’re playing, you’ll get a stunning view.”

An Alaska-Sized Party Although the USGA controls tournament specifi cs, host facilities have free rein on how they operate the non-play components. Olson says the host committee plans to 78 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

put Alaska on full display beginning with the welcome reception, which is open to USGA officials and players, their partners, committee members, and supporters.

“That’s going to be a Taste of Alaska,” Olson says. “We’re going to have the reindeer hot dogs, lots of fish of course, and the Alaska scenery is going to be all about the welcome reception. There’s [also] a player’s dinner that’s being held at the [Hotel] Captain Cook that will be all about Alaska and experiencing downtown and all that it has to offer.”

Committee members are working on scheduling a private cruise out of Whittier for players and getting special discounts or offers from businesses for players and officials who identify as being part of the tournament.

Parsons says Alaska is a bucket list destination for many players, some of whom are equal parts intrigued and slightly intimidated at the prospect of playing a tournament in Anchorage.

“I definitely think it’s going to be a little bit different,” she says with a laugh.

Alaska Business

“I don’t think a lot of people have seen moose or bears on the golf course, and certainly there’s the scenery. I think it’s going to be pretty impactful for those players who advance and get to compete.”

Olson says the committee estimates the championship will bring 500 visitors to Anchorage, a net positive for the economy, particularly given COVID-19’s effect on local businesses. He believes the novelty of hosting a professional championship will fill a void for sports enthusiasts who still feel the loss of the Great Alaska Shootout and the Alaska Aces pro hockey team.

And he thinks the tournament will provide a jolt of excitement not just to Anchorage but to the USGA as well.

“They’re going to put on a show,” he says. “We’re going to put on a show.

It’s going to be something they’ve never experienced before, so I think it’s going to be a nice coming-out party for Anchorage after a pretty tough two years.” w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

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A G R I C U LT U R E

Blue Acres Is the Place to Be Growing mariculture in Alaska

By Isaac Stone Simonelli

P

ermit requests for aquatic farms in Alaska are the highest they’ve been for seventeen years, another uptick in the growing interest in the mariculture industry. While oysters continue to dominate, most of the growth is coming through the development of seaweed farms.

“The mariculture industry will provide long-term jobs and opportunities for Alaskans, an independent food source for Alaska, and exports for our economy,” says Governor Mike Dunleavy. “Mariculture development will bolster the economies in coastal communities where much of the seafood infrastructure and experience already exist.”

There were twenty new joint agency aquatic farm applications submitted during the 2022 application period, which closed at the end of April. Of these, sixteen were for seaweed farms, two for shellfish farms, and two were for combination farms. The farms total 7,645 acres of potential new mariculture development.

Each farm, if approved, is another step toward the state’s goal of growing mariculture into a $100 million industry by 2038. Oysters and seaweed are expected to account for more than 60 percent of that annual revenue, with sea cucumbers, king crab, geoduck clams, and mussels making up the difference.

Though wild kelp and shellfish harvests have been part of Alaska tradition for thousands of years, aquatic farming in the state is younger than Pokémon Go. The first commercial kelp harvest occurred in Kodiak in 2017.

“Because it is at this kind of beginning stage, a lot of folks are coming together and wanting to work together,” says Melissa Good, a mariculture specialist with the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program at UAF. “Rather than having silos of effort, we're starting to see coordinated research efforts, coordinated training efforts. This way we can move the state forward together,” she says.

Pushing Through Permitting Farming fish has been illegal in Alaska since 1990–ranching, where fish are released from hatcheries, is allowed—yet the state government is actively engaged in promoting mariculture of any other aquatic resources. Dunleavy, the Alaska Development Team, and the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development have been working together with the mariculture industry for three and half years to reduce the amount of time it takes for farmers to receive a permit, a spokesperson for the governor’s office says.

The Alaska Mariculture Task Force’s final report to the governor in 2021 notes that despite state budget cuts, the Department of Natural Resources reduced the average aquatic farm lease processing time by more than half, from 572 days in 2018 to 274 days in 2021.

An aquatic farm permit requires prospects to submit a joint application to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, which provides the tideland lease, and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, which reviews the gear a farmer will use, the species they want to work with, and other aspects of the business development plan.

“The state is very attuned to working with the industry. Alaska Fish and Game has been responsive to understanding the limitations of their existing processes, 80 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

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while working with the university to develop research that informs improvements to the permitting process,” says Justin Sternberg, the director for the Alaska Blue Economy Center at UAF. At the federal level, farmers need a permit from the US Army Corps of Engineers to use leased land. There is also a consultation period with other federal agencies to review whether the proposed farm will have a negative impact on marine mammals or essential habitats.

“Additionally, there could potentially be local government permits that you need. There's not one in Kodiak, though there's one in Juneau,” Good notes.

While the multi-agency permitting process for the mariculture industry poses a barrier to entry for some farmers, the Alaska Legislature enacted House Bill 115 last year to help streamline some of the bureaucracy.

The law expedites the lease renewal process, lowering the risk of investment for farmers and reducing the workload on the state. Additionally,

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it opens the door for tourism at aquatic farms without additional fees.

To help navigate the complexities of permitting, the Alaska Sea Grant, working with NOAA Fisheries, developed the Alaska aquaculture permitting portal. Alaska Sea Grant also hosts open Q&A sessions with applicants and permitting agencies.

The first event this year drew a crowd of about thirty people.

In feedback from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the Alaska Sea Grant team learned that, in general, the quality of applications this year was much higher than in the past.

“We're hoping that's attributed to all of this work that we've done and getting the resources out there,” Good says.

Oysters Are Her World Despite streamlining, the permit process can still be arduous, especially for shellfish, says Meta Mesdag, who runs Salty Lady Seafood Co., a familyoperated oyster farm in Juneau.

Mesdag explains that getting a lease can take years if applicants must appeal the Department of Natural Resource’s decision, and then it can take at least

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another two or three years before a farmer has a market-ready product.

The long lead time and significant equipment investment for oyster farming remain huge hurdles to farmers interested in breaking into the industry.

However, the well-established market means that, if they can produce highquality products, there will be buyers.

“We took a lot of risks,” Mesdag says, explaining that her family had to use their home as collateral for loans to get the farm up and running.

But Mesdag was confident that, with 1.5 million tourists a year and 30,000 locals who pride themselves in supporting small businesses, Alaska’s capital city could support a boutique oyster farm.

“The more aware people become of our business, the more excited they are about what we’re doing,” Mesdag says. “It’s been a lot of work, and, yeah, it’s working.”

Salty Lady’s ability to turn seed into a mature product in two to three years is considered fairly quick for the industry.

The family accomplishes this by tapping into the strong market for smaller, boutique oysters. However, to get shells

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“The state is very attuned to working with the industry.

Alaska Fish and Game has been responsive to understanding the limitations of their existing processes, while working with the university to develop research that informs improvements to the permitting process.”

Justin Sternberg Director Alaska Blue Economy Center

hard enough for shucking, they must provide labor-intensive handling that is difficult to maintain on a large farm.

Mesdag’s farm, only 1 acre, is one of the smallest in the state.

In addition to permitting requirements, shellfish farms must also follow federally mandated product safety guidelines and testing, which the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation oversees.

“The state and the industry need to know that the product is safe,” Mesdag says. “A very important part of shellfish farming is making sure that your product is safe for consumption.”

Mesdag does this, in part, by partnering with university students interested in mariculture. “We work with students to do water monitoring so that we can study the algae in our cove,” she says.

While the students get hands-on experience conducting mariculture 82 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

research and writing grants, Salty Lady gets access to vital information. “We know if we are about to have a harmful algal bloom. Then we can pause sales and let the bloom pass,” Mesdag says.

“It's a good partnership for us.”

Dangerous algae blooms are one of the most important fields of research for the Alaska mariculture industry, says Schery Umanzor, an assistant professor at the UAF College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. “It’s a very challenging topic because we don’t understand the dynamics very well,” Umanzor says.

In a broad sense, researchers know that water temperature, light, and the amount of nutrients in the water are all important factors. However, identifying the exact tipping point when the combination of factors crosses a threshold and results in a harmful bloom is tricky, Umanzor says.

“Both industry and academia have to work together to really make progress,” she says. “As far as academia, I will say that we are good listeners and problem solvers,” Umanzor adds.

“And it is great because then industry brings the problems and then we can conduct research and make progress so much easier.”

Seaweeds in the Deep Seaweed farming presents a tremendous economic opportunity for rural Alaska communities.

