Valdez News
VOL. 1. NO. 22
VALDEZ, ALASKA, FRIDAY, AUGUST 11. 1950
PRICE 10c
Valdez May Get Sewer System In '50
Municipal Court
Serves Warning
To Trailer Towns
Now that Valdez has served
notice to vagrants that this city
is no longer a haven for ne’er-do
wells, a second step toward an
orderly and well-regulated com
munity was made in city court
last week.
A resident of the trailer court
on the outskirts of the city was
dialed into court on a civil charge
pressed by William Zook. Mr.
Zook signed a complaint charging
the man with “making an infernal
racket.” He attempted to reason
with the noise-maker but when
he received an abusive answer he
took his grievance to municipal
court.
The accused was found not
guilty on the charge brought, but
the court took the occasion to
warn that Valdez has ordinances
which govern the trailer courts,
and that they will be fully en
forced hereafter.
“There is an ordinance for abat
ing nuisances, for anything creat
ing a fire hazard and there are
ordinances fully covering sanita
tion,” the court warned. “No one
is being singled out for discrimi
nation, but the city council is of
a mind to have these laws en
forced. They don’t want Valdez
to be plagued with the problems
that other cities in Alaska (not
ably Anchorage) have had, be
cause ordinances were not en
forced soon enough. Valdez is not
going to be messed up the way
Arifchorage was, because that city
didn’t act in time.”
The city council only recently
acted to formulate new ordin
ances governing the mushrooming
trailer settlements in Valdez.
Trailer courts must be licensed
by the city council, and must pass
a sanitation inspection by city
health officer Dr. Kenneth Ham.
ALASKANS' TAMENESS
AGREEABLY SURPRISES
ARIZONA TOURISTS
j?
Typical tourists were Mr. and
Mrs. S. C. McFarland and daugh- i
ters Bonnye and Joyce, who visit
ed Valdez this week. The McFar
lands call Coolidge, Ariz., home.
They found Alaskans were nicer
and better educated, the country
more civilized, and the weather,
warmer than they had expected.
The McFarlands drove north
and visited Fairbanks, Anchorage,
Palmer and Valdez. They re
turned to the states by boat.
Mr. McFarland’s brother, Ern
est, is state senator from Arizona.
Contract Let for Extension
Of Runway at Kodiak Air Station
The District Public Works Of
ficer, 17th Naval District, let a
contract last . week to Patrick
Lynch & Company, Kodiak, Alas
ka, for hauling fill for a runway
extension project at the Naval Air
Station, Kodiak, in the amount
of $56,000. Work will begin im
mediately. It is to be completed
in about 90 days.
PATROLMAN VISITS
.lack Davis of Anchorage, ter
ritorial highway patrolman, was
a recent visitor in Valdez.
Commissioner Continues Crusade
For Law and Order Begun by Council
“Valdez is a decent city. We
want to keep it that way. We
want Valdez to be a place where
men, women and children can
live and not be subjected to an
noyance and even indecency.”
With those words Mrs. Mar
garet Harrais, U. S. Commissioner
here, started three men on an in
voluntary plane ride to Federal
jail at Cordova last week. The
men had been charged with
drunkenness and disorderly con
duct. All three were found guil
ty and all three were sentenced
to 30 days in jail. Two of them
also drew a $100 fine.
The trio was arrested when
Valdez residents complained of
the men’s conduct and their loud
talk, which involved a 17-year-old
girl. The arresting officer’s war
rant charged them with commit
ting nuisances. The offense took
place near a vacant Army shack
at Broadway and McKinley
Streets.
“The laws of Alaska cover .such
things,” Mrs. Harrais continued
her reprimand. “Law - abiding
citizens do not need to put up
with such .conduct. Notice already
has. been served that this town
is not a healthy place for those
who won’t abide by the law.”
One defendant, a resident of
Valdez, promised to leave town
if his sentence was suspended,
but Mrs. Harrais refused, saying
that ‘blue tickets’ are illegal.
Last week’s action followed an
earlier clamp down on drifters in
Valdez, instituted by the city
council. Several vagrants left
Valdez at that time.
