Business Briefs
Alaskan Winter Ale back for 2002 season
Juneau - The Alaskan Brewing Co. will re-release Winter Ale, brewed with Sitka spruce tips, this month.
Inspired by the use of spruce tips in beer by sailors during the 1700s, Alaskan Brewing, a Juneau-based brewery founded in 1986, produced its Winter Ale using fresh spruce tips in the brewing process. The tips lend a subtle, sweet floral aroma balanced by the crispness of noble hops, the company said.
"There is a misconception that spruce tips are piney," said lead brewer Brent Kesey. "Instead they offer a light, fresh aroma and flavor."
Alaskan Winter Ale will be available throughout Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, northern Nevada and northern California for a limited time this fall and winter. The Alaskan Brewing Co. also brews Alaskan Amber, Pale, ESB and Stout year-round.
McDowell Group to celebrate 30th anniversary
JUNEAU - The McDowell Group, a full-service research and consulting firm with offices in Juneau and Anchorage, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this week.
The company, which has 11 full-time employees in Juneau and two in Anchorage, serves clients in the public and private sector. It offers market research, economic analysis, feasibility studies, business planning and community development planning.
Susan Bell, a senior manager with the firm, said the McDowell Group has assisted hundreds of Alaska companies and organizations in a wide array of fields including economics, fisheries, seafood, mining, the visitor industry, forest products, transportation and social services.
The firm has refined a variety of research techniques such as executive interviews, telephone surveys, mail surveys and secondary research, Bell said.
"Using our research-based approach, we provide our clients statistically reliable information, analysis and recommendations," said founder and senior partner Eric McDowell.
Hummingbird Services to move to new location
JUNEAU - Hummingbird Services, a Juneau-based cleaning and restoration company with offices in Juneau and Ketchikan, is moving its headquarters in Juneau.
The company will move from its current Channel Drive location in the World Wide Movers building to 5322 Commercial Blvd., the former offices of C & C Steamway Services and Douglas Electric.
Rod Morgan began Hummingbird Services in 1984. The company closed in 1995 and re-opened in 1997 as a partnership between Morgan and Mike Spalding. The Ketchikan branch of the company opened in 2000.
Morgan said the new location, which he hopes will be open by Nov. 1, will reflect the company's commitment to quality.
"With our new headquarters, we will now be able to more effectively manage our services and our staff," he said. "That should benefit our customers and our suppliers."
Services provided by the company include carpet and upholstery cleaning, janitorial service, flood, fire and smoke damage restoration to the insurance industry and a variety of other services.
Construction wages boosted
FAIRBANKS -- Gov. Tony Knowles on Wednesday took a step toward higher wages for public construction project workers in rural Alaska.
Knowles signed an administrative order directing three state agency programs to start requiring, planning and budgeting for the payment of prevailing wages on their rural construction projects. Knowles said the move will help eliminate a two-tier wage system that has developed on public construction projects in the Bush.
" I want to usher in the day when rural Alaska has a professional, career-oriented resident construction work force, fully qualified for employment on public construction projects throughout the state," said Knowles. "Labor leaders facing anticipated high level of retirements in the construction industry are anxiously searching for the next generation of workers. With appropriate training programs, they'll find many of them in rural Alaska's work force."