Publisher's Notebook: Frontiersman named Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce’s Large Business of the Year

On Jan. 22, the Frontiersman was honored by the Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce at its annual membership meeting. We were named their Large Business of the Year. Amongst the nominees were Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, Alaska USA and Matanuska Electric Association.

I was pleasantly surprised when our name was announced as the winner, not because I don’t think we do good work or aren’t an important business partner in the community. I was surprised because the other nominees are incredible organizations and I appreciate the good works that they do.

Our team has done a tremendous job over the past year. We’ve been challenged with improving our content, our marketing partnerships, launching a new app, increasing circulation numbers and our first full year printing the Anchorage Daily News. We’ve met every challenge and have improved our business position. I am proud of our team and this was truly a team award.

Other businesses, non-profits and individuals honored at the annual meeting were Settlers Bay Golf Course for small business of the year, My House for the non-profit of the year and Staci Yates as volunteer of the year. Each has made their mark not only in Wasilla but the Mat-Su community over all.

Guest speaker for the event was state economist Neil Fried.

Fried opened by speaking about the earthquake and would it pull Alaska out of the recession, referencing the 1964 earthquake. The impression for those who were residents during the 1964 earthquake was that it did pull Alaska out of the then recession.

“That’s not quite true because we were coming out of the recession already but we did get a really nice bump when that happened.” Fried told the audience.

Speaking on employment Fried told the audience that in 2017 the Mat-Su Borough was actually losing employment but the number is so small, around 50 employees, that it doesn’t calculate in his formula. While Alaska and Anchorage were losing employees in 2016 the Mat-Su actually grew. The Mat-Su grew again in 2018 while the state and Anchorage continued to lose jobs. “You are again defying the trends, which is very interesting because even though you showed a small decrease you really bounced back.” Fried said. “We are predicting that the Alaska economy and Anchorage economy will recover a little a bit or the recession will come to an end in 2019. But that doesn’t mean the Alaskan economy is going to recover because the economy is where it was some where between 2010 and 2011 so we have a lot of ground to cover. Recovery takes about four or five years but the Mat-Su Valley doesn’t have to recover because there is nothing to recover from when you look at total employment and remember these are jobs that physically exist here in the Valley.”

Fried went on to tell the chamber members that this is the longest recession that Alaska has experience but not the longest that Anchorage has experienced. There were a lot of jobs lost during this period but it is now moderating. In the Mat-Su Valley job gains were mostly in construction and health care. Losses were in retail and local government. He attributed the local government losses mainly to the school district.

Fried went on to say that 55 percent of the workforce actually work in the Mat-Su Valley the rest are in Anchorage, North Slope, and JBER and a small slither in the non-defined category. The Mat-Su workforce represents the second largest number of employees from Alaska on the North Slope behind Anchorage. Job losses on the North Slope have come to an end in 2018 and were turning positive at the end of 2018.

Back to the award for the Frontiersman, I thank you for reading the Frontiersman and allowing us to continue to provide you with your local news coverage. It is our distinct pleasure to continue to serve our community and on behalf of all our employees. I offer the Greater Wasilla Chamber members our gratitude of presenting us with such an honor.