Alaska Business Monthly articles from April 2007

Alaska Business Monthly archives from April 2007

North of 60.(From the Publisher)
April 1, 2007... Alaska is a very good place to do business and our North Slope oil patch partners know that all too well. In the latest round of disparaging remarks spewing forth from Rex Tillerson, the two-year-long president of ExxonMobil, he wrongfully...

Alaska Wild partners with Anchorage Indoor Flag Football.(SPORTS)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Alaska Wild has secured a partnership with the Anchorage Indoor Flag Football League (AIFFL), a recreational five-on-five noncontact league played at the Cellular One Sports Center in Anchorage. The Alaska Wild, Alaska's first and only...

New tug arrives in Cook Inlet.(OIL & GAS)
April 1, 2007... Cook Inlet Regional Citizens Advisory Council said Tesoro Alaska will bring a new tractor tug into service to assist oil tankers at the KPL dock in Nikiski. Cook Inlet RCAC has discussed the need for a tug vessel extensively with industry...

Gasline Port Authority and ANGDA sign agreement.(AGREEMENTS)
April 1, 2007... The Alaska Gasline Port Authority (AGPA) and the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority (ANGDA) recently formalized a relationship between the two voter-approved entities via a Memorandum of Understanding. "Alaskans working together is...

Close friends: distant neighbors: Northwest ports key to Alaska's livelihood.(Cover story)
April 1, 2007... Alaska's position on the map serves it well in times of economic fluctuation. For good and bad, the state is often isolated from trends and factors influencing the Lower 48 economy. Similarly, some might say that physical distance from central...

Are Alaska ports safe? Sweeping legislation balances need for protection, while keeping commerce flowing.
April 1, 2007... The Safe Accountability For Every Port Act (SAFE act, 2006)--now a multifaceted sweeping port-security legislation as of October 2006-will impact Alaska ports and customers on many levels. The object of the SAFE Act is to maintain a "secure...

Drones ahead: pilotless planes reduce danger and increase efficiency.
April 1, 2007... Evergreen Helicopters Inc., an Evergreen Aviation International company, is hot on the trail of a budding new industry--operating Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in conditions deemed hazardous for manned aircraft. With increasing interest...

1-800-GOT-JUNK? Blue wigs turn junk into gold; local franchise is a model business for winter climates.
April 1, 2007... Lewis and Marisa Garrett, owners of Anchorage's 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, opened their business in April 2006, after buying the business in 2005 and taking the appropriate training in Vancouver, British Columbia. Already the business has grown in...

Kicking paper to the curb.(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... When is less, more? When it involves Alaska Waste and its curbside recycling program. A pilot program, which has the potential to become citywide, started almost two years ago, has grown to nearly 1,000 homes. The majority of its Anchorage...

Spa aaaaaaaaah: Alaska spas cater to executives.
April 1, 2007... After a pressure-cooker week of meetings and deadlines, a glass of wine, three Advil and a hot bath--followed by my boyfriend karate chopping the length of my back with a soothing, "Am I hurting you?"--I realized that these were the only...

The Corporate 100: Alaska's Economic Powerhouses.(ALASKA BUSINESS MONTHLY'S 2007 CORPORATE 100)
April 1, 2007... With economists fearing an economic slowdown nationwide, and the stock market rising and falling like a roller coaster in recent months, Alaskans are lucky to have strong stable companies investing in their state. These economic...

Carrs/Safeway: life after a merger; initially, times were tough, but now growth is encouraging.(ALASKA BUSINESS MONTHLY'S 2007 CORPORATE 100)
April 1, 2007... It's been nearly eight years since the Carrs Gottstein grocery chain in Alaska was bought out by Safeway. Executives, like Safeway's CEO Steven Burd, admitted last year that the company had weathered three difficult years. But, he said, by...

Coeur strikes gold in Alaska; forty-ninth state exceeds mining corporation's expectations.(ALASKA BUSINESS MONTHLY'S 2007 CORPORATE 100)
April 1, 2007... From quality of workmanship to community support and more, Coeur Alaska's experience to date with the Kensington Mine project in Southeast Alaska has been golden. According to Coeur Alaska's vice president and general manager, Timothy Arnold,...

The 'essential link': Northland Services has supplied barge transportation service to Alaska for three decades.
April 1, 2007... "Go With Experience" was first coined in 1977 when James J. Haagen partnered with tugboat companies in LaConnor, Wash., and Wrangell and formed Northland Services. Haagen's goal was to provide cost-effective barge transportation service to...

Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corp.: top-of-the-world advantage: from oilfield services, to tourism to 8(a) endeavors, Native village corporation makes ranks from afar.(ALASKA BUSINESS MONTHLY'S 2007 CORPORATE 100)
April 1, 2007... The key to success for one of Alaska's most profitable Native corporations has been adapting to client needs. For Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corp., that means creating new services for new needs and embracing a customer base that counts on the company...

April calendar.(Calendar)
April 1, 2007... ANCHORAGE 6-8 and 10-16 Stomp An explosive, provocative, sophisticated, sexy, utterly unique show that appeals to audiences of all ages. The eight-member troupe uses everything but...

