The harbors situation is serious business, folks. Haines Borough owns the north end of Lutak Dock, just past the ferry terminal. The engineer’s report from October 2014 says it “is living on borrowed time,” and “does not meet current U.S. Army Corps of Engineers minimum factors of safety for cellular structures.” Read the first page summary of this report on the borough webpage; click on Ports and Harbors department at the bottom, the Lutak Dock structural assessment comes up. We have all seen the large sinkholes by the ferry office they are now fixing. They are not fixing the Haines part. There is a patched sinkhole near where the forklifts for Alaska Marine Lines carry containers on and off the barge. We’ve known for a decade Lutak Dock needed attention and still do not even have engineered plans for fixing it. Not only is our entire borough permanent fund of $15 million at risk (cost to fix Lutak), but we will be lucky not to kill a man. So what are we doing? We are building a gigantic steel wall downtown that will need maintenance funds relentlessly. The only thing the harbor expansion project will do for fishermen and other boaters is raise their moorage rates. I am sponsoring a town meeting about the harbors on Monday, June 15, 6 p.m. at the assembly chambers. Come and air your concerns and let’s figure out if there are any solutions.
Joe Parnell