Alaska EconomyomyNOtToo,NatTooNot Too leiBosl-BoslBosl'-About.Same

Bad.-'About.SameAbout.SameAboutSame'AboutAbout'

,. Sameme as LastLastYear,Year andnd Last YeaBtggestYeaIaeYeaiBiggestYeaI\YeaIYeaIJJ\*% ae '

By LAEL MORGANMORGAN-One

, .

One of the favorite topics ofof-the

of-thethe day isis.. how bad Alaska'sAlaskasAlaska's-economy

Alaska's-economy

'economypipeline', is without , the :

>, pipepipe-¬-line , because of the Land ClaimsClaims-battle

Claims-battlebattle and the Long Shore strike'strike'

.'VetVet' Yet''

,despite

,the tie-dpstiedpstie-UpsUps- , aa-national'national recessionrecession and gloomygoomygloomy-predictions

(

predictions'predictionsgoomy'predictionsby 'Alaska'sAlaskas' ' gover-govergover-nor

$overover-over-nor

-. ,

nor , economists and private busbus-bus-iness'Sector

bu-siness

-¬- .,

inessiness-'Sectoriness'SectorSectorinesssectoriness-'sectorsector ;: Alaska'sAlaskas' economyeconomy '

is doing surprisinglyrprisinglysrprisinglyssurprisinglywellrprisinglywellwell .;".' In Fairbanks ,. plans Jbrfor builbuil-builbuil-

ding¬-':

ding two refineries havehveh ve beenbeen-suspended

been-suspendedsuspended butbu t real ,. estateestate'salesestatesalesestate'sales-are

'salessales'

sales-areare booming .

,""It'sIts.It's.Its". ' '" just ., about the same as'

last .yearyear.yy.yearyear. .yatandatand",, and last 'yearyear'year was the

,- -or

biggestb ggest ever ," 'aa' spokesmansPokesman forfor-Meyer's

for-Meyer'sMeyer'sMeyers' Real Estate said . " <

Vernon Forbes , president ofof-Mi

of-MtMtMi.. McKinleyMcKinJey Savings and Loan '

,,.says 19719711

,is their biggest yearyear-

for,.for '-

singles-

ingle'single [familyamly! housing

,

starts,

and he'shes' sosaosaoencouragedencouragedeneouraged he'shes' buil-builbuil-ding

buil-ding

-.,

ding a $700,000700000$ , additionddition on hishis-own

his-ownown establishment . '°

"OhOh'Oh"'.' h , there'stheres' a slowdown'slowdown' . AA-

year

'

yearyear and a half ago things werewere-I

were-moving

I'

moving around,

the clockclock-clockclockhe,'"'-. hehe-admits

he-admitsadmits . "ThenThen" , Bingo , a lot ofof-people

of-peoplepeople got hurt . But it'sitsU's-U'sUsU'sthe' "-

the'

speculators 'thatthat' that have beenbeen-I

been-slowedslowed$ I wed down and I think rightlyrightly-so

rightl-y"There'sso ; , ,11,-

1"There's,)

"There'sTheres"'"There'sTheres" ' "' millions of'' dollarsdolla-rst7, ' -t-7t7- .

.:

'worth of equipment at ,theth endend-of

;ofr '° the road'rOtldrOtld'road' . ,

TheThThe.peopleThepeople?* ,.peoplepe9PI! >,whowwho-own

oo-'own'ownown' own it" mayJ , be" hurt- . .,. WIBut ItI . 4IIOJmaybe4IIOJbemaybethey coukfcome/outcoukfcomeoutcouletcouldcouletcom' comcome/, outoutof'of it inin'a-

n

in-anW'-an

a-

n'an ' even better positionpositiorl'forpositiorlfor'forfor' for thethe'-

waitT

the-'waitwaitr'waitTwaitT'waitT1They're'waitwait'

, They'reTheyre1They're1Theyre'' readyreadyo' \ootoko\ movemove-when

move-whenwhen things get moving againgain .."' '

Safeway is .buildingbuildingbuiJding., a $750750$ ,000000'market000marketmarket'market' on thethe'outskirtstheoutskirts'-outskirts

o-

utskirts'outskirts ofof-Fairbanks

,-000

0-00of'Fairbanks,'

'FairbanksFairbanksFairbanks'

and putting SZ75.000SZ75000$275,000275000SZ75.000-jnlo

$$275,000-into

?75,00075000,.intojnlo expansion'expansion of its downtowndowntown-store

, \oJ, ,

store . McDonald'sMcDonalds' HamburgersHamburgers-plans

Hamburgers-plansplans to build.. Walter . HickelHickel-more. more than doubled the capacitycaracity ,

of his Fairbanks TravelerTravelersssInnInn/,'

this summer ' and the managermanager-reports

-

reports businessb siness, "muchmuch" !', betterbetter-

Continuedbetter-

Continuedbetter-

Continued(Continued on 'pagepage'page 6)66)66)-

4N

))

.4N" i.

