Ketchikan doesn't stay the same either...especially for the out of town readers. What has changed in Ketchikan?

• Well, neither Fred Meyer nor Wal-Mart have shown up;
• Little Cesar's Pizza up and vacated its location within Videl Video all in one day;
• the smokeless bar opened up this summer on the old s Spruce Mill dock; the Marine Bar is for sale;
• Tongass Trading Company's Dockside store now has an entrance on the parking lot side;
• the Outfitter moved into the 2nd floor of the Dockside store and the furniture department moved into what used to be Family Furniture across from the mall;
• the SERHC clinic is gone and KIC now offers medical services at its Deermount location instead;
• the new Visitor Information Center building on the dock looks great and appeared to be a very busy spot this summer;
• last year the town Christmas tree was placed by the SEAVIC Center and could be seen from the dining room at Cape Fox (and appeared less whipped by our infamous Southeast winds);
• the restaurant at The Narrows hotel opened and is receiving mixed reviews (it's rumored they have fantastic bread items);
• the construction on 3rd Avenue has started;
• the new road to Ward Lake is complete and makes you feel like you turned off of Tongass and onto a highway in Oregon (and it's lots less bumpy!);
• the Shipyard was awarded some pretty healthy contracts this past year which have contributed to several of the displaced KPC workers obtaining employment;
• Connell Lake trail continues to undergo its facelift including many new bridges and boardwalks;
• we can now park at the Pool Engineering building and enjoy the new walking path created to Ward Lake now that the "road" is closed to vehicle traffic;
• the two buildings across the street from the Police Station on Main Street previously occupied by IRON WORLD and Dr. Erik Christianson, O.D. have been torn down and the land is currently being used as a parking lot;
• the BODY WORKS building across the street from Race Drug has also been torn down and is currently an empty lot;
• we have a new "breakwater" south of town, just beyond the Coast Guard base;
• Taquan Air began it's Air One Jet Stream Service, and built a nice parking lot adjacent to its water front site;
• Air Sea Travel moved from its location near to The Landing to the building next door to Pro Mech Air;
• the Alaska Marine Highway System added a new ferry called the Kennicott, and
• rumor has it some ex-KPC employees worked on her this summer. Whew!