Economy

In Bethel, there are a lot of places to get a cup of coffee: the grocery store, the cultural center, the fitness center, the hospital, or the AM Coffee & Espresso Stand. You can even fill up at the KYUK public radio station. But if you wanted to sit down at a coffee house, you had to drive to the airport. Not anymore. You can now enjoy a warm, caffeinated beverage in town at Bethel’s new coffee shop: Quyana Café.

If you received your Permanent Fund Dividend check last month, it may have been smaller than you were expecting. The city of Bethel has started to garnish PFD checks for city fines for minor offenses.

How can young people address climate change? Ben Charles of Bethel is taking on that challenge as part of a new initiative from the Inuit Circumpolar Council. He’s been named to a new group called the Emerging Alaska Inuit Leaders Initiative. 

Bethel Native Corporation CEO Ana Hoffman has again been elected co-chair of the Alaska Federation of Natives during the final day of its annual convention on Oct. 19. Hoffman has served as co-chair since 2013, but the board of the Calista Corporation, the regional native corporation for the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, cast their vote for another candidate. 

After three decades of prohibiting alcohol, the dry Lower Yukon community of Marshall wants to open a city-run alcohol store and has begun moving in that direction.

A village corporation in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta wants Calista Corporation shareholders to vote on whether Calista should support the proposed Donlin Gold mine. Calista owns the mineral rights to the mine. Azachorok’s president, Loren Peterson, says that the resolution isn’t a stance on the mine, but it would give shareholders a chance to decide if they want it. 

Novagold, one of two companies developing the proposed Donlin Gold mine in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, is looking at building the mine in stages to reduce construction costs. That’s according to its latest quarterly earnings call.