EconomyEeonomyEconomyEconomyNoty Not BadBadatat All.

yContinued

_( ContinuedCo"tlnuedCotlnued" from pageage 11-11-than expected ."

"OneOne"" thing that hurt , thethe-people

the-peoplepeople here did gear up forfor-EXpansion

for-ExpansionExpansion ,:"' explains Wally Baer ,

Fairbanksliairbanks Chamber of ComCom-Com-merce

Com-merce

¬-

merce manager . "ButBut" the greatgreat-majority

great-majoritymajority are goinggomg to make it alla-llr

all-rightrighthLr , And the lull has given usus-a

us-aa chance to do some planning .

ARA. tremendous opportunity toto-avoid

to-avoidavoid the complete boom andand-bustbustust cycle ."

BaerBeer maintains his area hashas-tmnendous

has-tremendoustremendoustmnendous reserves of hardhard-mclt

hard-mckrockmcltmck minerals , copper and timtim-tim-6er

tim-ber

¬-ber6er . These , he thinks , can bebe-developed

be-developeddeveloped alongalongwithwith oil when aa-roadroatfroada' to the North Slope opensopens-lip

opens-upuplip the countrycoun try .

HeIfe also believes settlement ofof-the

of-thethe Native Land Claims is imporimpor-impor-tant

impor-tant

¬-

tant.tant"It's"It'sIts" ' one of the biggest things

.. we have on the horizon and II-dOn't

I-don'tdon'tdont' think many people rearea-rea-lize

rea-lize

¬-

lize itit.. There'sTheres' a great deal ofof-money

of-moneymoney funneled into Fairbanks .

We have an opportunity to devedeve-deve-lop

deve-lop

¬-

lop services here to fit the needsneed-sof

need-sofoftheBushof the. Bush ..""

State unemployment figuresfigure-srang

figures-rangerangerangrange fromfiom13.8fiom138from 13.8138133.81338. to 252S per cent .

OnlyOnlyskeleton.skeletonskeleton., crews now workwork-on

work-onon the slope but road andan builbuil-buil-ding

buil-ding

¬-

ding construction have taken upup-same

up-somesomesame of the slack. ,.

The University of Alaska hashas-six

has-sixsix major building projectsprojtcts inin-Fairbanks

in-FairbanksFairbanks totalling $20.420.4204S20.4S204$ . million .

A road is being completed toto-link

to-linklink Fairbanks and AnchorageAnchorage-via'McKinley

Anchorage-viavfa-McKinleyvfaMcKinleyvia'McKinleyviaMcKinleyvia'- McKinley Park and there areare-many

are-manymany other highway and bushbush-building

bush-buildingbuilding projects continuing desdes-dedes-pite

¬-pite the Long Shore Strike .

James O'RourkeORourke' , head of the-thethe-Fairbanks

-__

FairbanksrbanksFa state employmentemployment-office

employment-officeoffice , expects: a rough winterwinter-but

winter-butbut notes there "'' werewereI'lesslessI' less trantranstrans-sients

¬"sients and betterbetter'placement'ofbetterplacementof'

placement '-ofo-f' of '

local workers this summersummer thanthan-lastlast . ' ""

Itt., Surfcote ,. , kssignedssignediassigned the job,ofof-

protectingff-

protectingprotecting stored pipeline fromfrom-weathering

from-weatheringweathering ,, is ;: employemployinging

1,656S to

8(18180(.. 'menmen'

men , seven 'daysdays.days'

. a week ,.10 hours a fday'dayday('day in FairbanksFairbanks-and

Fairbanks-andand another 'crewcrew'Crewrew t,tononon the Slope . ,

InInI I, Valdez ,,;: ., planned ' pipelinepipeline-terminus

pipeline-terminusterminus ,. SurfcoteSurtcoteSur >f'cotefcote' employs 165J165-people

