Assembly sets summit
on port toilets project

By Jessica Edwards

The Haines Borough Assembly this week set a special meeting with advisory committees in hopes of deciding a plan for restrooms at the Port Chilkoot Dock, a project that has stymied borough leadership for several years.

The assembly meets with the borough’s planning commission and tourism advisory board at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 30, in the assembly chambers to vote on a plan.

In the meantime, the assembly and members of the public asked borough manager Tom Bolen to expedite final construction of temporary restrooms to coincide with the first port call of the Sea Princess to Haines on July 7.

“The port-a-potties smell like an outhouse and act like an outhouse,” said tour operator Bart Henderson, who said the lack of infrastructure at the dock sent an unwelcoming message to ships. “This temporary restroom is a big deal. This needs to be a high, high, high priority.”

The borough is building 9-by-32-foot portable restrooms with modern plumbing and fixtures in-house to replace port-a-potties. It is estimated to cost $35,000.

Work remaining on the portable building includes installing flooring, paneling, stall partitions, fixtures and trim, Bolen said.

The assembly discussed permanent plans for restrooms at the dock, and at the suggestion of assemblyman Doug Olerud, decided to meet with advisory committees and engineers in hopes of agreeing on a plan and determining a price tag.

“It’s crazy,” said assemblyman Scott Rossman. “It’s been five, six, seven years and we can’t build a bathroom. What is wrong with us?”

Total costs for the project have been a moving target. Initial estimates last year priced facilities on pilings at $800,000. The price tag for facilities on shore, including expanded, paved parking, concrete block or earthen, armored retaining wall, jumped from $1.2 million to more than $2.5 million due to project add-ons by engineers and to incomplete estimates by Bolen.

Planning commissioners June 11 said they preferred an option the borough was considering a year ago that set the restroom and pavilion on steel pilings, which Bolen said would expedite permitting.

But the borough’s tourism advisory board Tuesday said it preferred facilities on shore, on an earthen embankment armored with rock, and a footprint below the high tide line. The option expands space adjacent to the dock.

The assembly briefly revisited the idea of purchasing an empty lot across the street from the dock owned by Brian Lemcke, who last year offered the property to the borough for $230,000.

Rossman advocated buying Lemcke’s property and building restrooms immediately, but Olerud said locating restrooms across the street would cause traffic and safety problems. Olerud said it was unlikely a project would materialize before next season.

The assembly also discussed remedying poor upkeep of borough properties, including dirty public restrooms and overgrown grass.

Mayor Jan Hill said residents should pitch in to keep the community looking sharp.

She commended resident Dave Pahl for mowing the overgrown lawn at the borough’s vacant elementary school last week. “It renewed my faith in the good old days and the way things used to get done.”

Reacting to “the borough getting slammed from one end to the other” in the CVN last week, Hill said she remembered “a time in Haines when we didn’t expect our government to do everything for us.”

Assemblyman Steve Vick said the borough should redouble its efforts to maintain public facilities. “We shouldn’t be relying on residents to upkeep the town. That’s the borough’s responsibility,” he said after the meeting.

Olerud said besides the visitor center restrooms, which were cleaned by a contractor, cleaning public facilities at Fort Seward, the boat harbor, Tlingit Park and at Oslund Park was a responsibility of the public works department.

Olerud said public works also needed to be notified the school district was no longer responsible for cutting grass at vacant school properties.

The assembly considered ways the borough could help the Chilkoot Indian Association complete water and sewer work for its planned subdivision off West Fair Drive.

Bolen at the June 9 assembly meeting said the tribe should look for other solutions as the borough couldn’t spare the cash, but the assembly Tuesday discussed options such as a low-interest loan or swapping projects.

The CIA has $2 million in grants in the bank, but the money is dedicated for road construction, leaving it $1.2 million short for water and sewer extensions.

Terms of a government-to-government agreement proposed by the CIA include that the borough would transfer $1.2 million within 30 days and, in return, would obligate $1.35 million in Indian Reservation Roads funds for borough road projects over the next three years.

The CIA proposed to administer and manage borough projects at no additional cost. Return on investment is estimated at 10 percent, much higher than the fund balance was earning in reserve.

Tribal administrator Greg Stuckey said the borough could use tribal funds to leverage state and federal grants.

Assembly members were loathe to dip so deeply into the general fund balance, and asked Bolen to work with tribal administrator Greg Stuckey on other possibilities, including a long-term, low-interest loan or project swap.

Olerud said he would rather the borough oversee its own projects and allocate funding on an annual basis during budget time.

In other business, the assembly voted unanimously against purchasing two, hybrid SUV police vehicles, as only one dealer bid to provide the vehicles. The manager was directed to do additional research.

Assemblyman Norm Smith and Olerud questioned if vehicles were large enough and Olerud suggested purchasing one as a trial.

The assembly scheduled an ordinance disallowing pit privies and outhouses within the townsite for a third public hearing July 14 and set a special meeting at 9 a.m. June 26. That meeting is to award a bid for the Letnikof Dock boarding float.