Sternberg explains that seaweed farming has the advantage, compared to shellfish, of starting cash flow within the first year.

The drawback is that market demand for seaweed products is relatively limited, which means that farmers entering the industry are counting on growth in existing products, as well as emerging markets. The other major hurdle is processing.

“One of the bottlenecks that has been widely recognized across the nation is processing capabilities for kelp,” says Good.

Alaska Sea Grant is helping tackle the bottleneck by providing resources and training to Alaska aqua farmers. In April, the organization hosted a threeday, hands-on seaweed processing workshop in Kodiak. The seventeen participants learned how to process seaweed, what contamination to look for, and how to test the product Alaska Business

to ensure it’s shelf-stable and safe to consume.

Hannah Wilson, the development director at the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation, sees a catch-22 in the seaweed market.

“It’s really trying to strike that balance where people aren’t growing all this seaweed and then don’t have anywhere to sell it… but not over-investing in infrastructure like processing plants before we have enough seaweed to process or markets to sell it to,” she explains.

While Alaska is one of the largest producers of offshore seaweed in North America, the United States imports about 98 percent of all seaweed from Japan, South Korea, and China.

“Alaska has the potential for being one of the largest, if not the largest, seaweed producer in the world,” Sternberg says.

One advantage that Alaska has is supply chain transparency, which does not exist from many international sources, he explains. “You could be getting seaweed from a relatively clean area, or you could be getting it from the coast of Fukushima [site of the 2011 nuclear disaster],” Sternberg says.

Most farmed seaweed grown in the United States is for human consumption, but Sternberg says there are substantial markets, mostly untapped, for animal feed, fertilizer, biofuels, and bioplastics. “But the value chain for them hasn't been established yet,” Sternberg says, before noting that seaweed could end up as a premier carbon credit.

“Seaweed is a carbon-negative food that sequesters carbon in the oceans, which deacidifies the water and improves the ocean’s chemistry, an important ecosystem service for the climate at large,” he says.

Not only does Sternberg see the environmental advantages of growing Alaska’s seaweed farms, but he sees it as a way to bring more economic stability to remote communities.

“Seaweed is a very sustainable industry, and it has the potential to create jobs for rural coastal Alaska that are good for the environment,” Sternberg says. “This is a real opportunity for those communities to become more self-sufficient and economically robust.” w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

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Pet Projects C The growing, growling

industry of animal care

helsea Coartney, owner of Unleashed Alaska, decided to open her dog daycare, boarding, and indoor dog park in 2021 as the result of her own experiences as a dog owner.

“I have six dogs, and I wasn’t hugely impressed with the places in town that offer boarding or the places where families can go with their pets,” she explains. “It can be very slushy at dog parks—not to mention cold—and I thought it would be cool to have an indoor dog park where people

AK Bark

By Vanessa Orr

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Alaska Business

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could come hang out in a temperaturecontrolled environment and socialize with their friends and their pets at the same time.”

At Unleashed Alaska, members have access to the dog park on weekdays after the doggie daycare closes at 6 pm and on weekends. A key card allows members to enter anytime the need arises. “If your dog likes to do ‘zoomies’ at 2 am, you can bring them here to burn some energy and socialize in a safe place,” Coartney says.

Even before her doggy daycare and boarding options opened last August, Coartney says interest was high.

“We were pretty booked before we opened,” she says. “But we do require a temperament test, so not everyone makes it past that requirement.”

Enough do make it in, though. “We are almost at max capacity now,” she adds.

According to the American Pet Products Association’s 20212022 National Pet Owners Survey, approximately 70 percent of US households, or about 90.5 million families, own a pet. These must be very good boys and girls—in 2021

“The pet industry has been going up for at least twenty years, with sales increasing year after year after year… This is probably the single biggest factor in why small mom-and-pop shops are still successful, especially after the big box stores arrived.”

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Mark Robokoff, Owner, AK Bark

alone, Americans spent $123.6 billion on everything from pet food and treats to supplies and over-thecounter medications, veterinary visits, grooming, training, and more.

These expenditures have increased year after year, growing almost $7 billion from 2018 to 2019, $16 billion from 2019 to 2020, and $20 billion from 2020 to 2021.

Coartney charges between $350 and $500 per month, using a membership model instead of a drop-off service.

“It’s like a gym membership for your dog and you,” she says. Unleashed Alaska has three membership levels, which include the Wag Plan, the Bark Plan, and the premier Peanut Butter Plan, which allows unlimited dog park access, twenty doggie daycare visits a month, and a percentage off boarding fees. The dog also gets his or her picture in the lobby.

Dogs that attend daycare are treated to training days, relaxed movie days where they can watch Animal Planet or videos on flat-screen TVs, and individualized lunches during early afternoon quiet time. “I’m crazy about dogs and I spoil them; they are treated

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Satisfied customers at AK Bark.

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like children who don’t talk,” Coartney says with a laugh. “My whole family is this way. Growing up, the dogs would eat at the dinner table with us.”

Finding a Niche Coartney and her family are hardly alone. With so many consumers looking to keep Fido or Fluff y happy and healthy, it’s no wonder that entrepreneurs want to break into this lucrative arena.

Mark Robokoff has been pampering pooches for more than a decade.

He ran the Paw Prince pet boutique from 2008 to 2011. He sold that business, and in 2016 he opened AK Bark. The name is a relic from the original location inside the Hotel Captain Cook, when it was HM Bark (referring to Cook’s ship, His Majesty’s Bark Endeavour). The shop relocated to the site of a previous pet boutique and dog massage parlor in west Anchorage.

“The pet industry has been going up for at least twenty years, with sales increasing year after year after year,” Robokoff says. “This is probably the single biggest factor in why small mom-and-pop shops are still

successful, especially after the big box stores arrived.”

Unleashed Alaska is structured like a gym membership for dogs.

Unleashed Alaska

AK Bark just opened a second store in Midtown on Fireweed Lane, as it has outgrown its current space. “We originally opened intending to be a pet gift store, but as we responded to what customers were asking for, there was a lot more demand for gear and practical solutions to adventure problems,” says Robokoff. Usable equipment takes up more room than t-shirts, he says.

“We considered expanding our existing store, but the appeal was such that it made more sense to add a

second store in Anchorage,” he adds.

“We’ll also probably be expanding our initial store soon.”

All along, Robokoff’s goal has been to provide “intensely Alaskan” products.

“We are extremely Alaska-focused, providing Alaska-made and Alaskaneeded products,” he explains. “For example, we carry outdoor gear that works well for our climate, as well as locally made collars, leashes, and booties. Almost all of our treats are made locally, including salmon treats from the Peninsula and reindeer treats from Fairbanks.”

Another popular product is the Coyote vest, which is an anti-predator vest for small dogs. “You’re not going to find this at Petco or PetSmart; we’ve got bald eagles and other toothy critters up here, and the vest gives nice peace of mind for people who have smaller animals,” Robokoff says.

While many businesses are considering starting online or warehouse-type stores, Robokoff says AK Bark is bucking retail industry trends.

“For us to grow from nothing to Alaska’s favorite pet supply store [as voted by

“We protect the environment because this is the land where we grew up.”

– Evan Polty Jr. Lead Mechanic, Donlin Gold Born in Pilot Station and Resident of Russian Mission

To learn more, visit us at donlingold.com w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

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The variety of items that AK Bark stocks, such as treats made from Kenai Peninsula salmon and Fairbanks reindeer, and the sheer size of some pet sportswear, could not all fit inside the West Dimond shop, which led owner Mark Robokoff to open a second store across Anchorage on Fireweed Lane.

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readers of the Anchorage Daily News] shows value in going against the trend, even as more and more new products that are coming out are featured almost exclusively online,” he says.

“But what we’ve seen is that customers have an unfilled need with those trends; they want to come into a store, try the products on the dog, and leave with their purchases that day,” he continues. “It’s both a challenge and our niche.”

Being so targeted on the local market can be an advantage, he says, as their products are tailored to a specific locale.

“We don’t order products based on a national agenda or calendar; we’re still selling dog coats in March because there’s still snow on the ground,” he says. “We’ve got full-body snowsuits for when it’s -20°F to -30°F and really nice quality goggles for dogs that like to run behind snow machines. We’ve got eight different styles of booties. We stock the store for the needs of the Alaskan dog and wants of the Alaskan dog owner.”