6565-peoplepeople , working two 10 hourhour-shifts

hour-shiftsshifts daily :. TJieThe operation willwill'continu-

e

will-continue'-continue

c-

ontinue'continue at least until December .Six more loads.o-

floadso-

floadsloadsof!;'. f pipe are expecexpec-expec-

tedexpec-

ted¬-

ted from JapanJapn 'beforebeforeberore',° the ' jobjob-is

!:

is completed ,".,,

. Valdez hashasIhasbeenI' been reportedreported'" hard hit because of the pipelinepipeline-

bolduppipeline-

holdupholdupboldup but Ed Walker-WalkerWalkert-WalkertWalkermayorWalkertl3yor,--. mayorl3yormayorl3yor-pro

mayor-propro terntemtem"ditemdi," disagreesdiagrees$ gre : ;: , "

"I'dId""I'dId"Id''-

wager we'rewere' the mostmost-employed

most-employedemployed town in the UJSU.sUs.. . WeWe-

haveWe-

havehave very few ,single incomeincome-

familiesincome-

familiesfamilies.. Some have as many asas-fIVe

as-fivefive! "

recentlyhiredHerbert Lehfeldt ,. recentlyhired as city manager after hishis-predecessor

his-predecessorpredecessor project'' a $1.391.39139S$ 1.39139. milmil-mil-lion

mil-lion

¬-

, lion budget ,. is going conservaconserva-conserva-tive

conserva-tive

¬-

tive ."TheThe" Council made a $500500SSOO$ ,

000 cutback.. We'veWeve' adopted aa-realistic

a-realisticrealistic

,budget.. The revenuesrevenues-

arerevenues-

areare comingcoming in in beautifulbeautifulshapeshape ,Valdez'Valdez' wiffrvivef\JrvivefJrvivewilfurvivewlwilf\%urvive,. pipeline oror-not

or-notnot !"

Richard Selway , headheadofof AlaAla-Ala-ska's

Ala-ska's

¬-

ska'sskas' foodstamp program ,. notesnotes-use

notes-useuse of his welfare program is upup-onIy

up-onlyonlyonIy slightly from last year andand-is

and-isis tapering off ..

In March 1,36513651,36S136S,, families inin-Fairbanks

in-FairbanksFairbanks were on stamps.. Only1,0651065, registered in July . ThereThere-were

There-werewere 1,2901290, households regiregi-regi-stered

regi-stered

¬-stered in Bethel and 181 in FortFort-Yukon

Fort-YukonYukon in March and 1,06510651,06S106S, and168 respectively for those areasareas-in

'

in July .

Firefighting jobs were availavail-avail-able

¬.-able ,

in some areas which maymay-explain

may-explainexplain the drop .

bankruptcmfiledbankruptciesfiledThe number of bankruptciasbankruptcmbankruptciesfiled in Fairbanks dropped from31 in 1967 to 28 in 1970 andand-currently

and-currentlycurrently standsstandsatat 19 for 19711197J1971 ..

The fishing industry is havinghaving-aa generally good year . StateState-revenues

State-revenuesrevenues are coming in ahead ofof-projections

of-projectionsprojections..

There are some fears thatthat-Nixon's

that-Nixon'sNixon'sNixons' new economic policiespolicies-may

policies-maymay hamper Alaska'sAlaskas' ambitiousambitious-tr

ambitious-tradetradetr de program with Japan andand-raise

and-raiseraise the cost of constructionconstruction-materials

construction-materialsmaterials . There is also talktalk-that

talk-thatthat the pipeline could bebe're-be'reberebe're-routed

, 'rr're ¬.-routed through Canada if recentrecentrecent-oiloil:>iI findsfmds there are large enoughenough-enough-

By.- <,

,By

'-and

a-

nd'-and

a-

nd'and large,, however , therethere-

isthere-

isisstatethanmore optimism in the state,statestate-thanthan there was this springring., OilOil-men

Oil-mensayingNixonmen ,;,' off the ., record , are sayingNixon will intercede for thethe-pipeline

the-pipelinepipeline in the ' name of nationalnatonalnatnational-defense

onalonal-defense, defensedefense if necessary .

.1<+1-

Alternate'Alternate'Alternate .* shippingshippmg routesroutes-have

routes-havehave successfully circumventedcircumvencircumvented-the

tedted-thethe shipping strike , without JooJoo-many

tootoo-manymany shortages or a drastic wisewise-

in,riserise-

inin prices..Native leaders believe theirtheir-

landtheir-

landland .suitsuitOit.,$ could bebesettledsettled thisthis-'session

this-sessionsession'session' of Congress.,.., ,

,'InIn' In addition"addition"' ,. old timerst ers note ,it'sits' a good year for rabbits whichwhich-usually

which-usuallyusually means there will bebe-'plenty

be-plentyplenty'plenty' of game . If nothing else ,.

, at least Alaskans shouldshuJdsh uJd havehave-good

have-goodgood huntingnting.. , *. ' t'