Heightened citizen participation marked 2015, a year in which residents challenged municipal leaders on a range of issues, and seemingly small matters spawned prolonged debates.
Harbor expansion plans and a proposed minor offenses ordinance touched off months of give-and-take, but residents also raised questions about borough meeting procedures, funding for studies of helicopter noise and the police department, and a perceived, hard-nosed approach toward nonprofits representing seniors and pets.
Emotions boiled over at public meetings where leaders were called “insane” and citizen concerns were labeled “bullshit.”
The June resignation of borough community and economic development director Bill Mandeville seemed to epitomize the mood. Mandeville, whose projects included developing a “public participation plan” aimed at bringing civility to government relations, said he quit after being bullied by coworkers.
The year started with residents packing the municipal chamber to oppose borough manager David Sosa’s proposal to sell Mosquito Lake School and ended with Mayor Jan Hill reprimanding the community for being “hateful and vindictive.”
Sosa broke his contract and left town, following a similar departure by superintendent Ginger Jewell, whose approach to managing the borough’s schools also hit resistance. Neither lasted two years on the job.
Against the backdrop of local friction, cuts by the State of Alaska to programs and services arrived as an apparent harbinger of leaner times ahead.
State legislators eliminated funding for the state forestry office, slashed ferry service and ended weekend snowplowing. A bleak outlook for future state funds prompted Lynn Canal Counseling service to cease operation as an independent nonprofit. Cuts were proposed to the Department of Fish and Game and to public broadcasting.
The Haines Borough considered hiring a lobbyist to help stave off future cuts and at year’s end, Alaska Gov. Bill Walker called for the first state income tax in 35 years.
In 2015, private sector investment provided the most hopeful signs that the town’s best days still may lie ahead.
On Main Street, the $4 million Aspen Hotel opened in June and three months later an expanded Haines Brewing Co. building served its first customers on the lot next door.
Contractor Roger Schnabel sought permits for a harbor boat-repair business and possible bar and restaurant. A chiropractor who moved here in 2013, Dr. Chris Thorgesen, bought the Elks Lodge in March and the Coliseum Theater building in August. He renovated the lodge and reopened it as a card-lock private gym and said he would lease the old theater and video store as a restaurant.
The theater had been owned by the Gross family for 85 years, but the building has been shuttered since 2009. “My ultimate goal is to make Haines the town I want to live in,” said Thorgesen, who also purchased the former Mountain View Motel.
The town’s economic indicators provided only a murky outlook. Lodges and stores reported flat or decreased summer sales, due partly to unscheduled ferry schedule changes that neutralized an expected gain in visitors from cheaper gasoline prices. Reduced salmon values cut the gross value of the commercial gillnet catch in half, a loss of more than $5 million. The town said goodbye its only insurance company and two businesses – King’s Store and Anytime Taxi and Tours – closed for winter. Haisler’s Hardware ended 45 years of operation on Main Street.
But real estate agents said property and house sales were on the rise. Borough officials reported a 2 percent gain in sales tax revenues, despite a drop in fuel prices, and Constantine Metal Resources sought permits for expanded exploration at the Palmer site. Freeride World Tour, an international ski competition that brought dozens of skiers here in two weeks March, committed to bringing its heliski spectacle to town for the next two years.
Notable improvements to town included the borough’s landscaping and a bathroom project at Picture Point, reconstruction of the Battery Point trail by the state Division of Forestry and completion of an interpretive forest trail near the Haines School by the Chilkoot Indian Association.
Residents countered state funding cuts and tight borough budgeting with support for favorite facilities. The Foundation for the Chilkat Center for the Arts made $200,000 in upgrades to the building’s auditorium and lobby; a Friends of the Pool group was launched and public library supporters laid out a plan for expansion, then expanded on it.
“They really want to see us thinking about 10 years from now,” library director Patricia Brown said of the philanthropic Rasmuson Foundation, which is expected to help fund the estimated $1.2 million project.
