The Way We Were

August 15, 1941: Throughout the joint efforts of a group of merchants along Front Street, the dust along the main thoroughfare was laid this week. The businessmen bought some diesel oil, got permission from the city to lay the oil and borrowed the city truck

for the job. Manager J.R. Brown of the Coliseum Theater promoted the idea; then got aboard and drove the truck while Street Superintendent H.R. Coulter and Police Chief Chet Lloyd tended the oil

sprinkler. The business group plans to go before the city council at its next meeting with the thought of getting the town to carry on some sort of a street oiling plan similar to that carried on in Petersburg. There everyone saves up old

lubricating oil. This is then mixed with diesel oil and the combination laid on the street, giving a fairly hard surface and eliminating dust.

August 12, 1966: Actual cost of the fill area seaward of Front Street where the fire of 1952 razed half the city’s

business section totaled $261,401.74, it was revealed at the City Council meeting Tuesday night. The council adopted the figure as a basis on which to value the fill

area and arrived at a figure of $1.04 per square foot, a price warranty deed holders will be offered in reclaiming their filled property. The fill, created through an agreement with the Manson-Osberg construction firm then dredging the upper harbor and pumping the mud material into the area, was originally estimated to cost between $25,000 and

$30,000. By 1956 the

cost figure, according to the city’s records, was

$68,343.03. Later construction of a bulkhead, required under agreement with the

army engineers which granted the fill permit, $90,012.80 was added to the budget. This coupled with $11,587.05 for engineering and legal fees and interest on bonds issued to meet the indebtedness totaling $91,448.86 brought the complete cost of the fill area to $261,401.74.

August 15, 1991: Four people chained or roped themselves to the Alaska Pulp Corp. barge dock in Sitka early Tuesday morning in protest of the chlorine the company uses in the pulp process. The individuals were acting on behalf of Greenpeace USA, who said they had been asked by citizens and the Sitka Conservation Society to help them stop what they see as pollution of the Sitka Sound.

“APC needs to see the ecological limitation of the Tongass National Forest and quit polluting Sitka Sound,” Larry Edwards of Greenpeace said. Two of the protesters were taken away by police after they were extricated by bolt-cutting equipment from bike locks they had put around their necks to attach themselves to the dock. Another group put up a banner reading “APC poisons bay, plunders forest” and took pictures from an inflatable boat.

 

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