Our economic development director, Lee Stoops, traveled to Barrow last week as a follow-up to the Arctic Summit, held in Kotzebue earlier this month. The visit was the result of interest in our Small Business Loan and Art Marketing Programs that was expressed by Mayor Ahmaogak and others from that region.

The North Slope Borough is in an ideal situation to start a Revolving Loan program similar to ours, which has generated over 150 loans during the past two years. They already have at least $75,000 in dedicated funds for business loans and share our ability, as a municipality, to accept Permanent Fund Dividend assignments. It is the assignment of the loan amount that makes the program relatively easy to administer.

Lee met with John Ames, Director of Administration and Finance for the NSB, and reviewed the details of how our loan program is implemented. He expressed strong interest and a willingness to explore options on exactly who might administer the loans.

Jan Phillips, Director of the Arctic Development Council in Barrow, is also interested administering the loan program in cooperation with the NSB, which would have to accept the PFD assignments. The ADC is the recipient of state ARDOR funds for economic development on the North Slope, which amount to about $46,000 per year. ARDOR stands for Alaska Regional Development Organizations, of which there are thirteen statewide. In our region, the Northwest Arctic Borough is the recipient of ARDOR funding.

Another key part of the Barrow visit was a meeting with Neil Bjornstad, a grant writer for the Native Village of Barrow Inupiat Traditional Government. Neil was successful in obtaining a $30,000 grant from HUD for development of an arts and crafts marketing program for the North Slope region. Because we operate the most active program of that kind in the State, Neil is interested in learning as much as possible about how we initiated and manage it. Our Borough has purchased over $350,000 in art from over 120 different residents over the last two years, using a revolving purchase account of about $100,000. The program is intended to provide a consistent market for quality products.

Other subjects shared included encouragement of the use traditional clothing by students in the schools and our arts for awards concept. Kobuk and Shungnak have already adopted local school dress codes that will encourage students to wear kuspuks to school at least one day per week. The concept has the desired outcome of producing school, community and cultural pride as well as creating a broader market for those who sew in the village. The thinking is that the economy of each village can be improved by keeping more of the money spent on clothing within the village.

The people of Barrow were gracious hosts, as always. We look forward to working cooperatively with the North Slope Borough for the good of all of our people.