Treats to Drool For AK Bark makes a point of staying

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Alaska Business

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abreast of the newest developments in the pet care industry. For example, the shop was the first in Alaska to introduce CBD products to the pet market about five years ago.

Robokoff said that current trends include treats that aid in nutrition, specifically freeze-dried organ meats and freeze-dried whole animal treats like sardines.

“We are also seeing more humangrade ingredients in dog treats and higher quality ingredients overall,” he says. “People are now paying much more attention to what goes into their dogs.”

Pets with a taste for gourmet treats can get them from Drool Central Mum & Pup Barkery in Anchorage. Founder and owner Daisy Nicolas trained at the California Culinary Academy and Tante Marie’s Cooking School and spent twenty-five years cooking in premiere hotels and resorts before turning her attention to a different audience.

“I used to cook in remote lodges, and while I made good money, I realized at the same time that I wanted to do something for me. I didn’t want to be in the Bush anymore,” Nicolas explains.

“I had a yellow Lab, Dallas, who was my inspiration. I was always cooking for her, and after doing some research on what type of business to start, I decided that I’d cook for dogs.”

“I was going to make kibble, but I didn’t like the ingredients,” she adds.

“The more I talked to people concerned about their dogs’ diets, the more I saw the possibilities.”

Nicolas began working out of her home in 2013, selling products to friends and family and occasionally attending retail events. It was not until she joined the South Anchorage Farmers’ Market that she realized she could make Drool Central a viable business.

“The fi rst day, I made $400 in fi ve hours,” she says with a laugh.

“That was it! I was in business!”

Every Saturday, her sales grew, and she established a loyal clientele for her products made with wild 90 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

Alaska salmon, cod and seasonal fish, and Alaska-grown vegetables.

“When I was researching the products out there for dogs, I realized it was a lot of crap,” she says. “When I was cooking at the lodge, I fed my dog fish and she loved it. So I called one of the lodge’s guests, who owned a fish processing business, and I said, ‘I have an idea.’”

Nicolas began working with fish and later added other menu offerings. She now carries more than forty products which she makes on her own and sells at the farmer’s market and online.

“I added more products because some dogs hate fish; they’re just like people in what they like and don’t like,” she says. “When I was cooking for my dog, I added Alaska-grown carrots because our carrots are the best—they are crunchy, sweet, and fresh, unlike what we get from the Lower 48.”

Taking advantage of her spot at the farmers’ market, Nicolas buys the fresh produce that’s “not pretty”, and now her menus include carrots, potatoes, and beets year-round, as well as spinach and kale in the summer. She also uses Alaska-grown barley flour and other Made in the USA organic, non-grain produce as binding agents.

“It’s all about the trends; I have to ride the trend to please a wide range of customers and breeds,” she says.

“That means having different kinds of products.”

According to Nicolas, her products have caught on for a number of reasons. “People love the name Drool Central Mum and Pup Barkery; it makes them laugh,” she says. “Also, a lot of people in Alaska a r e

dedicated pet owners who want to try products closer to home—that are homemade in Alaska.

“Because I am using wild Alaska fish and Alaska-grown veggies, with none of the stuff that you and I eat—like salt, sugar, artificial preservatives, processed fats, and artificial colors and flavorings— the food is healthy and it works.”

She adds that Dallas, who inspired Drool Central, lived to the ripe old age of fifteen before passing away. “She had no allergies or digestive issues and no lumps or bumps,” Nicolas says, adding that she is now feeding her new puppy, a Lab/husky mix, the same recipes.

Happily Fur-ever After

Nicolas is currently looking for a brick-and-mortar site where she can expand the business, though it is not easy in the current real estate market.

“Not to mention that some landlords don’t like fish, and some don’t even like dogs,” she says of her need for an adequately ventilated space.

If she finds a spot, she hopes to expand her production capabilities, turning products over more quickly and elevating her online shop. “It’s my biggest challenge and my biggest disappointment,” she says of her continued success.

Unleashed Alaska is also ready to expand in its second year. Coartney is considering opening a second location, possibly in the MatanuskaSusitna Borough or in Fairbanks. She is also open to franchising opportunities.

“We’re growing a lot faster than expected,” she says.

One obstacle to expansion is finding the right employees, especially during the current workforce shortage.

“Dogs are not fools—they can sense your energy,” Coartney says. “While a lot of people may apply, one of the biggest struggles in this industry is finding the right people and keeping them.”

The same love of animals that drives the pet care industry also makes the jobs seem appealing, but Coartney says it takes a special breed of worker. “People think that you just get to play with dogs all day, but that’s not Daisy Nicolas and her dog, Dallas, who inspired the creation of Drool Central. how it is,” she explains. “You have to find people who Drool Central genuinely care.”

Alaska Business

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T R A N S P O R TAT I O N

The latest backspin for the Tongass National Forest

By Isaac Stone Simonelli

H

alf of Southeast Alaska has no road access to its natural resources. During the 20th century, this fact was a consequence of slow development in a thinly populated territory. As the 21st century dawned, however, whether to allow or forbid roads in the wildest parts of the Panhandle became a political tennis match.

The outgoing Clinton administration served the first volley in 2001 with the Roadless Rule, which banned road building in areas of national forests without road access. This policy has the greatest impact in the nation’s largest forest, the Tongass in Southeast Alaska, where 9.4 million of its 17 million acres lack roads.

“Tongass National Forest has motivated people for a very, very long time. It's the crown jewel of the National Forest system. It's worth fi ghting for,” says Kyle Moselle, executive director of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources Offi ce of Project Management & Permitting. “I think that you're always going to have a spectrum of opinions about how the Tongass should be managed.”

Alaskan officials protested immediately that the rule conflicted with the management plan already in 92 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

place for the Tongass. By 2003, the Tongass was exempt, but in 2011 the ban was reinstated. Then a smash in 2020, when US Forest Service adopted the Alaska Roadless Rule, exempting the Tongass from the ban on road building, with limited exceptions.

However, the Alaska Roadless Rule has never been implemented in any meaningful way, arriving amid a change in presidential administrations. A Forest Service spokesperson says a new final rule is expected by the end of the year.

Heavily involved in developing the Alaska Roadless Rule, Moselle says he’s disappointed in the Biden administration's proposal to repeal it.

“They are simply reverting back to the national rule that I think is a poor fit for the Tongass,” he says.

His view is in step with the Alaska Congressional delegation.

“Southeast Alaska deserves a sustainable economy, but the one-sizefits-all Roadless Rule works against that.

It should never have been applied to Alaska, and it should not be re-applied this year or any other,” the delegation wrote in a joint statement in January.

The Salmon Forest The back-and-forth stems from a fairly simple conflict: the timber Alaska Business

industry needs logging roads to access resources on public lands, whereas intact trees have value for other interests.

“It's all one ecosystem,” says Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association Executive Director Linda Behnken, “and you can't have healthy fisheries without a healthy forest.”

Behnken says the Roadless Rule is vital to the Southeast commercial fishing industry.

“Our membership is dedicated to sustainable fisheries and healthy fishing communities,” Behnken says. “ The health of the forest and the fisher y is tightly connected, as is the economy of Southeast Alaska to the fisheries and to healthy forest.”

The streams and rivers of the Tongass produce 95 percent of the salmon caught in Southeast Alaska, Behnken explains. She goes on to note that sablefish utilize the nearshore areas, bays, and estuaries during their first year of life, and halibut feed on nearshore salmon during the summer months.

What happens inland affects those waters. Behnken points out that more than 250 miles of salmon spawning streams in Southeast have been w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

Fantastic Geographic | iStock

To Road or Not to Road

blocked by failed culverts from past road building.

“The value forgone each year is $2.5 million from those streams that are blocked by failed culverts,” Behnken says.

Thus, the longline fishermen support the Biden administration’s restoration of the road building ban. “We’re seeing this as the administration's willingness to really invest in what local people see as sustainable businesses and healthy local economies that'll carry us into the future,” says Behnken.

Moselle is quick to point out that the 2020 Alaska Roadless Rule did not open the door for unregulated development in the Tongass. Both the 2016 management plan and the National Environmental Policy Act guide any potential development in the forest.

“Everyone recognizes the Tongass, as the Salmon Forest, provides extensive habitat for not only fi ve species of salmon but a whole array of wildlife and other critters,” Moselle says.

“What people have to remember here,” he adds, “is that the removal

of the 2001 Roadless Rule from the Tongass was removing a higher administrative level of regulation that wasn't necessary, in part, because of the Tongass forest plan.”

Connecting Communities The 2016 Tongass Forest Plan includes a local conservation strategy geared toward protecting old-growthoriented fish and wildlife species. Even before the 2016 management plan, aquatic resources have been a focus for both state and federal agencies, Moselle says.

As examples, he points toward the Tongass Timber Reform Act of 1991, aimed at increasing logging opportunities while also establishing stream buffers, and the 2008 version of the Tongass Land and Resource Management Plan that, in cooperation with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, developed the old-growth conservation strategy.

Moselle says that timber steals the headlines, but the exemption for the Tongass is more about being able to connect communities via WiFi

communication and satellite systems.

“For example, the 2001 Roadless Rule exceptions do not allow for road building in inventory roadless areas related to the construction, expansion, or maintenance of facilities such as airports, marine access points, or communication sites. It doesn't provide for road access in inventoried roadless areas to access Alaska Native cultural sites or to meet the transportation needs defined in the State of Alaska’s Southeast Alaska Transportation Plan, which relates to roads and ferries,” Moselle says. “These things weren’t in there because these are not national needs, right? But they are definitely needs in the Tongass.”

Moselle disputes a Forest Service statement that exceptions in the 2001 Roadless Rule include “mining, hydropower, interties, cell towers, trails and other recreation improvements, habitat restoration, federal aid highways and other statutorily provided road access needs, and other activities.”

The language in the rule, he says, does not specifically reference mining, hydropower, interties, or the like.

Moreover, due to vagueness, the

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Alaska Business

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The Public Weighs In When the previous administration crafted the Alaska Roadless Rule, most of the more than 400,000 public comments were in favor of keeping the additional layer of protection for roadless areas.

Six Alaska Native tribes initially helped the USDA develop the new rule but withdrew their cooperation after learning that the Forest Service would move forward with a full exemption.

“We recognized that compromise was likely necessary to reach an alternative that we could all support. However, when a full exemption was selected as the preferred alternative due to undue political interference in the rulemaking process, the months that we spent working to find a good-faith compromise were discarded in favor of political expediency,” the tribes wrote in a letter to then-Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue.

The US Forest Service is now reviewing more than 110,000 comments about restoring the 2011 policy it received from individuals and organizations during a sixty-day comment period that ended on January 24. “[The] initial assessment of the public comments is that the majority support the proposal to repeal [the 2020 Alaska Roadless Rule] and restore [2001] roadless rule protections,” a spokesperson from the Forest Service writes.

The next step for the Forest Service is to review the public comments, determine themes, and identify concerns; a new rule is anticipated by the end of the year.

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requirement for determining a “need” and the decision being left to the discretion of “the responsible official,” the 2001 rule created an on-theground situation that stifles potential in the region.

Yet those who call the Tongass home strongly support reinstating the 2001 Roadless Rule.

"The Tongass Forest is my home.

Home to the ancient Tlingit and Haida indigenous peoples. The air we breathe, the water we depend on, the land we live upon, all pristine. It is a life to cherish. It is a way of living worth fighting for,” says Wanda Kashudoha Loescher Culp, a Tlingit activist and the Tongass coordinator for the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network. “The Biden administration’s restoration of the Roadless Rule is vital for protecting our forest homelands as Indigenous peoples of the Tongass.”

“We will continue engaging with the administration to ensure Indigenous women's voices are heard and our expertise consulted moving forward.

For our communities and the climate, it is time to invest in collaborative management practices that uplift Indigenous rights, food sovereignty, environmental protection, and land conservation in Alaska's Tongass Forest,” she adds.

A New Strategy By repealing the 2020 Alaska Roadless Rule and restoring the 2001 Roadless Rule, the Forest Service says it would be acting in a way that reflects input from Tribal consultation and sets the stage for building on tourism and fishing.

Earlier this year, the USDA announced $8.7 million in grants as part of its Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy, aimed at replacing large-scale, old-growth timber harvesting with sustainable economic activities. Among the approved grants were mariculture projects, Indigenous cultural programs, and timber management. In July 2021, the USDA committed to investing $25 million in the region.

The strategy is misguided, as far as the state’s Congressional delegation is concerned.

“Let me be clear: $25 million doesn’t even come close to covering the economic damage that this Alaska Business

administration’s policies will inflict on Southeast Alaska,” Senator Dan Sullivan said in response to the USDA’s announcement. “Alaskans have the right to make a living, support our families, and connect our communities and have a much greater interest in seeing the Tongass healthy and sustainably managed than outside extreme environmental groups pulling the strings in the Biden administration.”

Leila Kimbrell, executive director of the Resource Development Council for Alaska, agrees with Sullivan, saying that the money offered through the sustainability strategy falls far short of the historic economic value of the region.

“The Resource Development Council has long opposed the Roadless Rule and its application to the Tongass,” Kimbrell says.

She says the Alaska Roadless Rule, designed to meet the unique needs in the Tongass, is better because it supports diverse economic opportunities in the region, including the timber industry.

“Anytime you have a one-size-fits-all approach, you're going to find that it's not going to be a good fit for everybody,” Kimbrell says.

Kimbrell also says that delays in the Biden administration releasing a decision can chill the investment climate for development projects in the region. “That has a really harmful effect on the Alaskan economy, bringing in uncertainty,” she says.

Even if the current administration reinstates the road-building ban, the next could reverse it. Regardless of which player has the upper hand at any time, the back-and-forth itself acts as a restriction on development.

The accidental equilibrium keeps trees standing, and that works for Behnken. “All we have to do is not cut those trees to keep contributing to that really important battle against climate change,” she says, noting that the Tongass contains nearly 40 percent of carbon sequestered by US forests.

She adds, “I would really hope that at some point any administration is going to recognize the absolute existential threat of climate change and the value of this forest for sequestering carbon, for supporting local economies on a sustainable, long-term basis.” w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

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the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska

By Rindi White

e believe that however trib es are b rin gin g broadband to their communities is a game-changer, whether it’s by cable or satellite,” says Teresa Jacobsson. “For some of our rural communities, cable is not going to happen, not anytime soon.” Jacobsson is founder and chair of Alaska Tribal Administrators Association (ATAA), a nonprofit created to support healthy tribal administration in Alaska.

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Alaska Business

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About 60,000 Alaska residents have no access to broadband, while another 200,000 have limited access to low-end broadband that fails to go beyond 10Mbps download and 1Mbps upload speeds, according to Alaska Tribal Spectrum (ATS). In this age of remote work, remote doctor visits, and paperwork that must be filed solely online, not having an internet connection is crippling.

“Tribes really went dark for a time— no internet, no phones; I have a client who had to go to the top of a hill because he had no service at the tribal administration building,” Jacobsson says.

But several organizations are working to provide solutions that they hope will result in affordable—and even, in some cases, completely subsidized—internet service for all Alaskans, even those living off the grid, working aboard a fishing vessel, harvesting fish at a fish camp, or at a temporary job site, miles from any community.

Bridging the Middle Mile ATAA is partnering with ATS to bridge the “middle mile” of internet service,

w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

the section of service that runs from a core carrier to a community. In March, ATS secured a license from the Federal Communications Commission for the largest 2.5 gigahertz singlespectrum wireless system in the United States, spanning most of Southcentral and Southwest Alaska, Nome and its surrounding area, and a few communities in the Interior and Southeast.

ATS is a nonprofit representing 104 member tribes—roughly half the tribes in Alaska and a quarter of all tribes in the United States. It hopes to leverage the collective tribal voice to create a statewide Alaska Tribal Network (ATN) that will include tribally-owned, lastmile village infrastructure that can connect with existing high-speed satellite service to deliver broadband and cell service to unserved and underserved rural Alaskans. If fi ber optic cable becomes available one day, the infrastructure can pivot and use that as well.

“We all want fiber—we would all love to have fiber come to our communities—but it’s going to take years for every community to see some

Alaska Business

fiber. Should they continue to suffer or get relief now?” asks ATS General Manager Jim Berlin.

ATS partnered with OneWeb, a lowearth orbit (LEO) satellite telecom service. Berlin says ATS applied for a “massive amount” of OneWeb’s satellite capacity.

“If we apply and buy down the cost, now you’ve got a winning combination, so no matter where you are in Alaska, you can have service right now,” he says. “That’s the only way to solve this problem for much of Alaska.”

The Final Leg That’s where the “last mile” comes in—providing service from the community to individuals and households. Under the ATN approach, each member village would own its last-mile connection, allowing tribal entities to act as an internet service provider (ISP), or they could allow commercial ISPs to serve their residents and, because they own the network, charge the service providers for use of their hardware.

