A Piece of Kake:

Southeast Conference held its 60th annual meeting last month in Ketchikan. The conference is a gathering of municipalities, businesses, nonprofits, and other interests across Southeast Alaska for the purpose of economic development in the area. During their annual conference, the organization named the city of Kake as the community of the year. Kake City Administrator Rudy Bean said that the recognition comes as a result of community-wide efforts to improve the city from several organizations.

"It feels great. All of the hard work and extra hours paid off, it was a group effort," Bean said. "Everyone put in hard work, and it's nice to be noticed."

There were several community improvement projects that took place to give Kake this honor. Some of these projects include turning their historic cannery into a tourist site, the construction of a new ferry terminal, boat harbor and launch, and the planned construction of a hydroelectric plant to provide power to the city. Other projects in Kake include a new diesel power plant and tank farm, a planned picnic area at Seal Point, and various road and sewer renovations.

"It's simply amazing the number of projects that went under the radar in Kake," said Robert Venables, the Southeast Conference executive director.

"Kake is a first class city. We work hard to make sure we can provide first class accommodations," Bean said.

Kake's vice mayor, Paulette Jackson, attended the conference to receive the award. Henrich Kadake, member of the Kake City Council and the Southeast Conference Board of Directors, was also recognized. The Organized Village of Kake, the community's tribal organization, also received a plaque. Venables said that Kake was chosen as community of the year for the sheer number of projects going on to improve the town, as well as for the incredible amount of cooperation between the community's different organizations.

"When extraordinary efforts lead to extraordinary results, those tend to rise to the top," he said.

Bean said that there are several future projects in the works to make the community even better.

"This is just the start for Kake," he said.