2005 Annual Report Executive Summary
Metlakatla Indian Enterprise Community
Metlakatla Indian Community EC (EC) continued to make progress in 2005. Late in the year, efforts were focused on completion of renovations to the kitchen of the Bingo Facility converting the existing kitchen to a commercial venture, thereby creating employment for community members. With the introduction of electronic Bingo machines, the employment has doubled. Metlakatla is studying how to market the games in Ketchikan.
Other efforts in 2005, centered on the continuing task of trying to diversify Metlakatla’s economy, still adversely impacted by closure of the community’s largest employer, the Annette Hemlock Mills, and by the depressed state of the fishing and fish processing industry. The Annette Island Packing Company was successful in obtaining a $2.1M grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration and $500,000 in HUD funds to purchase and install value added lines and associated equipment. The equipment will enable Annette Island Packing to expand its production of herring, salmon, and other species and to reduce the amount of handling of fish.
The manager of the Packing Company is overseeing the installation of new value added equipment. He has also begun a major overhaul of the physical plant of the fish processing facility, which had been neglected for many years, with EC funds used to help eliminate some of the most urgent health and safety hazards, such as rotted dock timbers and unsafe wiring. EC funds enabled the company to install a brine tank that will help speed production with herring and silver filets.
The Metlakatla Bottled Water plant continued operations in 2005 with acquisition of an expanded parts and equipment inventory as the plant approaches full operation and experiments with different sized bottles for particular markets. The plant has been successful in obtaining contracts for custom bottling under different labels, as well as producing its own brand, Purple Mountain Water. Additional EC funds may be requested for further improvements at the plant in 2006.
The Walden Road construction project, a major project involving the U.S. Army, the Federal Highway Administration, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, and Metlakatla Indian Community, continued in 2005. The Army’s portion of the work, development of a 14 mile unimproved pioneer road between Metlakatla and Walden Point, is scheduled to be completed in 2007. Improvement and paving of the route by the Bureau of Indian Affairs will then follow. The new road, when completed, will give Metlakatla residents much better access to Ketchikan, with frequent ferry service provided between Ketchikan and Walden Point. The road also has the potential to bring major changes in land use and public facilities and services to Metlakatla and, as a result, the EC foresees a need to undertake a complete new comprehensive development plan for Annette Island
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