Empire Archives is a series printed every Saturday featuring a short compilation of headline stories in the Juneau Empire from archived editions in 1984, 1994 and 2004.
This week in 1984, if you’ve been wondering when your personal stake in Alaska’s oil wealth was going to be decided for this year, your wait is over — Gov. Bill Sheffield announced today Permanent Fund dividend checks will be for $331.29. “I expect the first checks will be mailed out in about two weeks and a majority of dividends should be issued before the end of the year,” Sheffield said. Based on applications filed with the Department of Revenue, 483,266 residents will receive dividend checks. The number of applications plus the interest generated by the Permanent Fund’s principal determines the amount of the dividend. With more eligible residents this year, the amount dropped from 1983’s dividend of $386.15. The Permanent Fund is now worth $5.7 billion after the $100 million deposit to the fund announced by the governor on Thursday.
Today more than 600,000 eligible Alaskans will receive a PFD of $1,702, with most people getting the money by electronic transfer on Oct. 3. The $331.29 dividend would be the equivalent of $1,003.74 today when adjusted for inflation (that dividend was third paid, after the annual PFDs started in 1982 with an initial check for $1,000). The Permanent Fund is worth nearly $82 billion as of Wednesday of this week.
Original Story: “$331 checks to be mailed in two weeks,” by Kirk McAllister. 9/28/1984.
This week in 1994, archaeologists and state museum officials were surprised to discover that a basket unearthed from an estuary on Prince of Wales Island is probably the oldest basket sample ever found on the Pacific Northwest coast. Unearthed in July from the banks of the Thorne River, dating tests recently completed peg the basket’s age at about 5,400 years — meaning it was made in about 3400 B.C. Though it’s not the oldest artifact ever found in Southeast Alaska — shell piles and stone implements about 2,000 years older have been found elsewhere on Prince of Wales Island and near Glacier Bay — researchers believe no older basketry has ever been found in the Pacific Northwest. The basket was found almost by accident. U.S. Forest Service archaeologist David Putnam was checking on an area he believed was being used at one time as a fish weir. The significance of the find has left experts scrambling to explain its importance.
Original Story: “Spruce basket dates back to 3400 B.C.,” by Jeanine Pohl. 9/26/1994.
This week in 2004, Carla and Ionel Casulucan celebrated the birth of their third child, a daughter named Jordan, three weeks ago. A few days later, they found out that Ionel’s unit of the Alaska Army National Guard — A Company, Third Battalion, 297th Infantry — had been placed on active duty. He and approximately 130 others from Alaska, including roughly 70 from Southeast Alaska, leave for Fort Richardson in Anchorage later this week. They are expected to be deployed overseas, possibly to Iraq, sometime early in 2005. The activation is expected to last as long as 18 months. “It’s difficult in that we just had the baby,” said Carla. She and Ionel also have a daughter, 9-year-old Jessica, and a son, 3-year-old Joseph. “That, mixed with postpartum blues, didn’t really make for a good mix.” Carla won some reassurance Saturday and Sunday during a “family mobilization training” briefing for affected families at the Valley Travelodge. The National Guard held the two-day event to pass on information about finances, health insurance, pay stubs, legal options, employee resources and general questions. “It’s to give the soldiers and their family an idea of what to expect when they leave,” said Laura Gilbert, the family assistance center coordinator in Juneau for the Alaska Air National Guard. “Once upon a time, we didn’t get this training, and families were left on their own to flounder and figure things out. That’s why we’ve come up with this training, to let us all know what we need to accomplish.”
Original Story: “Southeast families prepare for callup,” by Korry Keeker. 9/27/2004.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