They could also obtain grants to

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Kids hang out near the school in Akiak to access wireless internet through their phones.

Katie Basile | KYUK

subsidize the cost of internet service to their members.

The approach, Berlin says, is based on a successful model at work in Dutch Harbor. It’s run by OptimERA, a grassroots cellular and broadband provider in Unalaska that has been growing since 2005. OptimERA helped develop ATN. “It’s a fluid model; it’s hardened for Alaska,” Berlin says. “When the installations go in, once they’re actually there, it takes less than a week to set this up in the community—it’s like setting up an IKEA desk.”

For most villages, the entire system can be shipped in a shipping container.

Inside is a 40-foot tower. Berlin says it’s pretty simple to erect: lay it out on the ground, attach it to a car battery, and hoist it. Inside the container are all the computers and switches necessary for operation. No holes need to be bored, no platform poured. The ballasted foundation can withstand wind up to 150 miles per hour, he says, and the tower has a service radius of around 98 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

six to eight miles. Each containerized tower costs between $200,000 and $500,000, depending on whether cellular service is also part of the system.

Berlin says ATS hopes to serve about ninety-six villages on its member list with this model. Some villages might have terrain that requires more than one tower, or perhaps a taller tower, to provide adequate coverage. From there, end users simply need a router to have full internet access.

“It’ll also carry out to ships in the bay. But, say there’s a fish camp further afield; we have the capability to put these on vehicles. We could put it on a snowmachine and be connected via a mobile unit—or just set up another satellite downlink. You can set up a relay and propagate from there,” he says. “But for most of these villages, one tower is covering where 99 percent of the people live.”

Berlin says ATS is optimistic that the influx of federal funding will boost the Alaska Business

network and help it begin setting up in communities soon. It has a $251 million application for funding that would do exactly that.

“We have the answer, we just need the funding,” he says.

Other Middle Mile Options Two satellites are soon going to be available that could feasibly allow anyone, anywhere in Alaska—with a dish receiver, modem, laptop, and electricity—to connect to the internet at upload/download speeds of 25/3Mbps, comparable with residents in urban Alaska.

The company behind the two satellites is Pacifi c Dataport. It was formed with investment from Anchorage-based Microcom, Maryland-based Space Partnership International, and others, according to its website.

Pacific Dataport was created in 2017 out of necessity, according to Shawn Williams, vice president of government w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

Flat and relatively open, Akiak is a good setting for Pacific Dataport to erect a tower and test its OneWeb service.

Yupiit School District

“We all want fiber— we would all love to have fiber come to our communities—but it’s going to take years for every community to see some fiber. Should they continue to suffer or get relief now?”

Jim Berlin General Manager Alaska Tribal Spectrum

100 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

affairs and strategy. Microcom’s leaders realized the company was running out of capacity to sell to new customers.

The first satellite, a micro HTS, or highthroughput satellite, will be launched in August, along with several other satellites that other companies are launching at the same time. The unit is about the size of a dishwasher, Williams says, and will serve about 10,000 new users.

The second phase, Williams says, is a much larger satellite, dubbed a GEO VHTS, or geostationary veryhigh-throughput satellite, which will serve about 100,000 consumers simultaneously.

“That’s about what the FTC [Federal Trade Commission] says Alaska has for underserved or unserved rural Alaskans,” Williams says.

The second satellite is due to be launched in 2024, he says. The Aurora system, as Pacific Dataport calls the pair, would provide the first commercially available high-speed data service statewide. The company says the Aurora system would provide low-latency and highly secure communications between locations anywhere in Alaska.

“When some people hear about satellite broadband, they cringe. They Alaska Business

think of the old C band technology that is sometimes still being used in rural Alaska,” Williams says. “What would normally be very slow, very expensive, very poor-quality satellite broadband is kind of the old way of doing things. We have the new technology that is more affordable and more reliable than what some people might be used to.”

Pacific Dataport serves as a wholesaler, selling the middle mile to tribes, tribal consortiums, and to resellers like Microcom. Individuals would likely purchase service through Microcom, which would act as the internet service provider.

Although the setup is slightly different from the Aurora system, Williams says Akiak is currently testing something similar. Roughly 100 businesses and households in the community had an internet provider but were unhappy with the service. Akiak used grant funding to build and maintain a last-mile system that connects them, through Pacific Dataport, to the OneWeb LEO. The service is free while it’s still in testing, Williams says.

When the testing period completes, the community will be getting 75Mbps download and 15Mbps upload speeds for $150 a month. Similar service at the 25/3 Mbps rate currently costs w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

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“When some people hear about satellite

OneWeb’s assembly plant in Florida. When the 648-satellite constellation is complete this year, Alaska Tribal Spectrum is lined up to use part of its worldwide broadband coverage.

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broadband, they cringe. They think of the old C band technology that is sometimes still being used in rural Alaska…

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between $299 and $499 in some rural communities.

Internet Wants to Be Free The Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska is working to provide connectivity to residents in the Sitka area—fixed, wireless broadband service, not cell phones— with the goal that the service be subsidized as much as possible.

Tlingit & Haida applied for the right to use the 2.5 gigahertz spectrum within a specific area. “Sitka selected Sitka; we selected the area around Sitka that they did not select. We have the outskirts, anywhere that the local community did not select,” says Chris Cropley, a network architect for Tlingit & Haida.

Although Tlingit & Haida applied for the right to use the spectrum, Cropley says it will provide service to all citizens within the coverage area. “It dovetails into the Affordable Connectivity Program,” Cropley says. Qualified residents may be eligible for up to $75 per month per household, he says.

“We are really trying to take advantage of all these programs; we’re trying to provide as much internet as we can,” Cropley says. But he made it clear the tribes are not trying to horn in on other companies’ territory.

“We’re only looking at building out to serve the unserved and underserved,” he says.

The Tlingit & Haida plan focuses on last-mile solutions, working with different carriers and using whatever Alaska Business

middle-mile solution is available in each area. In Sitka, for example, fiber optic is available, Cropley says, so that’s what will be used. In Wrangell, internet service will be purchased from existing carriers. “We don’t believe in using another system where one already exists,” Cropley says.

He says Tlingit & Haida is working to develop towers that can be moved into an unserved area as well.

Some of the “unserved” residents exist within “served” communities. Within Sitka, for example, 38 households don’t currently have internet service.

In Juneau, about two percent of the population is unserved, or about 227 households. “That’s bigger than a third of the villages in Southeast Alaska,” he says.

Juneau is currently considered “served,” but if Tlingit & Haida is able to obtain more money in the future, it may be able to work toward making sure those 227 households have the option to connect.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime, once-ina-generation—the largest opportunity to bring internet to Alaska,” Cropley says.

“How exciting is it that we can create remote jobs? What happens when we start bringing these professional, highpaying jobs to villages in Alaska? Even more exciting, what happens when we bring our culture’s local artwork to the rest of the world? When Shirley Kendall, instead of providing language classes at UAA, can provide them to the world?

That’s part of why we’re looking at it as a holistic approach.” w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

B ALANC

ED B O

U

NDARI ES

Find Balance through Boundaries

By Woodrie Burich

W

e’ve been chasing work-life balance for decades.

Individually, we have contrived all sorts of personal improvements, process improvements, and time efficiencies—and we’ve exhausted ourselves in our efforts to find it. Organizations have spent millions of dollars implementing wellness programs, hiring consultants, and establishing training and learning development centers in order to create it. And yet… balance remains elusive.

It’s because we are chasing the wrong thing.

Instead of seeking balance, we need to put our attention on boundaries.

Why? Because balance is what arises after we focus and integrate our boundaries.

Balance Is the Outcome; Boundaries Are the Path Balance is externally focused. When I focus on balance, I assume I need to create some perfection externally or that somehow I need to align myself to some vision of a balanced life—out there somewhere—sometime in the future. Balance is something to be created, to be chased.

Viewed this way, balance can be seen as an illusion.

When I used to focus on creating balance, I would meticulously weigh 104 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

all the activities around me, pick and choose the ones I could remove, and then try to align myself to some imagined ideal in the future. This would set me up for failure time and time again, because the variables would always change. Situations would shift.

Balance, even if found within a single blissful moment, is fleeting (at best).

Boundaries, though—that’s where my power lies. Boundaries are within my locus of control. They are always focused and centered in the now.

