Organization to use temporary facility until permanent Welcome Center is built, chamber board president says
The North Pole Community Chamber of Commerce hopes to open a new facility in December that will enable businesses and workers to perform better in the 21st century economy. The Welcome Center also will help newcomers find what they need in the community.
The building under construction in the North Pole Plaza is a scaled-down version of the Welcome Center that chamber members have been promoting for a couple of years now. They’ve raised about a half-million dollars so far, but board President Howard Rixie says it’ll take a couple more years to raise the $1.3 million needed to build it.
“We can't wait that long,” he said. “Our community needs all those services now. Actually, they needed them two years ago. So we decided to take some portions of that money and to erect a temporary welcome center.”
So Rixie says the chamber decided to build a 560-square-foot structure that’ll cost about $175,000. He says the building will be big enough to enable the chamber to begin helping newcomers get to know the community. And also to offer programs to help new and established businesses thrive, and other programs to promote workforce development.
“So we want to primarily focus in on the younger folks there that might be junior or senior in high school or a little bit older,” he said, “get them job-ready as well as connected with like apprenticeships and career paths as far as colleges and scholarships.”
North Pole-area growth drives need for services
Rixie says those programs are badly needed, because of population growth driven mainly by buildups at Eielson Air Force Base and Fort Wainwright.
“Our North Pole community is the fastest growing community, at least in the borough, if not the state.”
He said that’s based on a state report issued earlier this year that estimates the borough’s population had shrunk by about 800 since 2020. But the report also says growth at Eielson and Wainwright more than compensated for that loss by bringing in some 8,300 new area residents.
“That welcome center is really going to be the conduit for a large majority of our projects that are going to have direct economic development impact.”
Rixie says the chamber plans to offer the first business-development training program early next year that’ll give home-based business owners a chance to experience working out of an office.
“The chamber is going to take occupancy on 1 December,” he said, “and then on the 14th of December is our Winter Fest out in here in North Pole … and we're going to have an open house grand opening of the temporary welcome center.”
While chamber members are working out of that facility, they’ll ramp up efforts to raise money for the permanent Welcome Center. Rixie says they’re trying to keep the project’s costs down, so they asked the North Pole City Council to waive about $3,30 in fees. Most of the five council members at Monday’s meeting approved the request, but Mayor Pro Tem Anton Keller said the motion failed because it fell short of the four votes required to pass.
“It failed with a 3 to 2 vote, due to the quorum requirements needed to pass the request.”
Keller was among those voting in favor of the request, along with council members Jeff Jacobsen and David Skipps. Regardless, he said the council supports the chamber and its effort to build the Welcome Center.
Rixie says once the 2,200-square-foot permanent facility is built, the chamber will sell the temporary structure to recoup some of the cost of building it.
He says chamber officials hope to announce a firm timetable for construction of the Welcome Center no later than the end of next year.