Local nonprofits made headlines in 2015. Organization leaders held group meetings to discuss mutual support as the Haines Borough reduced grant amounts and adopted stricter standards for community purpose tax exemptions.
In addition to creating displays in empty storefronts downtown, Alaska Arts Confluence organized monthly “art walks” that attracted crowds on Friday nights and started into a public art and signage project at Fort Seward. Volunteers for the Southeast Alaska State Fair erected a 44-foot climbing wall and zipline tower at the fairgrounds. Becky’s Place leased its first home for domestic abuse victims.
In a development thick with symbolism, the conservation group Takshanuk Watershed Council purchased the 50-acre Jones Point property formerly owned by Klukwan, Inc., a local Native corporation that made much of its profits logging. Ideas for the site include wetland improvements, trails, and establishing a native plant nursery. “We’ll have a home, so to speak,” said executive director Meredith Pochardt.
The Chilkat Valley Preschool wasn’t as lucky. Facing a deadline for vacating the borough’s Human Resources Building, school officials considered a site on Willard Street or purchasing its current building before the the borough school board stepped up with a conceptual offer to find space for the program within the walls of the Haines School.
But in October, teachers and administrators said it couldn’t be done. At year’s end, the preschool entered another conceptual agreement, this one with the Haines Borough, for a planned addition on the Haines Senior Center.
At the Haines Borough School District, staff turnover, a districtwide computer initiative and improving homseschool offerings made headlines. The district, that at one time saw few jobs open up, brought on 10 new teachers and administrators for 2015-16. Computers were introduced into elementary classrooms, but in fewer numbers than initially proposed, a response to parents’ concerns that gadgetry would replace face time with teachers.
Years of problems at the Haines Borough Police Department were spotlighted in 2015 when the borough hired a consultant to review the department. The study found a “systematic lack of leadership” in the past decade and “a lack of oversight” by former managers and assemblies. The department was below professional standards in a number of areas, it found.
Borough manager Sosa suggested increased pay as one way to attract and retain better officers and chiefs. The cost to the department of high turnover became evident when police discovered a “secret” room at the station that was, in fact, an evidence storage depository.
“No one currently in the police, fire or facility maintenance departments knew what was behind the door,” said interim police chief Robert Griffiths.
The force enters the new year without a permanent chief.
The Haines Glacier Bear wrestlers led local sporting news of the year. Half of the team’s 10 members last week qualified for the state tournament in Anchorage.
Struggling boys’ and girls’ basketball teams inspired the first summer basketball camps in years, and city league hoops returned to the school gym after an absence of about 20 years, this time including a women’s division.
Hockey players delighted in an ice-conditioner gifted to the town by Haines Junction, Y.T., part of an international exchange for 40 sockeye salmon.
Milestones in 2015 included the Jilkaat Kwaan Heritage Center’s receipt of grant funds sufficient to open building next May, the retirement of the jersey worn by local basketball standout Kyle Fossman and the razing of “The Institute,” a Mud Bay Road hippie cabin with a million-dollar view that for decades rented out cheap. “There aren’t many places like that left,” said resident Margaret Sebens.
Deaths reported in 2015 included Polly Budke, Dave McDermaid, Alex Van Bibber, Fred Strong, Susan Luescher, Wendell Terwilliger, John McOmber, Charles Belaski, George Hales, Nellie Dale, Bob Henderson, Jimmy Gojdics, Anneliese Stacy, Marge Matthews, Liz Fisher, Stephannie Quinn, Jay Miller, John Venables, Maxine Brouillette, Rhona Nelson, Vinca Gilman, Judy Berry, Mary Bryant, Ray Menaker, Kathy Phillips, Mirian Cameron, Jeff Shields, Jay Proetto, Dawne Thomsen, Bob Lowden, Steve McPhetres, Don Bertroch, John Dobler and Larry Zehe.