Here’s an interesting story. Go on the Haines Borough website, then go down to the departments section and click on ports and harbors. Then pull up the slip wait list. There’s a dead man on it. There are people who left town long ago. There are people who have no address, so how did the harbormaster send them the bill for their annual fee? The point is, people who don’t pay their annual fee aren’t taken off the list. I talked to a couple of people on the list and they told me they didn’t pay their fee. We used this list as part of the reason to build the Small Boat Harbor expansion, but it is baloney. And we let Lutak Dock deteriorate to where it now needs $30 million to fix, according to engineers. Is the state going to pay for that when they find out we lied about the other? The state just went broke anyway. It is like we were running the ball and faked ourselves out. I hope the gas barge isn’t off-loading at Lutak when the sea wall gives way.
Joe Parnell