Back when I was spending all my time focused on creating balance, the real question I needed to ask myself was: What boundaries do I need to set to keep myself strong, energized, and clear—in this moment—right now?

Exercise: Individual and Team Reflections That single question has two key components. Specifically, do I have the tools and knowledge to access and answer what my needs are in relation to both my boundaries and my “now”?

For a deeper dive, I like to break out the components: • My Boundaries: Here I need to figure out the boundaries that I (or my team) require. To answer this effectively, I need definitions, context, language, and tools for identifying, setting, and maintaining boundaries. I also Alaska Business

need the confidence and skills to set my boundaries within different external conditions (i.e. environment and situation).

• My Now: Here I need to figure out what is really going on in this moment.

What needs are asking to be met and honored right now? To answer this effectively, I need an ability to connect with and be aware of the needs of myself and everyone around me. I need listening skills. Empathy.

Awareness. These skills, acquired through strong personal leadership development, can help set me up for success with this part of the question.

These skills, along with my depth of connection (to self and others), are ultimately what allow me to articulate and set healthy boundaries that honor the needs of all parties: my own needs, the needs of my team, and the needs of the moment.

Balance can be alluring—it seems like such a fun and easy space to play in compared to boundaries. It’s much easier to simply keep moving the chess pieces around than to actually focus on the mindset, belief patterns, or actions of the chess players themselves.

Boundaries are hard.

Boundaries are the ability to validate and vocalize our “authentic yes” and “authentic no.” They require w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

introspection, external awareness, and a good solid dose of humility and awareness of our personal triggers.

They require that we validate and voice our truth, and this can put us face to face with our fears. Some of them are very real and well-founded fears, especially when we are dealing with professional reputation, fiscal stability, and/or future job opportunities—yet this difficulty is exactly why boundaries are so very powerful.

Boundaries reflect strong personal leadership skills. Their gifts are numerous. They grant us energy—an outcome of setting boundaries around our time. They grant us clarity—an outcome of setting boundaries by claiming space to think. They improve decision making by increasing our understanding of our choices in the moment—an outcome of consistent energy and clarity throughout our days, weeks, and months. As we improve our boundaries, other skills and gifts emerge too: increased creativity, improved connection with ourselves and others, and enhanced access to our personal power.

In a work setting, building personal leadership skills is at the core of boundary setting work. Personal leadership includes skills such as selfawareness, personal accountability, composure, confidence, and empathy.

These skills are vital because in order to validate and vocalize my boundaries I need the ability to honestly assess the needs of all parties (myself and others) in any particular moment. I need to be able to accurately discern whether I’m seeing reality or some distorted

picture of reality (based on my own misperceptions or the misperceptions of others around me). Boundaries also require a good dose of courage— especially in work settings—for once I see reality, I need to be willing to push back against those forces, structures, or individuals that keep those boundaries from being honored.

Over the years, I’ve shifted my focus away from balance and toward boundaries. This shift has changed everything. It’s helped me to hone my focus and my actions. It has helped me connect, vocalize, and prioritize my needs, which in turn strengthens me to support others with their needs. It has directly impacted my outcomes, my relationships, and my decisions—because boundaries changed my perception of my choices. Surprisingly, the one thing I was chasing for so many years finally started to emerge. Something once elusive finally started to take shape and form.

Balance arose from my boundaries.

Woodrie Burich is a national speaker, executive coach, and owner of the Integration Group, which empowers professionals to create sustainable and thriving work lives that enable them to enjoy more, stress less, and connect with their communities in positive ways.

Dive Deeper: Reflection Questions Reflect on Work-Life Balance: What images and thoughts arise for you? Are the actions tied to creating work-life balance externally or internally focused, or perhaps both? Have you found work-life balance elusive? Why or why not?

Reflect on Boundaries: What images or thoughts arise for you? Are the actions tied to creating boundaries external or internally focused, or perhaps both? Have you found work-boundaries elusive? Why or why not?

Consider Your Team: How might shifting your team’s focus from work-balance to work-boundaries shift discussions about workloads and workload management? How might dialogue in this space address recent team stressors or team energy levels?

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I NSI DE ALASKA B U would be the first port in the country to harness tidal energy for local operations. ORPC is also partnering with Homer Electric Association for a tidal power project at East Foreland, offshore from Nikiski. orpc.co | matsugov.us

Midtown Mall Two former Sears properties in Anchorage have a new owner.

International real estate firm Time Equities, Inc. (TEI) bought the Midtown Mall and the vacant Sears warehouse at Dowling Road and Old Seward Highway from Seritage Growth Properties for $44 million.

The investments are TEI’s first in Alaska, expanding its footprint to thirty-five states. Though many mall slots are without tenants, the 164,664 square feet are 81 percent leased. midtownmall.com

Alaska Energy Authority The largest hydroelectric project in Alaska for thirty years is moving ahead. The Alaska Energy Authority filed a license amendment with federal regulators, the first step in the Dixon Diversion. The project would be located 5 miles southwest of the Bradley Lake dam near Homer, currently the largest hydroelectric power plant in Alaska. Dixon Diversion could power up to 30,000 homes, compared to Bradley Lake’s 54,000.

The current price tag is between $400 million and $600 million.

Studies and permitting would take about five years, and then five more years of construction. akenergyauthority.org

Prismatext Anchorage app developers Zak Erving and Phil Belleau earned the top prize of $10,000 from the UAF Arctic Innovation Competition for their invention, Prismatext. The computer app blends words and phrases from other languages into English texts, allowing readers to acquire vocabulary in context.

Prizes for junior innovators went to a rooftop snow removal vacuum and the “Cluck Box,” an improved package for mailing live chicks. prismatext.com

hydrotherapy pools, three cold pools including cold plunge and waterfall, a Signature sauna, and massage therapy. Two Trees Bistro offers dining focused on local ingredients with a menu curated by Chef Wes Choy. A final phase later this year will add an elevated boardwalk through the Chugach Forest. alyeskaresort.com/nordic-spa

Alaska Beacon The politics and state government beat has a new reporting outlet.

The Alaska Beacon launched in May, publishing daily updates on its website by veteran capitol journalists. Editor-in-chief Andrew Kitchenman, formerly of Alaska Public Media and KTOO, says the mission is to “cover stories that are being missed due to the limited number of reporters focused on state government.” The venture is supported by States Newsroom, a donor-funded nonprofit. alaskabeacon.com

Addie Camp

ORPC | Matanuska-Susitna Borough The Matanuska-Susitna Borough is partnering with Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC) of Maine to test its RivGen Power System in Knik Arm. ORPC deployed RivGen in the Kvichak River village of Igiugig in 2014; the Cook Inlet project would harness the tidal current of Knik Arm to power the cathodic protection systems that prevent metal structures at Port MacKenzie from corroding.

If testing goes well, Port MacKenzie

EC O

SI NESS

The first Tesla Supercharger in Alaska opened in April, offering faster recharge for electric vehicles and expanding the range for drivers to explore the Kenai Peninsula. The station is hosted by Addie Camp at Whistle Hill, just off the Sterling Highway outside of downtown Soldotna. The Supercharger is designed to refill 200 miles of range in fifteen minutes. whistlehillsoldotna.com

Alyeska Resort A new attraction in Girdwood extends the year-round offerings at Alyeska Resort. A Nordic spa features three warm and hot

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Small Business Administration With the launch of a Women’s Business Center in Anchorage, the nationwide network operated by the US Small Business Administration (SBA) now has locations in all fifty states and Puerto Rico. Women’s Business Centers (WBC) offer one-on-one counseling, training, networking, workshops, technical assistance, and mentoring to entrepreneurs.

The SBA established the WBC program in 1988. The Anchorage WBC is the 141st in the program and is operated by the Seattle Economic Development Fund. sba.gov

ATO

RS

ANS Crude Oil Production 485,293 barrels -3.7% change from previous month

ANS West Coast Crude Oil Prices $123.58 per barrel 10.3% change from previous month

Statewide Employment 362,000 labor force 4.9% unemployment

6/2/2022 Source: Alaska Department of Natural Resources

6/3/2022 Source: Alaska Department of Natural Resources

6/3/2022, Adjusted seasonally.

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics

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RI G First Bank Ketchikan-based First Bank has a new CFO for the first time in forty years. Rocky Elerding is promoted to the position now that longtime CFO Jim Sarvela is retiring. Elerding was born and raised in Sitka. He earned Elerding a degree in finance from the University of Washington and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Washington’s MBA program. He has been with First Bank since 2004. Elerding had been working as Southeast Regional Mortgage Manager. To replace Elerding as Southeast Regional Mortgage Manager, First Bank hired Dawn Wesley. Wesley moved away for twenty years but moved back in 2011, gaining experience in the mortgage and insurance sectors.

