Weller comes to Pelican with a track record in construction across the state. He’s hoping to put that know-how to work for the community. (Cheyenne Bean photo)
Although much of the country remains preoccupied with national politics and the transition to a new presidential administration, there is wisdom in the phrase “all politics is local.”
In Pelican, Alaska, for instance, the 91 year-round residents have more to worry about than who’s in the White House — they’re figuring out how to stay viable.
Carole Knuth is a healthcare professional who routinely visits Pelican. She’s also a volunteer in the KCAW news department. Knuth recently sat down with Pelican’s new mayor, Walt Weller, to discuss the economic prospects of northwest Chichagof Island.
Weller – Well, the urgent concerns in Pelican are promoting the town. And promoting the town — since we are still dealing with the large fish plant closure in 2008. We need a lot of cleanup. We need a lot of presentation work done. We need to make people aware of what we’ve got going on here. And there are a lot of repairs that need to be made, and one of the reasons I volunteered for the mayor’s position was to be able to help out with that work directly.
KCAW – Plus there’s a council.
Weller – The city council, they’re on top of it. We’ve had some changes there too. But we all work together. It’s very definitely a team.
KCAW – So with those needs, and limited government funding sources, what plans do you have for being able to meet those goals?
Weller – Well, seeing as to how I’ve only been here a month, those plans are in flux. But luckily for us previous administrations have left the town in pretty good financial shape. And I think by keeping a close eye on the budget and prioritizing between myself and the city council exactly what things we want to work on — we have a lot to do, and it was really time to just get started on it.
KCAW – And you have great water. You have hydroelectric, right? And new business in town using part of the fish plant, as I understand?
The Lisianski Inlet town is 70 miles northwest of Sitka — as the pelican flies!
Weller – Yes, part of the fish plant, and part of the old crab plant are in use now with the Hoonah Cold Storage selling ice. We have a lot of the fleet coming and going now. People dropping off fish and picking up ice so they can go back out, because we’re closer to the outside waters. And we have a custom processor in town — Yakobi Fisheries — which is taking fish from fishing boats and sport fishers and processing, and packing, and shipping. We want to let people know that we’re open for business out here, and we’re going to be looking for people that might want to relocate and start things — as difficult as that can be in a bush community — but we have a lot of building space that we are looking to do things with, we have green energy with our hydro. We’re on hydropower probably 95-percent of the time. And we’d love to see people come out with some new ideas for small businesses. And we’re really looking to increase the number of year-round residents we have — that’s not the easiest thing in the world to do, but that’s no reason not to try.
KCAW – One thing I’ve noticed is that Pelican seems to be a snowbird community. People live here in the summer, and go elsewhere in the winter.
Weller – We have a variety of economies here, and really the year-round residents are not the largest one. Sportfishing is very large for its four months, the fishing fleets coming through, on-and-off, for over six months a year. Our ice-making is really only open for about four months. And we do have a fair amount of residents who are just here in the summer, because we’re closest to the fish. So there’s a lot of coming and going for a small amount of people.
KCAW – And not to mention the beauty of Pelican makes it a great place to live.
Weller – You can’t beat it anywhere, as far as I’m concerned. This is fjord country, and it’s just an incredible place. There’s people who come here from all over the world just to take pictures and say they were here. And that’s a big draw, too.
