Promotions and retirements at the Haines Borough mean residents will be seeing new faces at the office and around town.
Administrative assistant Kathy Friedle is retiring after 15 years with the borough. Friedle started as the education coordinator for the Sheldon Museum in 2001 and was hired on as a full-time administrative assistant in 2014 after working in the position part-time for two years.
Friedle, whose last day is Sept. 30, said she will spend time traveling and will stay in Haines.
Manager Bill Seward said this week he is looking at turning the administrative assistant position into a planning technician job to support new planner Holly Smith, who starts on the job Monday.
“It would be nice to have more than one code enforcement officer. There are a lot of systemic problems that we are seeing in the borough, mostly encroachments on right-of-ways and things (like that),” Seward said.
Seward said he would want to start with an education campaign and give residents time to fix the problems before moving into enforcement mode.
Deputy clerk Krista Kielsmeier has been promoted to executive assistant to the manager, though the position will work primarily with public facilities director Brad Ryan. Kielsmeier will stay in the administration building until a new deputy clerk is hired, then move to Ryan’s office in the Public Safety Building.
Mechanic Will Hickman was promoted to public works superintendent, following the recent retirement of Ralph Borders. The borough is advertising for an equipment operator/maintenance worker to replace Hickman.
The borough also is advertising for a permanent, full-time EMT/firefighter; a seasonal, part-time EMT/firefighter; a temporary, part-time property data collector; and a part-time lifeguard.