Wesley

Northrim Bank Northrim Bank promoted two employees within the Executive Group. Mike Huston becomes the bank’s President, a title that Chairman and CEO Joe Schierhorn had been holding as well. Huston also remains Huston Chief Lending Offi cer, a position he attained in 2017 when he was hired as an executive vice president.

Huston was previously chief banking offi cer at First Interstate Bank in Billings, Montana. He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from Arizona State University and is a graduate of the Pacific Coast Banking School.

H

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Amber Zins is promoted to COO and Executive Vice President from her previous role as chief administrative officer. Zins has been with Zins Northrim Bank for fourteen years since she was hired as internal audit manager. Zins holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from UAF and is a certified public accountant. Also, to manage a new loan production office in Nome, Northrim Bank hired Drew McCann for the position of VP, Lending Branch Manager McCann 1. McCann was previously director of the Nome Convention and Visitor Bureau. He is taking classes at UAS toward a bachelor’s degree in business administration with an emphasis in management.

Mt. McKinley Bank Mt. McKinley Bank is rounding out its executive staff in Fairbanks and Delta Junction. Cindy Cevasco is the bank’s new Vice President and Human Resources Manager.

Cevasco has more than thirty-six years of experience Cevasco in human resources and management in the financial industry. She now oversees payroll and all other human resources tasks for Mt. McKinley Bank. Courtney Durham is the new Assistant Vice President, Mortgage Lending at the Delta Junction branch. Durham grew up in the Delta Junction Durham area and spent twenty-two

ES years in residential, agricultural, and commercial real estate all over Alaska. Her experience also includes owning a small business in Delta Junction and developing commercial properties. Durham raises cattle and trains horses at her ranch.

Alaska Tribal Broadband The new COO at Alaska Tribal Broadband is Brad Angasan. He most recently served as president of Alaska Peninsula Corporation, the Angasan company that jointly serves the villages of Kokhanok, Newhalen, Port Heiden, Ugashik, and Angasan’s hometown of South Naknek. Angasan attended Western Colorado University and the UAF School of Management. He has more than twenty-five years of management experience in for-profit and regional nonprofit sectors.

Peter Pan Seafood Company Under new management since late 2020, Peter Pan Seafood Company has increased its focus on value-added US products.

That growth created openings in top management positions. A veteran of the company returns as Vice President of Sales. Rich Wolverton first worked for Peter Pan in 1989, when “Seafood” still had a Wolverton plural “s” at the end. He had been working in food sales after earning a degree from the University of North Florida. Wolverton later served as president of the Northwest Fisheries Association and worked for Food Services of America as vice president of category management

RIGHT MOVES IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY NORTHERN AIR CARGO

Committed to the Alaska Spirit 108 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

Alaska Business

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before launching his own consulting firm. Michael Mussell joins the team as Executive Vice President of Projects, Mussell Ingredients, and Canning.

After earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of California Santa Barbara and a master’s from San Diego State University, Mussell developed production facilities and new applications for Omega 3 oils and low molecular weight fish proteins in Europe, Africa, South America, and North America. Matt Frazier comes aboard as Regional Sales Manager.

Frazier brings more than fifteen years of experience at every stage of the process, Frazier from catch to retail.

EasyPark The Anchorage Community Development Authority (ACDA), the city agency that was formed in 2005 from the Anchorage Parking Authority, placed two new people at the top of its EasyPark department. Jeff Read is the new Parking Director. A US Air Force veteran, Read was hired from BAC Transportation, the limousine and coach service Read where he worked as chief operating officer. Read oversees EasyPark’s customer service, dispatch, security, parking enforcement, and facility maintenance divisions, as well as the parking garages and lots owned and operated by ACDA. Read has worked in management and owned businesses in the hospitality, retail, and fitness industries for more than twentyfive years. He is also a past commander of American Legion Post 29. EasyPark’s new Facilities Manager is Phillip DeRouin, a twelve-year veteran of the department most recently serving as facilities lead. DeRouin is trained in

DeRouin

electronics and is responsible for coordinating year-round maintenance and custodial workers for the upkeep of ACDA’s buildings, grounds, and equipment.

MTA MTA, the Palmer-based telecom, added new professionals to its management ranks. Elias Rojas joined MTA as Marketing Manager for Commercial Solutions. In his new role, Rojas focuses on marketing and business Rojas development for MTA’s array of enterprise and wholesale solutions.

Rojas comes to MTA from Alaska Pacific University, where he served as director of marketing and communications.

Rojas has a master’s degree in business administration from Alaska Pacific University and a bachelor’s degree in international business from San Diego State University. MTA hired Steve Brockman as its Commercial Solutions Analyst. In his new role, he helps MTA expand its commercial solutions Brockman business in adjacent markets and government programs. Brockman spent the last ten years at Copper Valley Telephone, most recently as a business analyst. Brockman earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing analytics from Liberty University. His service in the US Air Force from 1978 to 1982 brought him to Alaska.

Bettisworth North A senior interior designer with Bettisworth North Architects and Planners received the Certified Healthcare Interior Designer (CHID) designation after passing a rigorous examination. Tiffany Coffman’s

new credential distinguishes her from other architects, designers, and decorators.

The CHID certificate is the highest designation for a Coffman healthcare interior design professional and is sought by many healthcare organizations when choosing an interior designer. Coffman holds a bachelor’s degree in interior design from Colorado State University and has worked in interior design for ten years, specializing in senior assisted living facilities.

Anchorage School District The Anchorage School District selected Jharrett Bryantt to succeed Deena Bishop as Superintendent.

A nationwide search found Bryantt Bryantt in Houston, Texas, where he leads the office of talent at the eighth-largest school district in the country.

He starts at the same salary that Bishop accumulated after six years on the job.

Tlingit & Haida The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska hired Janice Hotch as Business & Economic Development Director. In Hotch that position, Hotch leads efforts to promote business and economic opportunities for the tribe, its tribal business enterprises and citizens, and Southeast Alaska communities. Hotch’s Tlingit name is Kooseen and she is L'uknax.ádi (Raven/ Coho) from the Daaginaa Hít. She holds a master's certificate in government contracting from The George Washington University School of Business and a bachelor's degree in communications from the University of Washington. She comes to the tribe from MRV Architects.

Northern Air Cargo is committed to getting your cargo where it needs to be, on time, so you can worry about what really matters.

For more information, please visit us at www.nac.aero. w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

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ALASKA TRENDS

N

onprofit organizations strengthen Alaska in t wo distinct ways: pursuing their individualized missions for the benefit of their members or clients and generating a significant amount of economic activity. The Foraker Group— which is itself a 501(c)(3) organization— specializes in supporting Alaska’s nonprofits. As part of that mission, and with the support of Credit Union 1, it published Alaska’s Nonprofit Sector: Generating Economic Impact, a report

that examines how nonprofits are participating in Alaska’s economy.

While they can be grouped as an economic sector, nonprofits operate in a variety of industries, which in some ways masks their aggregate effects.

“We often lose sight of the scale of their impact because nonprofits are not considered to be a single industry,” the report states. “When the state tracks jobs, it classifies them by industries— oil and gas, tourism, healthcare— not by the sector where the work

3RD LARGEST INDUSTRY

The total income generated by Alaska's nonprofits in 2019 was

The nonprofit sector supports a similar number of jobs as Alaska’s leading private industries when direct, indirect, and induced effects are combined.

$4B $2.8B

originates—nonprofit, government, or private.”

In Alaska Trends this month, we pull data from this excellent report that demonstrates how essential nonprofits are to the state, even without considering the critical services they provide like medical care, housing, utilities, art, religious and cultural expression, education, and recreation.

For those interested in the full report, it can be found at forakergroup.org/ speak-up/nonprofit-economic-impact.

