The Port of Tacoma has told its commissioner it plans to avoid the bond market for now to raise funds for long-term capital projects.

Instead the port intends to use commercial paper, unsecured, shorter term borrowings to fund its construction projects until the finance market settles down.

The port has a five-year plan to spend some $324 million for capital projects on the Tacoma Tideflats. The port is converting much of the Blair-Hylebos Peninsula to a container terminal.

The port's immediate plans call for construction of a 600-foot wharf extension, the purchase of two container cranes and environmental mitigation work on Blair-Hylebos peninula.

Fast chat: Dave Kleinman, owner of Fantasy World Hobbies

For the next few days, what with the holidays approaching, we’ll be speaking to small retail stores in the South Sound. If yo9u’d like to nominate a retail business for this series, e-mail c.r.roberts@thenewstribune.com.

FANTASY WORLD HOBBIES
Address: 1909 South 72nd St. at the Tacoma Place Shopping Center
On the phone: Dave Kleinman, owner

Please give me a quick description of what you sell.
We have a complete assortment of hobby items, including slot cars, radio-controlled cars, helicopters. We have model kits, model rockets, all the accessories. We’re basically in the hobby business.

When did your holiday season start?
It really hasn’t started yet. We’re waiting for Black Friday. The economy is in the tank. We’re doing everything we can to stimulate business. We’re making the store look as good as possible, decorating. We’re still waiting, like everybody, for the holidays to begin.

How are sales so far?
It’s been slow, but there are signs of improvement. We’re getting a lot of people looking for ideas, bringing the kids in. A lot of our customers are adult males, so the wives are coming in to get ideas. We’re also trying to reach out to the 5-15 year olds, who like to do the slot cars and radio- controlled things. We sell a lot of slot cars on the Internet. We’ve seen that kick up already.

What are you hearing from your shoppers about their budgets?
I think some people are concerned, some people are limiting what they buy, and some aren’t affected.

Are you having any sales?
We have all kinds of sales. We have some surprise specials over the weekend, plus we do give free battery packs with some of the radio-controlled cars. We have a rewards program – a $10 rebate for every $200 they spend, plus they get gift certificates on their birthdays and anniversary dates.

What are your most popular sellers so far this season?
The E-Flight radio-controlled helicopters, the Traxxas radio-controlled cars and trucks, monster trucks. Slot cars have always been our biggest thing – on the Internet. The helicopters are moving up real fast. You used to spend $1,000, now it’s just over a hundred.

If you've already seen Elizabeth Taylor's house in Puerto Vallarta, toured the market in Mazatlan and admired the rows of immaculate white yachts tied up in Cabo, Alaska Airlines thinks you're not alone.

That's why the Sea-Tac-based airline is enhancing its schedule to a less trodden destination, La Paz. That's La Paz, the capital of Mexico's Baja California Sur, not the capital of Bolivia.

The airline started flying there two years ago three times a week, and now it's adding two more flights weekly. Only Tuesdays and Fridays are missing a round trip from La Paz to Los Angeles.

The city of about 200,000 residents is not as visitor-oriented as the more well-known Mexican resorts.

But it features fish and whale watching and diving in the Sea of Cortez and exploration in the surrounding desert.

Flights from smaller cities to Horizon Air's Seattle hub will be leaving earlier and returning later next year to let travelers make more connections in the Emerald City.

Horizon is making adjustments, the airline said, based on customer feedback about connections to longer flights in Seattle.

"We never stop listening to our customers." said Dan Russo, the SeaTac-based airlines' vice president of marketing and communications.

In many cases, the first morning flights from outlying communities are leaving 30 minutes earlier than now and the last returning flight of the day is leaving 30 minutes or more later from Seattle to make connections easier.

From Wenatchee, for instance, the first of four daily flights to Sea-Tac will depart at 6 a.m. beginning Jan. 5. That's an hour earlier than now.

The last returning flight of the day will leave Sea-Tac at 10:20 p.m., two hours later than now. The schedule alterations will give Wenatchee passengers 23 more Alaska and Horizon connections in the morning and 33 additional inbound connections at night.

Similar changes are being planned from Yakima and the Tri-Cities. Other schedule changes are being made in Boise, and Medford and Bend in Oregon and Flagstaff, Ariz. and Santa Rosa, Calif.

For full details, go to www.alaskaair.com