The Daily Alaska empire., 1946-07-03
DYKE DEMANDS AT SKAGWkY ARE PUT UP 10 COL. HARDY

SKAGWAY, Alaska, June % TT Special Correspondence) TT Col. c. r Hardy from the District En- qineer's Office in Seattle, and par ty consisting of his secretary, Miss Mary Shaw. and George Kurtilla and o. c. Falkenbury, arrived in skaeway from Juneau about Il o'clock Friday morning. Shortly after they were driven over the road to the sanatorium and along the rivor bank
 About 30 townspeople turned out for the public meeting E2ld at the citv hall at 1 o'clock The object c. the meeting was to present evil dcnce in support of a request by tie city for the construction of an additional 800 feet of dike to pro- feet an additional l-3 miles of road uast the tank farm and Mission r,airv farm. Evidence presented showed that during the past ten years the dairy has lost an estimat- ,d 800 acres of pasture land because of floods and high water, besides their buildings.
 The tank farm had one storage tank badly undermined, the gov trnment hospital was flooded and the bridge damaged in the l943 Qaod. At this time the Dairy had ."i their buildings washed away Further facts presented the great necessity for protecting the bridge and the road. for in case another flood occurs the Tuberculosis San atolium which depends upon the town for many of it's supplies, would be isolated The dairy is inc only source of milk supply for Skagway and as it is a charitable project they are not financially able to protect themselves.
 The Dyea read is also important At present four homesteaders have filed over in the valley and two homes are in the process ot being built and one is already construct cd Next Spring there will te five children in the families living there and it is vitally necessary that they have 9 road open so that they may come to town for school. An other new business which depends upon the Dyea road being kept open is the riding academy which is planned by Mir and Mrs. Malcolm Moe. They have three horses at present and are bringing up more as soon as the trail to Dyea is completed so that they may pas ,,ue them there. The FRA road and bridge are the only methods Of approach to the Dyea road.
 Mayor Rudolph Haas, surgeon in charge of the Tuberculosis sana- torium reported there are now 100 patients at the sanatorium and staff Of 65 whose well being de- r,ended upon the road to town and the hospital itself being protected from future floods. An increase to 15o patients and a corresponding increase in staff is contemplated very soon.
 The project with which Col Hardy dealt at this meeting in- yolved three major issues. the re- construction of the existing break water and the construction ot an additional 300 feet; the reconstruc- tion of the existing dike at the sanatorium. All this applies to the west bank of the SkagWay river. In 1886 repairs to Highway route IT cost about $2,000 and the same repairs would now be between sS GOO and s10000.
 Accompanying the party from Juneau was William Stewart, con- struction foreman for the Alaska Native Service. With the party on their tour of the road along the river. were Mayor c. A. Carroll and banker E. A. Rasmuson.
 Mayor Johnson from Fake was granted a short interview follow ing the close of the Skagway meet ing. As soon as the business was completed the party left for Ju- neau in the plane which had wait ed for them.