Rural Alaska

King Cove marks seafood-flavored centennial with pride

KING COVE -- With song and dance, a banquet and many tributes of recognition, the people of King Cove marked the community's centennial anniversary in late October, as one big family rooted in fisheries that have provided sustenance for generations.

The gathering at the community school attracted several generations of King Cove residents past and present, many with links to the settlers drawn to the sand spit back in 1911, when Pacific American Fisheries built a cannery there.

The Aleuts whose families they married into, of course, have lived in and around the modern day site of King Cove and the Izembek area for some 3,000 years.

"It was awesome," said King Cove Mayor Henry Mack, "People were just ecstatic at how it turned out."

Mack, the nephew of Aleutians East Borough Mayor Stanley Mack, spoke of the contributions of the fisheries economy and close-knit families in making King Cove a good place to work and live, where anyone who really wants to work can find employment, particularly in the fisheries industry.

"Your future is our future," said Barry Collier, president and chief executive officer of Peter Pan Seafoods, who traveled north from Seattle for the event. "Your fishermen are our life blood."

Collier and Dale Schwarzmiller, a vice president of the seafood processing company, along with King Cove plant manager Glen Guffey and others from Peter Pan mingled with some 500 guests, who filled their plates with fresh Bristol Bay red king crab, prime rib, pasta, salads, fresh fruit and desserts before settling down to an evening of entertainment and tributes to community members. The king crab, fresh from the week's deliveries to the processing plant, was donated by Peter Pan and served up by harbormaster Dave Bash.

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The local school choir sang "America the Beautiful," the school band played "America the Beautiful," and young Aleut dancers performed a salmon dance.

Visiting dignitaries included Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; Alaska Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, Sen. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel, and Rep. Bryce Edgmon, D-Dillingham.

Mack and others paid tribute to several dozen long-standing community members, from cannery workers and fish harvesters to health aides and shopkeepers.

"It was well worth all the time, energy and costs that were required by so many to make this event the over-the-top success that it turned out to be," said Gary Hennigh, city manager.

The celebration at King Cove, on the south side of the Alaska Peninsula, some 625 miles south of Anchorage, emphasized the importance of the seafood industry to the economic and social cohesion of Alaska's coastal communities.

King Cove started as a cannery in 1911 and now boasts a population of 940, making it Alaska's 30th largest city. In 1949, the community was incorporated as a city while Alaska was still a territory. In 1974, King Cove became a first-class city and adopted a mayor/council/administrator form of government.

Today, the city has a 2 percent local fish tax, a 4 percent general sales tax and a fisheries business impact tax, which annually accrues to over $2 million. State fish taxes provide an additional $600,000 to $700,000 in annual revenues to the city, which has no local property tax.

Within the last decade, the city has used millions of dollars in federal, state, borough and other funds to construct a health clinic, harbor and municipal water system. The Waterfall Creek hydroelectric facility, a companion facility to the existing Delta Creek hydro project completed in 1995, is slated for completion next year.

Once both hydroelectric facilities are online, the city estimates that up to 80 to 85 percent of its annual power production will come from hydro.

Contact Margaret Bauman at mbauman@thecordovatimes. Reprinted with permission from The Cordova Times.

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