Sharing the wealth

Coastal Villages Region Fund has approved a second round of funding for its People Propel initiative.

Coastal is an Anchorage-based company operating under the federal Community Development Quota program. It manages commercial fish harvests on behalf of a group of Bering Sea villages in the area of the Kuskokwim River delta.

With People Propel, Coastal offers village residents substantial subsidies for the purchase of boats, motors and nets.

Coastal evidently is doing great, certainly well enough to help buy some outboard boats and fishing gear.

Coastal's executive director, Morgen Crow, drew a $475,000 salary plus a $420,000 bonus in 2012, the company's latest annual report shows.

Six other staffers received in excess of $205,000.

A very good year

Eye-opening compensation levels at some of Alaska's six Community Development Quota companies are old news. But still interesting.

The example cited most often is that of Morgen Crow, executive director at Coastal Villages Region Fund. He made $475,000 in 2011, according to the company's latest annual report.

You might be surprised at who ranked second and third behind Crow on Coastal's list of top-paid personnel.

They were Robert Thelen, skipper of the Coastal-owned crab boat North Sea ($356,582), and Owen Kvinge, skipper of another company crabber, the Arctic Sea ($347,502).