Home décor store to open on Main Street
Erica Carrington is opening a new home décor store on Main Street called White & Willow.
The store, located next to The Hair Shop, will feature home items including throw pillows, blankets, kitchen towels, dishes and bakeware, mirrors, clocks, rugs and seasonal décor.
“I have always just really loved home décor and having a comfortable house,” Carrington said. “I would say that it’s just one of my hobbies and passions. Haines needed something like that.”
The store will also sell skin care products such as lotions and face creams. She’ll feature brands such as Farmhouse Fresh, TAV, Mud Pie and Magnolia, a brand created by the HGTV designer Joanna Gaines.
Carrington said her décor items will have a “farmhouse” and “natural boho” down-to-earth style.
“The idea is a few years in the making. It came from me moving here and thinking, ‘I really want to go get a nice salad bowl and tongs for my kitchen and I have to order it online and I can’t put my hands on it,’” Carrington said. “I’m going to start with the stuff you can’t get in town, stuff you want right now. Sometimes you want to go shopping right now.”
She plans to open White & Willow in mid-September and the shop will be open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Upton buys Dejon Delights
John Upton finalized a purchase and sale agreement for Dejon Delights last week. Dejon Delights, a custom retail fish smoking company has been closed for the past several years. Upton, who owns a wholesale fish buying company called Southeast Select, will use the facility to smoke fish for wholesale markets.
“We’re going to make some pretty big changes,” Upton said. “We will probably not do custom processing anymore. I’m going to focus solely on the smoked markets, both wholesale and some retail for next summer.”
He’s changing the name from Dejon Delights to Taste of Alaska, which will be a subsidiary of Southeast Select.
“We’re going to be investing and modernizing and expanding its capacity,” Upton said of the current infrastructure which consists of three smokers, cold storage and a fillet room. “We’re going to double the smoking capacity pretty much immediately.”
Upton’s fish-buying business purchases salmon primarily from trollers who fish in Chatham Strait and other southern Southeast waters. He buys from two fishermen locally, and hopes to expand that market next year.
Upton said he’ll sell the bulk of his smoked product to markets both in and out of Alaska including university food service programs and convention centers.
Upton is the fourth iteration of owners since Dejon Delights was started 1984 by John Brainard and Deana Stout. Stout’s son, Daymond Hoffman, and Scott Doddridge bought the business in 2004. They sold it to Chris Dixon in 2016.
New management takes over at golf course
Longtime Valley of the Eagles golf course employee Niall Hackett and his wife Tami Hackett are now the golf pro/superintendent and manager. The Hacketts took over management after Clayton Jones purchased the property from former owner Stan Jones.
“I want it to be part of our community,” Niall Hackett said. “I want people to be excited about the fact that it is still a golf course. There were questions about whether it would still be a golf course once Stan signed off on it.”
Niall Hackett said some big changes are on the horizon, including building a “stay and play” RV park, constructing a new pro shop, small bar and grill and bringing in a consultant from the United States Golf Association to determine what it would take to improve the greens.
Hackett said it’s been a long-time dream of his to install real greens.
“I know if we put real greens in people will come and play,” Hackett said. “It’s a wetlands area. We have to be careful of what we put in there. We can’t put something that’s invasive, grass that’s going to take over the area.”
Hackett said he’s also partnering with the Haines School and will host students three days a week. He’s offering a free clinic each week to the public and opened up the driving range this year. The course will be open from May 1 through Sept. 30
The new phone number is 766-2002 and golfers with questions can also attend a Members and Friends of the Golf Course meeting Saturday, Sept. 3 at 1 p.m. at the course.