The defendants at last week’s
trial were not charged with vag
rancy, for all had been employed
here. However Mrs. Harrais re
fused to recognize their verbal
protestations of a desire to work
in the future, pointing out that
all three already had taken far
too many “bottle vacations.”
HOUSING SHORTAGE
GETTING SERIOUS
“Hiyah, honey. Pick you up
about eight tonight and we’ll
take a little run out to the
morgue for the evening, huh?”
That’s the way a Valdez
young man will be making his
dates this winter. At least
that’s what Miss June Forest
hopes. She’s planning to make
the morgue the most popular
spot in Valdez, she says.
However there’ll be several
changes in interior furnishing
and in type of clientele, be
fore its popularity is assured.
Miss Forest is accomplishing
the interior changes now, with
some remodelling and decorat
ing designed to convert the
Ocean Dock structure into a
very modern night club/ She
looks to high-spirited, fun-lov
ing Valdezans for the change
of-pace clientele she needs to
inhabit the place.
Miss Forest at present is cir
culating the required petition
to secure her license. She needs
th signatures of 51 per cent of
all legal residents of the city,
before she puts the morgue
back on active duty again.
There are some residents who
oppose the plan, preferring to
keep idle morgues idle.
Aluminum Company
Eyes City of Valdez
As Possible Plant Site
Tentative plans for the location
of a plant of the Aluminum Cor
poration of America near Valdez
have been announced by local city
officials. Aluminum company
heads have been corresponding
with city officers concerning the
plan.
The discussed plant would' be
small, employing about 25 per
sons, probably.
Sources of hydro-electric power
near Valdez now are under study
for the Aluminum Corporation,
it was reported. The survey is
expected to be of interest to a
number of other concerns also.
VALDEZ VISITORS
Valdez visitors, who were
guests at the Valdez Hotel last
week, included:
Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Massey of
Fairbanks; Mr. and Mrs. S. F.
Aitken of Hood River, Ore.; Mr.
and Mrs. Verne McCain of An
chorage; Mr. and Mrs. William C.
Graves and Mr. and Mrs. R. E.
Berry of Melvin, Iowa; Mr. and
Mrs. Perry Davis and children of
Cordova; Bob Harrison of Copper
Center; Bill Sears of Cordova.
PARK DIRECTOR
VISITS VALDEZ
George L. Collins, regional di
rector of the National Park Serv
ice, was a recent Valdez visitor.
Mr. Collins was in Alaska to make
a survey for the Park Service. He
termed Alaska’s recreational re
sources “unsurpassed, and in some
ways unmatchable.”
SHOE REPAIR* SHOP
MAY OPEN IN VALDEZ
There is possibility that a shoe
repair shop may be located in
Valdez, according to Melville
Spears. Mr. Spears has been cor
responding with a repairman Out
side, who is interested in estab
lishing such a business here.
The Valdez man is encouraging
his correspondent to consider the
move for he feels the shoe repair
shop would draw business from
the entire highway, as does the
local dry cleaning establishment.
FORMER VALDEZAN
DIES AT SEWARD
E. L. Robbins, formerly a Val
dez merchant, died in Seward on
July 25, it was learned this week.
Mr. Robbins had been a Seward
resident for several years prior to
his death. He had been an Alas
kan for many years, and had op
erated stores in Cordova, Moose
Pass and Valdez.
The deceased is survived by
his wife, Dorothy, who is now an
invalid. He also leaves a brother
and two sisters, who reside in the
states.
Mr. Robbins was noted for his
trapshooting ability. He won
many trophies, among them the
Cody Cup.
ARC Begins Construction
Of Three-Apartment Unit
A housing project was begun
in Valdez this week, when the'
Alaska Road Commission began
reconversion of the PRA barracks
to a trio of family dwellings. The
barracks will be moved to a new
location, and will be converted
into a three-unit apartment house,
in which the families of ARC en
gineers will be lodged.
To give still further housing to
ARC employees, a trailer court is
being constructed also. The Road
Commission will * move trailer
houses to Valdez and establish
them in the court, where utilities
rooms are being constructed.
