a hundred million hits ketchikan

And it's about to put a lot more Alaskans to work.

A federal ocean agency just handed the Ketchikan Shipyard a contract worth almost a hundred million dollars. The job is a full overhaul of a federal research ship, and it'll keep the yard busy into 2029.

Here's why that matters for a working town like Ketchikan. When the new operator took over the state-owned yard last year, they had about fifteen workers. Today they're up around a hundred and fifty.

The work itself is hands-on and highly skilled: new engines, new radar, new cranes and pumps. That's the kind of trade you can build a whole career on, especially at a time when good-paying, steady work feels harder to come by.

And they're not done. The company wants to add another hundred full-time jobs and grow the yard's business several times over in the next couple of years.

These aren't seasonal gigs either. This kind of long-term ship work means steady, year-round paychecks, instead of the on-again off-again schedule the docks usually run on. And these days, a steady paycheck goes a long way.

The mayor called it exactly what it is: more family-supporting jobs, more young people getting into the trades, and a stronger footing for the whole Southeast economy. For a town built around the water, that's a big deal.