The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs today announced the award of a $251,472 contract to a San Diego, Calif., company for installation of two 750-kilowatt gas turbine generator sets at the Bureau's Point Barrow, Alaska, power generating station.
The generators will double the output capability of the present equipment which serves the needs of the village of Barrow and the Bureau installation, including elementary and high school facilities for about 630 native children. The plant also will supply power for a new Public Health Service hospital.
Contractor for installation of the generators is the Solar Division of International Harvester of San Diego, Calif.
Barrow, the northernmost village in the United States, is approximately 325 miles above the Arctic Circle. The 1960 Census listed the population as 1,314. Since then, it reportedly has become one-of the fastest growing native Alaskan communities in the State. Native families, drawn by the possibility of employment and the convenience of village living, are moving to Barrow from scattered areas along the Arctic Ocean.
