PEEK AT THE PAST: June 26, 1991

Here’s what made news in the Mat-Su 19 years ago, from the June 26, 1991, issue of the Frontiersman:

Teens to change pleas

A pair of Palmer teens charged with robbing an Anchorage fast-food restaurant and shooting at pursuing police with a gun allegedly stolen from a Valley home are expected to change their pleas in Anchorage Superior Court.

The boys, ages 18 and 19, are accused of driving to Anchorage with the intent of robbing a Burger King. They reportedly went through the restaurant’s drive-through, brandished a weapon at the window and demanded money. They got away with about $280 in cash.

As the robbery concluded, the Burger King employee reportedly advised the robbers to “have a nice day.”

Deal set for

Pt. Mac farm

State agriculture officials have cut a deal with a family of Alaskan farmers to operate a bankrupt farm at Point MacKenzie, a move that precludes options that included using jail inmates to work the farm.

The family has a permit to operate the farm and will be offered a lease with an option to buy it, state agriculture officials have said. The state reached an agreement with the former owner, who lives in Anchorage, to give up the land to offset more than $2 million in delinquent land payments owed to the state.

The 1,850-acre, three-farm spread is the largest remaining dairy operation left of 19 area farm parcels offered for sale by the state in the late 1970s. All but one of the remaining farms have either gone bankrupt, been abandoned or are entangled in lawsuits.

Wishbone Hill mine clears roadblock

Some of the paperwork that had been blocking development of the Wishbone Hill Coal Mine and other coalfields has been completed, but the fate of the project is still in the hands of a Fairbanks judge.

Attorneys representing Usibelli Coal Mine Inc. have reached an agreement that will allow companies regulated by federal and state mining laws proceed with development plans. If the judge clears the way in the wake of granting an injunction against the plan, the company is still ready with its plans for Wishbone Hill. As proposed, the mine would have a 15-year lifespan and employ 200 workers at full production.

It cost what?

According to advertisements, in June 1991 you could:

• Celebrate the summer with watermelon for 33 cents a pound.

• Keep yourself groomed with 99 cent hair spray or pay $3.39 for a package of disposable razors.

• Travel to Seattle to watch the Seahawks play the Oakland Raiders for $479 a person.

• Keep your clothes clean with a new Kenmore washing machine for $377.

• Have your dog washed in Palmer at Scrub-A-Mutt, which proclaims: “We wash them all, large or small.”