Lower Yukon Rock
New Quarry Provides Local Jobs, Airport Repairs
Storyknife, January/February 2024 edition
Over 100 local jobs and a payroll exceeding $4 million for Lower Yukon residents.
Emergency airport repairs in Russian Mission, severely damaged by May 2023 floods.
These are just a couple of the bright spots from the first summer of operations at Calista’s new, high-quality rock source at Pilcher Mountain.
Pilcher Mountain is an important landmark in the community of Marshall.
Jaylene Fitka, a Marshall resident who worked for Brice Inc. this summer as a haul truck driver, calls it “Our Beautiful Mountain.”
Fitka’s job was to haul rock from Pilcher Mountain to a rock crusher. She also helped haul and load processed material to barges that delivered it to airport projects in St. Mary’s and Russian Mission.
“The project significantly helped the economy by employing a large number of locals and giving us [the drivers] an excellent opportunity to sharpen our skills for future projects,” Fitka says.
AN ECONOMIC DRIVER
Calista’s collaboration with Marshall to develop a quarry at Pilcher Mountain is an opportunity to use local resources versus purchasing them from outside the region.
“Sourcing gravel from our land is important for construction projects in rural communities. It also provides local jobs and helps lower the cost of construction, in addition to providing income to Calista and its Shareholders,” explains Calista Vice President of Land and Natural Resources Tisha Kuhns.
The 2023 projects associated with the Pilcher quarry employed 64 Calista Shareholders and 14 Shareholders from other Alaska Native corporations.
These projects include the quarry operations in Marshall and airport construction projects in St. Mary’s and Russian Mission. The St. Mary’s project was long planned, but the Russian Mission project was awarded to Brice on an emergency basis after the local airport was severely damaged by spring flooding.
“Brice gave people in our community the opportunity to become part of their workforce by offering local training to obtain an off-system CDL,” Fitka explains.
Fitka says this is the first time she has obtained a CDL. “It’s always been a goal of mine to work in construction, and Brice gave me that chance.”
LOCAL IMPACTS AND BENEFITS
Part of Pilcher Mountain, called “The Knee” was excavated to supply rock for those airports. Though Brice worked hard to limit impacts from the project, community residents point out that the knee won’t look the same anymore.
On the positive side, “the quality of rock in our beautiful mountain will benefit surrounding communities in their runway and other development projects, which is a good thing,” Fitka says.
Some of the things that Brice Inc. did to reduce its impacts included:
- Building its barge landing upriver of Marshall on the footprint of the old airport site. This minimized the amount of land disturbance, construction traffic, noise and dust in the community.
- Improving the GCI Tower Access Road, which also made it possible for more people to safely access this area for subsistence use.
- During the fall berry picking season, escorted local residents up the access road during daytime operations.
WORK CONTINUES IN 2024
Brice Inc. will return to the Lower Yukon in 2024 to continue work on the two-year St. Mary’s airport project and also begin work on its recently awarded Marshall airport improvement project.
“With input from local employees and village representatives, we aim to provide jobs and training, and a viable, economic resource for years to come,” says
Brice Inc. Project Manager Paul Walsh.
Brice Inc. is a proud subsidiary of Calista Corporation and is part of the Calista Brice LLC holding line. Take a look at current Calista Brice job opportunities.