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Ketchikan delays RFP for investor Ketchikan’s city council opted to delay a Request For Proposals for private investment in expansion of one of the city’s cruise ship docks so that the city’s engineering consultant, Bermello Ajamil & Partners, can resolve concerns over which berth to expand. Meanwhile, locally-owned Survey Point Holdings, which is also involved in a private cruise dock project in nearby Ward Cove, gave the city its estimate that a 400 ft. by 50 ft. floating dock could…

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177 million salmon caught so far Alaska’s salmon harvest is winding down with the catch estimated at 177 million fish as of Aug. 24, according to McDowell Group, a consulting firm retained by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. Bristol Bay saw a huge run of sockeye salmon this year, and the statewide harvest of 55 million sockeyes is 10 percent ahead of 2018 as of Aug. 24. Pink salmon harvested so far total 107 million fish, 12 percent down from…

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Corps says Pebble EIS is on track U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials are in the midst of meeting with federal agencies and tribal organizations on comments for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement document on Pebble, they said in a briefing last week. It may take a month or two longer to conclude those – hopes were for late October but it may now be December – but the process appears to be on its officials published schedule for a…

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Furie assets on the auction block Furie Operating Alaska’s assets go on the auction block Oct. 7 with bids due Oct. 4 on the company’s Cook Inlet gas reserves and production facilities, mainly four producing wells, a Cook Inlet production platform and pipelines to shore. Seaport Global Securities, of New Orleans, has been retained as financial adviser to Furie and issued a solicitation to potential buyers on Aug. 12. Furie filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a Delaware bankruptcy…

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Licensing for use of Alaska Grown logo; fee for non-food retail use State Division of Agriculture officials say they will begin a program of licensing and eventually a fee payment program for non-food retailers who use the popular “Alaska Grown” design logo, which is actually owned by the state. The logo is widely used on t-shirts, hats and other merchandise sold retail. Alaska food producers, who also register to use the logo, will not be charged a fee, officials said….

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Deferred maintenance price tag is bigger than thought The combined state and municipal backlog on deferred building maintenance is much bigger than thought. The state backlog, mostly University of Alaska buildings, is currently estimated at about $1.9 billion. When deferred maintenance on schools in the Anchorage School District and Matanuska–Susitna School District is added, the number grows to about $2.76 billion ($660.2 million for Anchorage and $201 million for Mat-Su). The state’s $1.9 billion includes about $1.1 billion for the…

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Ferry strike fallout Southeast leaders say coastal communities in the region weathered the nine-day strike by state ferry worker in late July surprisingly well due to private marine and air operators stepping in quickly to aid ferry passengers. Alaska Fjordlines and Alaska Seaplanes helped people get to Haines’ state fair and barge operators moved stranded vehicles. There was a cost, however: 8,456 cancelled ferry reservations that required $3.25 million in refunds. Also, air and private boat service to Haines from…

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The U.S. Bureau of Land Management released a long-anticipated Draft Environmental Impact Statement for a 211-mile minerals access road from the Dalton Highway in the central Brooks Range to the Ambler Mining District to the west. BLM’s action was accompanied by release of U.S. National Park Service assessments of parts of the road crossing the Gates of the Arctic National Park. Both are key regulatory milestones for the road, which would be critical new infrastructure if built. The road, a…

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More aggressive development; a focus on growing oil production BP’s sale of its Alaska assets to Hilcorp Energy, rumored for weeks (and reported by us) was made official Tuesday, Aug. 26. The sale, for $5.6 billion, includes BP’s shares of the producing Prudhoe Bay oil field; Point Thomson gas and condensate field and ownership in the Trans Alaska Pipeline System. While the loss of a big legacy oil producer stings, there is an upside: Hilcorp is known as an aggressive…

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In this issue we will be discussing Donlin Gold is hiring again and First bids on big port reconstruction project in Anchorage. We’ll also be discussing the employment trends in Alaska for the summer, political gridlock over PFD And much more.