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A
new runway in Old
Harbor should prove to be
a win-win situation for both the village residents and federal government. The
runway will allow larger planes to access the village, and provide crucial
training for the U.S.
military.
Fred
Brooks is the tribal administrator for the Old Harbor Tribal Council and said
the construction qualifies for the Innovative Readiness Training Program
through the Department of Defense.
-- (OH Runway 1 : 32 "And
what they do is they bring in their troops, in this case the Marines and the
Army for training in development of a runway for when the get deployed to
another country or a third party areas that they don't have the supplies there
ready or an airport and they'll be trained and ready because they'll have to do
that here in the rural area. They'll have to bring in their supplies, they'll
have to logistically put things together to accommodate that and bring in the
equipment. So it's a massive training program that we are working with that we
are working with the military, and they'll provide the labor.")
He said
that labor will be free to the village. Cynthia Lopez is the vice president of
corporate affairs for the Old Harbor Native Corporation and said the project is
funded through the legislature.
-- (OH Runway 2 : 25 "The
funding is through the state of Alaska through the city of Old Harbor. And they
received $4.5 million this last session to take care of all the engineering,
design, permitting and to start the project in taking off all the over burden
and take care of all the drilling and blasting so that the IRT will come and do
the bulk of the rock movement.")
Lopez said the project will take
place in two phases, the first phase is taking place this right now, and the
second phase, the one involving the IRT, will take place next summer. She said
the entire project has been a collaboration of many different entities.
-- (OH Runway 3 : 30 "It's
a project that our community is working collaboratively on. Our city tribe and
our village corporation with the state of Alaska and department of transportation, as
well as the federal government with IRT participating. It's something that
wouldn't be possible without the collaboration of all entities participating
and we're ve3ry thankful that we can all come together and work on this project
for all our residents and visitors alike as well as provide a training
opportunity for reservists in the military.")
She said the project is under
budget so far, and should be completed by fall 2013. ###
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