Maserculiq Inc. was founded in 1974. According to Willie Fitka Jr., its Vice Chairman, the only difference in the village corporation today is that information is easier to get from the State and Federal governments. Today Mas. Inc.'s Chairman is Tim Andrew. Besides Willie Fitka Jr., the other members of the Board of Directors are Delores Hunter, George Owletuck and Secretary, Roberta Fitka. Their meetings are held once a month at the call of the Chairman. They are open to the public. Some of the subjects discussed are financial issues, investments, land, fisheries and new ventures. The Corporation shareholders receive a yearly dividend based on the 7i funds from the shared profits of other Regional corporations.

Willie says Mas. Inc. is hoping to improve their store, Marshall Enterprises, and that they are in the process of planning a new building on a new site. The gas station will remain in the same location, but only petroleum products will be sold in the building. The new gas pump will also be upgraded to a self-service pump.

Mas. Inc. is the only corporation in the area that still has a fish plant operating and making a profit. It is presently in the process of getting a fish smoker on-line as another way of processing fish.

In terms of land issues, the corporation still has 14 C3 land to be conveyed by the BLM. C1and C2 land has already been conveyed, and all that needs to be done now is for the city to ask for the land from the BLM.

Willie adds, "Our corporation is stable and profitable." Roberta Fitka agreed, and said she enjoys working to make it that way.

By: Rose Lynn Fitka

Is there anything wrong with the people in our community? Roberta Fitka is trying to figure this out. She works as Family Services director with ICWA (Indian Child Welfare Association) which is a part of the Marshall Traditional Council. She helps provide services in the community. One of her duties is to assist in counseling families and individuals at risk. She's the contact person for reporting DFYS cases, and she also visits the school to find out if students have problems that she could help them with. Her "dream" is to see the people alive--alive spiritually. And not necessarily in a religious way, but in terms of self-esteem and pride.

She spends a lot of time looking for grants to bring more projects into the community. Lately, Roberta has been trying to find funding to send a representative from Marshall to the Rural Providers Conference which will be held in Fairbanks this summer. She has also been trying to setup the Youth-Elder Conference in Marshall, as well as a basketball camp for the youth. The Youth-Elder Conference is scheduled for sometime in April, and the basketball camp will be sometime next year.

Roberta adds, "Services are available through ICWA. If you have any questions, I can be reached at the T.C. Office."

By: Rose Lynn Fitka

During the 1999 summer fishing season, good king salmon subsistence catches were reported from the mouth of the Yukon River upriver to Eagle. However, the king salmon harvest was 31% below the recent ten-year average harvest of 100,695 kings. Commercial sales in the round were only 69,196 kings. The chum harvest was 94% below the recent ten-year average of 532,815 fish, with only 29,389 chums harvested from the Alaskan portion of the Yukon River drainage.

Roe sales by species totaled 1,096 pounds for kings and 24 pounds for chum. The total estimated commercial harvest, including the harvest of roe sold, was 69,483 kings and 29,412 chum.

The 1999 Yukon River king and chum runs continued to show the decline in productivity observed in recent years. Summer chum abundance has been below average to poor since 1997, although parent escapement was very good from 1994-1996. Changing climate and ocean conditions have probably impacted salmon survival.

Yukon River fishermen in Alaska received an estimated five million dollars for their king and chum harvest in 1999, approximately 21% below the recent 10-year average of 6.4 million dollars.

Lower Yukon fishermen received an estimated average price per pound of $3.80 for kings and $0.10 for chum. The price paid for kings was well above the 10-year average of $2.72 per pound. Prices for chums have continued to low since 1995. The average in the Lower Yukon area fishery was $7,869.

Maurice Turet

New Post Office for Marshall

According to post mistress, Theresa Elia, the new Post Office building is going to be built sometime this coming summer. The reason is because we simply need a bigger one, she says. They are going to tear down the trees on the land between Daisy Coffee's house and the old community hall site and construct the new building there. After the new post office is built, the Postal Service is going to provide it with a computerized weighing machine to weigh the boxes. Then Marshall will be a part of the modern age.

Jolene Soolook

In a recent interview with Ray Alstrom, he said that currently the city is hooking up Fred Fitka's new house to water and sewer.

The city is also doing weekly garbage pick-ups. On Monday and Thursday, trash is picked up from the school on down, and on Tuesday and Friday it is collected from the school on up, including the new housing area. The first Wednesday of every month is white trash pick-up, that is, things like TV's, refrigerators, etc.

Later on this summer, Ray said, the city will have fire hydrants set up--one by the clinic and one in the vicinity of the city office. The two hydrants that were supposed to be set up around the housing area were cut because of budget problems. "We had to cut those two," he said, "because the water and sewer budget is mainly to install water and sewer in homes." He added that, "We also are going to hook up water and sewer in the fish plant."

Ray complained that municipal assistance and state revenue sharing money is being cut again, so that is going to hurt our daily operations.

Our grant for the community center is still pending.

Finally, he said, "The deal on the dump is that we can't do anything about the smoke. The incinerator is set up to burn trash and will be there for a good number of years."

Kim Fitka

New Water and Sewer in Marshall

Water and Sewer, foreman, David Fitka reported that all they've been doing over the past few months is hooking up houses that don't have water and sewer. They finished seven houses last fall, he said, plus worked on three others we didn't quite complete, but which should be done by this summer. Larry Webb will be working with them on the sewer systems this summer and will repair manholes.

David said they have also been putting in water hydrants around town, one near the school, one near Theresa Boot's place, and two in the HUD (Housing and Urban Development) subdivision.

They plan to hook up the fish plant to water and sewer sometime in the future, but they are still in the design stage on it.

They are scheduled to be done with everything by the end of September, David said.

By: Kimberly Fitka