VISITORS MAKE VALDEZANS
DIG OUT HISTORY BOOKS
Inquiries from interested visi
tors and tourists this summer are
bringing to light the colorful his
tory of early Valdez. The story of
a hanging, first in Alaska, and
the history of one of the first
churches of Valdez, have been in
teresting out - of - town residents
recently.
The query on the church came
from the department of taxation
at Juneau, which wanted to know
if there was truth in the story
about a Valdez church being built
by a Negro prospector.
That story is entirely true. The
Congregational Church of Valdez,
now inactive, was financed by
Melvin Dempsey, a colored pros
pector of the city’s early history.
The former church, located at
Broadway Avenue and Hobart
Street, is used now for a store
room for the El-Nathan Chil
dren’s Home.
Incidentally, when banker John
Gilson, Sr., saw a man intently
' examining the old church struc
ture recently, he stopped to an
swer a query for the supposed
tourist. He found the tourist had
more complete information about
the former church than he, for
the visitor was Roy Rutherford,
v.ho built the church in 1905.
The hanging story tourists
query Valdezans about is equally
true. When Valdez celebrated
New Year’s last year, no one took
the trouble to recall that the
town also should have celebrated
the fiftieth anniversary of the
first hanging in Alaska.
That hanging took place in
Valdez, when John Reed was ex
ecuted for the crime of shooting
his two partners, in the days of
the gold rush. The hangman’s
tree still stands, where it can be
pointed out to tourists by long
time residents. And as they point
to the tree, they remark that until
the heavy winds of 1949, the
frayed old rope that swung Reed
into eternity still was dangling
from a branch.
$160,000 SYSTEM,
BUILT BY PWA,
IS POSSIBLE HERE
A complete sewer system for
Valdez is in the offing, possibly
in 1951, if present plans of the
Valdez city council maaterialize.
The city hopes to construct a
$160,000 sewer system under the
Public Works Act. If funds are
appropriated, the council looks
forward to the beginning of con
struction next year, since Valdez:
is next in line, the council was
told.
Under the plan, for which Felix
Toner of Juneau presented pre
liminary engineering details, the
cost of the system would be
amortized over a 20-year period.
Councilmen estimate that it would
cost the city of Valdez about
$4,000 a year. The remainder of
the annual payment would be
made up from monthly revenues
paid by all Valdez residents. In
terest on the sewer project will
be at the rate of two percent.
Plans require that every home
within the Valdez city limits be
connected to the sewer line.
Homeowners must bear the cost
of connection between the main
and their property. As monthly
revenue from the system, the city
of Valdez would receive $3 from
a residence and $5 from a'busi
ness establishment.
Territorial Highway Patrolman
E. R. “Alex” Alexander appeared
at last week’s council meeting to
ask for a definition of his traffic
enforcement duties within the
city limits. Patrolman Alexander
will have complete responsibility
for the enforcement of all city
traffic laws, the council decided.
He was empowered specifically to
arrest speeders, drunken and
careless drivers and illegal park
ers on downtown city streets.
Councilmen asked that the pa
trolman pay particular attention
to cars driving on the Valdez ail
strip. All vehicles are barred, by
ordinance, from the airport stri'
However residents of that art ;
have complained recently that the
airstrip has beeome a speedway
for pleasure drivers.
Patrolman Alexander served
notice that he intended to enforce
the traffic code impartially. “I
don’t want anyone to tell' me I
arrested the wrong person,” he
told council members.
The matter of recording land
transfers was discussed. City
clerk Halley Gates was author
ized to post notices requiring that
all property transfers be recorded
at his office. U. S. Commissioner
Margaret Harrais further suggest
ed that representative Bill Egan
introduce a bill at the next ses
sion of legislature, making it con
pulsory to record all transfers of
property in Alaska.
The newly-completed map of
the city of Valdez was presented
to the council by cartographer
Harold Jorgensen. Members were
delighted with the detail shown
on the map, which includes the
tank farm of the Alaska Road
Commission, the municipal air
port, the Federal flight strip and
the Valdez Dock.
It was decided to order 100
smaller reproductions of the map,
to be sold to interested Valdez
residents.