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10 years ago this week
Editor's note: "This Week in Alaska Business History" revisits events that shaped our past.
Feb. 15, 1993
Fairbanks builds up its industrial base
By Rose Ragsdale
FAIRBANKS -- Don't look now, but Alaska's second-largest city is quietly building an industrial base that could sustain it well into the 21st century.
Besides maintaining its key role as a supply center for North Slope oil companies and businesses operating in the northern Interior, the city overlooking the Chena River is experiencing a resurgence in its once-dynamic mining sector and venturing forth into new areas of manufacturing and distribution made promising by the city's geography and climate.
Fairbanks Gold Mining, a subsidiary of Amax Gold since last year, filed its environmental assessment and permit applications in December. Officials of the mine, which is 15 miles northeast of Fairbanks, plan to begin construction in the summer of 1994 and start operations in 1995.
The low-grade, high-volume gold operation should create 250 permanent full-time jobs and 500 indirect support jobs in Fairbanks. It also will bring at least $60 million through the Fairbanks community annually for 15 years, Fairbanks officials estimate.
Ronal Ricketts, executive director of the Fairbanks Industrial Development Corporation, said the mine is a double blessing because a regulatory review has shown that the project is environmentlaly benign, and the mine's near proximity will enable workers to live in Fairbanks.
Alaska Journal of Commerce
Feb. 15, 1993
Fiberglass firm meets many needs
By Nancy Nyback
An Anchorage fiberglass company which believes in diversification can certainly prove it. The project list for Plaschem Supply includes everything from buildings to tanks of all sizes to espresso carts.
"You have to diversify with the Alaska economy," said Donna Apling of Plaschem.
The company employs 10 people at the 12,000-square-foot facility. May and June are the busiest months of the year, she said. Last year's revenues totaled $1.5 million, Floyd Apling said.
The Aplings began the business 13 years ago. Son Randy is the plant manager. The family came to Alaska in 1970 from Redding Calif., where Floyd managed a fiberglass manufacturing company.
Last February Plaschem received a five-year contract to produce small fiberglass buildings for the Federal Aviation Administration.
In the past, such structures have been built in Missouri and shipped to Alaska.
Plaschem has manufactured three units for the FAA already for a total cost of $77,000.
-- Compiled by Ed Bennett
