Residents in a small town often find themselves facing a lack of local services that are integral for a community.
This dilemma is no different for our town of Seward- yet we have seen an increase in new businesses stepping up to help our community and offer services.
Kusi.aat’ Kaa’ Refrigeration, a refrigeration company co-founded by Alaska-born entrepreneur John Howard, helps bridge this gap in the community. They offer maintenance and installation services on a variety of equipment such as HVAC systems, household appliances, commercial projects and more.
Locals have recognized this business’ effort to help our community- although Kusi.aat’ Kaa’ Refrigeration has only been present in Seward since September, they were nominated by the community for a Seward Chamber of Commerce Community Award.
Kusi.aat’ Kaa’ Refrigeration also supported the Chamber with sponsorship at the Silver Salmon Derby and presented at our Chamber Energy Efficient Focus Group event. 
John started his career in refrigeration and maintenance at the young age of 19 in his hometown of Juneau.
He has over 20 years of experience in refrigeration working around Alaska
and operated in Juneau for about 10 years.
After making the decision to move close to his children, John now calls Seward home, and brings his expertise along with him.
Entrepreneurship seems integral to who John is. While living in Juneau, he noticed how much ice local businesses were using for their restaurants and decided to market it. John, along with a friend, began selling bags of ice to businesses who were in need of it. From then on, everyone around town would know John as the “ice man”. This is how the name for his future business “Kusi.aat’ Kaa’ Refrigeration” was born.
Kusi.aat’ Kaa’ literally means “cold outside, man” in the Łingít (Tlingit) language- the Łingít are an Indigenous group of people of Southeast Alaska. The logo for the business was designed by Tlingit artist Donald Gregory.
John desires to help the community in a variety of ways other than just refrigeration, often always saying “yes” to requests that are thrown at him.
“I arrived in Seward with the same tool belt - it has just gotten heavier”.
He enjoys servicing the Seward community. Kusi.aat’ Kaa’ Refrigeration can offer a wide-range of services for both residential and commercial customers, such as servicing:
Boilers, propane-fired furnaces, heat pumps, dishwashers, washing machines, dryers, plumbing– pretty much “all things mechanical”.
Learn more about how Kusi.aat' Kaa' Refrigeration can help you and set up an appointment here!
