Pacific Machinery and Appraisals caters to Bush Alaska: This company sells heavy equipment to rural communities, helping them with their construction needs.

• Author: Morgan, Barbara

The majority of Terry Shurtleff's heavy equipment business, Pacific Machinery and Appraisals, is in the Bush-Western and Interior Alaska. He works with Village Safe Water projects, runway work (upgrades and improvements) and public works projects. Most villages in Western Alaska have Village Safe Water grant projects. Shurtleff has worked on projects in Pilot Station, Kongiganak and Marshall, all of which have projects in various stages of development. Shurtleff also supplied equipment to a job in Saint Marys that was completed last year, on time and on budget.

"I find the right equipment at the right price to fit the clients' needs and budget," he said.

Shurtleff looks all over the world--from Spenard to Singapore--for equipment for his clients. He may look in the UK for trucks or runway equipment and Japan for excavators and bulldozers. He recently bought two 25-ton 6X6 trucks in the UK and one from Japan for a project at Saint Marys.

Shurtleff has worked with many villages over the last few years. Some of these villages are Pilot Station, Marshall, Saint Marys, Tuluksakn and Stebbins. All of the aforementioned villages had limited budgets with which to secure equipment needed either for ongoing maintenance or for force-account construction projects.

The way Shurtleff's company helps contribute to the economic growth of these smaller Alaska communities is a little difficult to see at first glance; you have to understand a little bit about village cash flow. First of all, there are really only two economic drivers in the villages of Alaska: natural resource development and government-funded construction. Government-funded construction has traditionally been done by construction companies with offices outside the villages who bid on the work in a competitive bid process. This type of construction has led to reduced local hire because the successful bidder generally brings in its own crew in order to get the job done as fast and cost effective as possible.

However, the most recent trend among village communities is to elect to do the construction themselves using force-account grants. Typically a force-account job is set up with a consulting engineering/construction management firm. This firm brings in a team of professionals who work with the community from the beginning to the end, training local workers to do everything from management and accounting procedures to equipment operation and construction skills. This force-account arrangement...