You reported that Lucy Harrell gave $5,000 to the Haines Borough for “moving Lookout Park.”
I asked Lucy Harrell what her intentions were in giving the gift. Her response: “To start a dialogue about how we are going to move Lookout Park.”
I interpret the gift as a request for action. On Jan. 12, I asked the borough assembly to formulate our response. The borough administration has accepted the money and isolated it in a fund.
Through petitions, letters, public testimony, and now in a grant of $5,000, the community has informed the administration that we want Lookout Park moved. Lucy Harrell has put her money behind that request.
If our intention is to move Lookout Park, then it ought to be done in this first phase of construction, in order to save costs in the construction of the parking lot, in the demolition, movement or recreation of a marine park.
If we direct our engineers today to draft the plans for demolishing Lookout Park and creating a new marine park within the scope of phase one construction, we will be money ahead.
If our intention is not to move Lookout Park in a reasonable process, then I suggest that the appropriate response is to return the funds to Lucy Harrell.
In either scenario, I believe strongly that a public hearing on the issue is warranted.
Debra Schnabel