Women's Show: free and informative: women have opportunity to learn and grow through show.(Alaska This Month)
April 1, 2007... Alaska's women have created a lasting mystique as survivors, creators and adventurers through the state's history, such as Iditarod champions and frontier women like the Sisters of Providence who had their own ways of making life in the north...

Rebound! Office rental prices hit new heights as high-rises appear on Anchorage horizon.
April 1, 2007... 2006 RECAP In 2006, the Anchorage office market continued to rebound from the increased vacancies and softer market conditions of 2005. The result was continued musical chairs in the midtown area, and an even tighter downtown market. In...

Prescription for success: new team in airline receives clean bill of health, prepares for take-off.
April 1, 2007... It would be far too easy to say, "there's a new era at Era." But there is a new era at Era. New owners. New management. New fleet. New start. New life. New Era! Era Aviation Inc. is rising out from behind the cloud of bankruptcy and...

Clearer signal for GCI: sale boosts company's holdings.
April 1, 2007... GCI recently bought more than 80 percent of Alaska DigiTel, a cellular company with 33,000 subscribers. Although the deal was announced in late 2005, it took a year to get final FCC approval. The deal closed in January 2007. Now, Alaska...

Golden opportunities: Native village corporations demonstrate increased success and share wealth with shareholders and employees.
April 1, 2007... Alaska's economy is benefiting from a new and diverse financial force that has matured in recent years-the 173 Native village corporations that call the Last Frontier home. Created in the early 1970s along with the 13 Native regional...

Icy Strait Point: a destination of economy: tourist attraction in Southeast declares success.
April 1, 2007... Three years ago, Icy Strait Point was an experiment-in-progress, with well-wishers and competitors holding their breaths to see how the new tourist attraction would fare. Now, the region's first dedicated cruise ship port seems to have proven...

Ensuring a healthy work force: numerous health insurance options available to employers, individuals in Alaska.
April 1, 2007... As the cost of health care continues to rise, many Alaskans are finding that without health insurance, expenses associated with doctor visits, prescription medications, emergency care and hospitalization can become overwhelming. Employers, too,...

Health care in Alaska: poised for progress: efforts are being made to prevent illness and decrease health insurance costs.(Special Series: Part One of Two-Part Series)
April 1, 2007... Alaska has many excellent health care facilities and practitioners, with more spent on health care per capita than any other state. However, Alaska, like the rest of the United States, gets less bang for the buck than other industrialized...

Erasing the past: career-minded people weigh body art against job advancement.
April 1, 2007... With the tattoo business rising steadily through the '90s and into the new century, a measure of tattoo regret has grown with it. Thus, with the advancing technology in laser tattoo removal, the business of removing tattoos is growing as well....

ML&P: 75 years of powering Anchorage; power company's stability contributes to development of Anchorage.
April 1, 2007... This year, Municipal Light and Power (ML&P) celebrates its 75th year of providing electric service to Anchorage. Though the area it serves is fairly small-approximately 20 square miles-the impact that the utility has had on the growth of the...

Experts say the earth is flat ... 'We are within 9 1/2 hours of 90 percent of the industrialized Northern Hemisphere.'.(GLOBAL ECONOMY)
April 1, 2007... In Alaska, the Atlantic Pink Salmon run March through June, a fact not unnoticed by the salmon industry "The industry," explained Bob Poe, former president and CEO of Anchorage Economic Development Center, "takes advantage of the spawning...

Closing the gap: Alaska's mining, oil service and health care industries face challenge of meeting employment needs.
April 1, 2007... The challenge of finding enough employees to fill crucial slots in any industry can reach crisis proportions. Presently, Alaska's mining, oil service and health care industries are facing challenges of finding qualified and experienced help...

The grime fighter: Alaska pioneering business is doing its job--one parking lot at a time.
April 1, 2007... While McGruff, the Crime Dog, is busy taking a bite out of crime, Brian Richardson and his company, Surface Cleaning Technologies Inc., is taking a bite out of grime, sludge, dirt and oily surfaces. Surface Cleaning Technologies provides...

Thinking of buying a franchise? There's plenty to do before you write that check. Here are 10 critical steps every potential franchisee should consider.
April 1, 2007... Franchising is one of today's fastest-growing opportunities for getting into business for yourself. There are close to 6,000 different franchises spread across 80 industries from which one can choose. It can be a daunting task searching through...

Five steps to financing a business; from start-up to growth, every business will eventually need a loan officer.
April 1, 2007... Nearly 80 percent of U.S. businesses fail within in the first five years of hanging out their shingles, according to Mark Gregory, director of the Kenai Peninsula Small Business Development Center (SBDC). Not having enough finances is often a...

Alaska: big, bold and bountiful The Last Frontier is a tourism potpourri: Alaska is every outdoorman's dream, but if the idea of roughing it doesn't thrill you, there's still plenty to appreciate.
April 1, 2007... Alaska--the word itself conjures images of vast mountain ranges, breathtaking scenery, big fish, bigger grizzlies and often someone's dream vacation. Thousands of people journey north every summer, leaving with pictures, stories and all those...

Monthly fluctuations in anchorage.(Alaska Trends for April 2007)
April 1, 2007... In a monthly, as well as a yearly perspective, building permit valuations in Anchorage declined drastically during the month of December 2006. The combined residential and commercial permits were valued at just $7.2 million in December 2006,...