February 12, 2005
Saturday

In response to Mr Jones. I would like to first state that I have no disdain for the tourism industry in Ketchikan. I 100% support it. It is part of what is giving us an aquarium which is about the only year round benefit coming to residents from tourism.

What I do believe is that the current assembly members will more readily advance an idea (except in the case of Loggerville which I wholeheartedly support) for the tourism industry than they will for any other industry.

As far as the land goes you are absolutely right, fiascos are all that the land has produced since the mill days so why not let the land be used for something that will not be a fiasco.

For information pertaining to the project you can contact any of the KCSA members and I am certain they will happily share information with you. A Cold Storage and tourism could exist out there, there is plenty of room for both but fishing is a tradition long served in Alaska and Ketchikan and should be supported more or at least equally than the tourism industry.

There are a large percentage of Alaskan fishermen who would be participating in filling up the cold storage. And with it built there would likely be an increase in interest for bringing fish from more places in southeast so that they could enjoy cheaper shipping of their finished products to their markets down south (this because it's a shorter distance than anywhere else in Alaska to ship fish from).

As far as private money interests, I do not believe there has been an effort to raise any money in this fashion for the project. These type of projects go a long a path and it has not reached that segment yet. I do know that between two companies alone that they could keep it full of fish and supply year round employment to many new jobs. Why is that a bad thing? A full Cold Storage is a profitable one. A very large amount of the money made from tourists does not stay in the state to boost our local economy, while employees of a cold storage built at Ward Cove would likely have employees that live in the borough, pay borough property taxes and shop in the borough year round.

Put the new tourism on Gravina, after all we are putting a bridge over there so the busses can make it.

Robert Fruehan
Ketchikan, AK - USA

Related Viewpoint:

Cold Storage Questions by Jay Jones - Ketchikan, AK - USA

 

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