Development of Picture Point is moving forward, with a topographical survey completed in July and grading of the parking area set for fall.
The Picture Point Design Committee recently recommended the Haines Borough buy a $27,500 rest room and $28,000 “Welcome to Haines” sign for the site.
Committee member Barbara Mulford said the group chose the log and stone rest room because of its natural look. “We also considered continuity with the similar bathrooms that are out at Tanani Point,” she said.
The facility’s porch area is covered on three sides by the roof, which would be appreciated by people waiting in line during inclement weather, Mulford added.
The bathrooms won’t block the view, nor will any of the project’s other components, she said.
Public facilities director Carlos Jimenez said it’s his understanding rest rooms will be closed in winter and maintained by borough parks staff in summer.
Jimenez said grading on the northernmost gravel parking area should begin by October. The parking area will be brought up to the grade of Lutak Road, with a 2 percent slant toward the water for drainage, he said.
That same lot will be paved eventually, though Jimenez said he will recommend waiting until the remainder of the project is complete. “Paving is usually the last thing you do,” he said.
The “Welcome to Haines” sign, designed by Alaska Indian Arts, is flanked by two totem poles, much like the sign that greets visitors arriving in town from the Haines Highway.
Committee member Rob Goldberg said the $28,000 sign price tag is pretty inexpensive for totem poles. “It seemed like a low price for a very nice piece of art,” he said.
The sign will also attract people to stop and read interpretive signage at the site. “The point is to make something really attractive so that people coming off the ferry will want to stop and spend time in Haines,” Goldberg said.
Goldberg said the parking area nearest town will probably be minimally developed and not paved.
A conceptual design by Bettisworth North put the project’s price tag at $730,000. The design depicts a park with two distinct areas and parking lots. The design includes amenities – fire rings, picnic tables and a pavilion – and a concrete patio with an inlaid map of the Chilkat River area engraved into the stone.
The borough, however, has only about $320,000 in grant money for the project.
“The architect designed in elements that went way over our budget,” Goldberg said. “The nuts and bolts stuff like bathrooms and picnic tables has to take a priority over the artsy stuff.”
Committee member Judy Heinmiller said it works out that the borough doesn’t have the funds to realize all of the design components, since “the feedback we have gotten in town is less is more,” she said.
“We knew we didn’t have enough money to do all of that, and we wouldn’t want to do it all, anyway,” Heinmiller said, referring to the conceptual design as a “catalogue you’re searching through and then you see what you can afford.”
The Haines Borough Assembly will need to authorize spending for the bathrooms and sign via resolutions.
The committee also will determine what kind of interpretive signs it wants to install at the site.
State Parks has donated five picnic tables to the project.
The design committee is comprised of Meredith Pochardt (Takshanuk Watershed Council), Rob Goldberg (Haines Borough Planning Commission), Barbara Mulford (Haines Chamber of Commerce), Judy Heinmiller (Tourism Advisory Board) and John Hirsh (Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee).