By Tom Morphet
The Haines Borough Assembly voted 6-0 Tuesday to endorse a federal
legislative transfer of the 200-acre Lutak Army tank farm property to the Chilkoot Indian
Association.
Before its vote, the assembly placed an additional condition on its
support – that the borough and tribe agree to a development plan for the property
that includes unspecified parcels of land going to the borough – but the mood was
clearly celebratory for the tribe, whose officials thanked and shook hands with assembly
members.
President Jan Hill said the tribe’s first move would be to contact
U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, about making the transfer happen. The borough’s
support is contingent on the CIA receiving title before 2010.
"We’ll start working on this tomorrow," Hill said. The
tribe has started a development plan and has been awaiting borough support to put more
effort into it, Hill said. She assured the assembly that the tribe would do a "fine
job" with the property.
Assemblyman Doug Olerud, who added the conditional language to the
resolution supporting the transfer, said he intended that a memorandum of agreement
specifying properties to be received by the borough would be inked before the CIA acquired
the land.
In supporting CIA ownership, assembly members reiterated previously
stated arguments. "Government is an inefficient business operator," said Pete
Lapham. "If it became borough property, we don’t have funds to develop it, so it
would sit for a long time. Our economy is limited. There’s a real potential to move
forward here."
Although federal officials said last week that municipalities were as
eligible as tribes to receive federal property through special legislation, member Don
Turner III said it wasn’t clear to him that the borough could acquire the property.
"I don’t think the borough is giving away anything, personally."
Deborah Vogt said that not all her questions were answered but that she
assumed the CIA would oppose borough ownership, effectively killing a legislative transfer
that requires agreement between local authorities. "We’re not likely to get (the
CIA’s) agreement that it should go to the borough, so if it’s going anywhere,
it’s going to the CIA."
Hill said the CIA has not talked about whether it would oppose a
borough bid to receive the property by special legislation. "We’ve chosen to be
proactive in getting the borough to support us."
Tuesday marked the third public hearing on the issue, but the first
significant discussion.
Mayor Fred Shields, previously low-key in his opposition to the CIA
plan, said borough leaders were beholden to act in the best interest of the borough, and
that the borough’s best interest lie in owning the tank farm. "When the tide
rises, it lifts all boats. The Haines Borough has the need and it’s
appropriate."
Calling the property "the only level land out there,"
resident Rob Goldberg proposed a joint venture between the borough and CIA to acquire the
property, and a decision later either to manage the property jointly or to divide it.
"If the CIA isn’t able to acquire it, it will be more
bitterness in the Native community, but if the borough doesn’t get it, an opportunity
will be lost," Goldberg said.
Chilkoot elder Paul Wilson rebutted, saying a joint venture should
follow CIA gaining title. "We owned this whole place and now we’re fighting for
a little bit of what we have."
John Schnabel discouraged a joint venture, saying it would complicate
management and said the property should remain publicly owned in borough hands.
Anastasia Wiley, who identified herself as an archaeologist, described
the property as a "sacred and ceremonial site" because it held Native graves and
that the borough would have difficulty developing it. "The borough ought to think
twice before taking on property that has cultural resources on it."
Assemblyman Jerry Lapp made a similar argument for endorsing CIA
ownership, saying the borough already owned land it couldn’t develop because it
contained Native graves.
Olerud’s conditional language was "the Haines Borough and the
Chilkoot Indian Association shall work together to develop a memorandum of agreement that
will include the tribe’s development plan for the tank farm property as well as
reasonable parcels of land to be conveyed to the Haines Borough that will include
rights-of-way, utility corridors and water rights."
The language is intended partly to ensure borough access to property it
owns behind the tank farm, Olerud said. He said he was confident the borough and CIA could
come to agreement on what was "reasonable." "All our discussions so far
have been in good faith, so I have no reason that that would stop."
Also at the meeting, borough manager Robert Venables said he expected
the swimming pool open by month’s end, barring any "unforeseen
catastrophes."
Water will be pumped into the pool next week and heated and a ton of
salt will be mixed in before the facility is certified by the state for public use.
"Even with all the delays, we’ll have a lot better system than we had,"
said assemblyman Pete Lapham.
