Angoon celebrates visionaries who paved the way for hydropower plant [Video]

ANGOON, Alaska (KTUU) – The small Southeast Alaska community of Angoon celebrated the fruits of past leaders’ labors earlier this month.

On June 14, Angoon leadership provided its constituents confirmation that the long-awaited Thayer Creek Hydroelectric Plant would be a reality, with construction set to begin before the end of the decade.

As outlined during presentations in the Angoon Elementary School gym, the village had long ago intended to abandon its reliance on expensive diesel fuel to keep the electricity running in the small village.

“The point of today, the celebration, is to honor those who came before us,” Jon Wunrow, Kootznoowoo, Inc.’s executive director of tourism and natural resources, said at the meeting. “The visionaries, the elders, the leaders who traveled to Washington, D.C., almost 46 years ago, so that we could be here today to celebrate the reality of bringing hydropower, bringing sustainable, cost-stable source of energy, to …