80,000

Direct

$773M Induced

$463M Indirect

60,000

40,000

20,000

10,000

Oil and Gas

75%

of Alaskans receive electricity from a nonprofit cooperative utility 110 | J u l y 2 0 2 2

Seafood

Nonprofit

Mining

In 2019, nonprofits were responsible for

57,900 JOBS Alaska Business

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14% Education

13% Human Services

12% Recreation/Sports

10% Arts/Culture/Humanities

8% Public/Societal

7% Environment/Animals

6% Healthcare

4% Philanthropy

501(c)(6) Business leagues like chambers of commerce 501(c)(4) Civil leagues like Rotary clubs, employee associations Other 501(c) Credit unions and utilities 501(c)(3) Charitable organizations like the Food Bank of Alaska

1% International/Foreign Affairs

5% 7% 10% 78%

0.5% Science & Technology/Unknown

   

25% Religious

NONPROFITS

BY MISSION

EARNED INCOME VS. GRANTS Nonprofits leverage government funding to generate earned and charitable income Other

 Contributions and Grants

1 IN 4

 Earned Income

non-government jobs are tied to nonprofits

6% 27%

ESSENTIAL SERVICES

provided by nonprofits across the state include

47 Community Library Associations 40 Fire & EMS 78 Utilities

67%

2016

2017

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2018

2019

2020

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AT A G LANC E What book is currently on your nightstand?

American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon by Steven Rinella.

What charity or cause are you passionate about?

Alaska Public Media, Food Bank of Alaska.

What do you do in your free time?

Backcountry snowboard.

Whitewater pack rafting.

What’s your favorite local restaurant?

Rustic Goat. Don’t tell anyone, though.

© Kerry Tasker

If you could domesticate a wild animal, what animal would it be?

We’re adopting a retired husky from the National Park Service kennels… I think he’s a little bit wild…

That’s kind of like a wild wolf.

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O

F F

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F F

Sarah K. Glaser B

etween helping her fiancé track wolves around Healy for three months last winter while

working on his PhD in spatial ecology and their trip this summer, spending a week or two at Ruth Gorge in the Alaska Range, Sarah Glaser experienced a burst of creativity. In addition to designing the cover for this issue of Alaska Business, she spent six weeks in Nashville building a soccer stadium.

Art is her life, and welding is her trade. After growing up in Moose Pass, Glaser learned to weld at the state technical school down the road in Seward. For the last six or seven years, she’s mixed construction with illustration.

Her website sarahkglaser.be offers her fullcolor drawings of wildlife, backcountry sports, and aerial landscapes as prints, stickers, and apparel. She says she takes enjoyment from surprising her audience with details hidden in an image. Among her next projects is a harvest handbook for St. Paul Island.

One other note: her name is pronounced “glasser,” no matter how it’s spelled. “I’ll answer to ‘glacier,’” she says. “I’ve always wished it was Glacier rather than Glaser.”

Alaska Business: What’s the first thing you do when you get home after a long day at work?

Sarah Glaser: When I’m doing art and I’ve been inside all day, I get outside after work and ski and bike and hike and run.

AB: What’s your greatest extravagance?

Glaser: I’m 32 and I’m still collecting toys. I have surfboards and pack rafts. I just got a whitewater hard shell kayak… Big kid toys for playing outside. w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m

AB: What’s the most daring thing you’ve ever done?

Glaser: We do a lot of big Alaska trips. We were super fortunate, my partner and I, to go from Arctic Village to Kaktovik a couple of years ago… Last summer (or the summer before), I had a knee injury and we paddled from Whittier to Cordova. That was really cool.

AB: Is there anything you’re superstitious about?

Glaser: Maybe some kind of karmic “what goes around comes around.” Went caving when we were in Tennessee… and I was very superstitious that if I took a rock or a stalagmite from the cave that some kind of karmic retribution would happen.

AB: Dead or alive, who would you like to see perform live in concert?

Glaser: Any live music right now is really amazing. I don’t have a very good concert bucket list, but I just went to a square dancing night with a live bluegrass band, and that was super fun. Learned to square dance.

AB: What’s your best attribute and worst attribute?

Glaser: My best and worst attribute is that I care a lot about everything I do, which means that I pour a lot of time and energy and effort into it, and that also means that it’s hard not to pour a lot of time and energy and effort into it.

AB: Is there a skill you’re currently developing or have always wanted to learn?

Glaser: Taking an illustration course on children’s book illustration… I’ve done some instructional illustration books and it’d be fun to hone those skills… There’s a lot to learn.

AB: Other than your current career, if you were a kid today, what would your dream job be?

Glaser: I’m very intrigued by metal working art. Took some jewelry making and blacksmithing courses last fall when we were in Seattle… those were very fun. Metal and fire are very fun.

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ADV

ERTI SERS I NDEX

49th State Brewing Company ................ 67 49statebrewing.com

Construction Machinery Industrial ........... 2 cmiak.com

New Horizons Telecom, Inc. ................... 97 nhtiusa.com

Afognak Leasing, LLC .............................. 13 afognakleasing.com

Cook Inlet Tug & Barge Inc ..................... 15 cookinlet tug.com

Northern Air Cargo ........................108, 109 nac.aero

Airport Equipment Rentals .................... 115 airpor tequipmentrentals.com

CopperPoint Insurance .......................... 25 alaskanational.com

Alaska Pacific University .......................... 15 alaskapacific.edu

Credit Union 1 .......................................... 55 cu1.org

Alaska Travel Industry Association .......... 75 alaskatia.org

Davis Constructors & Engineers Inc ..... 105 davisconstructors.com

Alaska USA Federal Credit Union ............ 35 alaskausa.org

Donlin Gold ............................................. 87 donlingold.com

Altman, Rogers & Co. .............................. 43 altrogco.com

Equipment Source, Inc ............................ 73 esialaska.com

American Heart Association.................... 16 hear t.org

First National Bank Alaska ......................... 5 fnbalaska.com

Ampersand / AlasConnect Inc ................ 45 ampersandtech.com

Fred Meyer Jewelers................................ 57 fredmeyer.com

Anchorage Sand & Gravel ....................... 21 anchsand.com

GCI ........................................................... 99 gci.com

PIP Marketing Signs Print......................... 53 pipalaska.com

Arctic Information Technology ............. 103 arcticit.com

HC Contractors ....................................... 85 hccontractors.net

Providence Health & Services Alaska ...... 69 providence.org

ASTAC - Arctic Slope Telephone Assoc .. 23 astac.net

Hecla Greens Creek Mining Company ... 27 hecla-mining.com

Quintillion .............................................. 101 quintillionglobal.com

AT&T ............................................................7 at t.com

JEFFCO Inc. ............................................. 20 jeffcogrounds.com

Birch Horton Bittner & Cherot ................ 47 bhbc-law.com

Kendall Auto Group Alaska ...................... 67 kendallautoalaska.com

Central Environmental Inc ...................... 88 cei-alaska.com

Landye Bennett Blumstein LLP ............... 49 llblawyers.com

Chugach Alaska Corporation ............ 12, 71 chugach.com

Leonardo DRS .......................................... 95 leonardodrs.com/alaska

CIRI ........................................................... 29 ciri.com

Lynden.................................................... 116 lynden.com

Coffman Engineers.................................. 27 coffman.com

Material Flow & Conveyor Systems, Inc. . 81 materialflow.com

Color Art Printing, Inc.............................. 41 colorar tprinting.com

Medical Park Family Care, Inc ................. 17 mpfcak.com

ConocoPhillips ........................................ 91 alaska.conocophillips.com

MICROCOM ............................................. 89 microcom.tv

UAF eCampus ...........................................11 ecampus.uaf.edu

Conrad-Houston Insurance Agency....... 20 chialaska.com

MTA - Matanuska Telecom Association ... 63 mtasolutions.com

Watterson Construction .......................... 61 wat tersonconstruction.com

Northrim Bank ........................................... 3 nor thrim.com Oxford Assaying & Refining Inc............... 83 oxfordmetals.com Pacific Pile & Marine .............................. 107 pacificpile.com Parker, Smith & Feek ................................ 79 psfinc.com People AK ................................................... 9 peopleak.com Peppercini's Deli & Catering.................... 51 alaskadeli.com

Samson Tug & Barge ............................... 23 samsontug.com Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt ................. 59 schwabe.comlocations-anchorage-alaska Set Free Alaska ......................................... 29 setfreealaska.org T. Rowe Price ........................................... 31 alaska529plan.com Think Office ............................................. 37 thinkofficellc.com Toast of the Town .................................... 19 toastofthetownak.com

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Thank You Alaska!

Thank you to our friends, neighbors, and valued customers for your ongoing support and partnership, and special thanks to each of our dedicated employees for their continued care, expertise, and ingenuity as we all work together to keep Alaska moving. We look forward to continuing to serve our communities by providing multi-modal transportation and logistics solutions across the entire state!