Mice blamed for equipment damage

ANCHORAGE - Chewed wires and rodent droppings found by an equipment repairman could only mean one thing: the Anchorage Assembly's copy machine was the victim of mice.

The machine, which had been sluggish for some non-mouse-related reason, is used to print copies of proposed laws, amendments and memos at assembly chambers in the city's Loussac Library.

The machine sits in a small room just outside the chambers. On either side of the room are larger break rooms where city executives and assembly members eat between votes.

A pest-control service comes through the library building every few months, said facility manager Bill Fowler.

Heat-seeking mice in the office is one of the hazards of living in a winter city.

"When it gets cold like this, the shrews will migrate in. And it happens every year, it's nothing new," Fowler said.