All six Haines assembly candidates are sick of debating helicopter skiing.
Keeping basic infrastructure up to snuff iscc a big worry, along with the big piccture of Haines’ future. Then there’s the borough’s $500,000 deficit.
The six candidates outlined problems and concerns, but were light on specific fix-it proposals at a Wednesday forum at the Mosquito Lake Community Center. Twenty-two people attended the candidate forum hosted by the Friends of the Mosquito Lake School and Community Center.
“You can sit on the sideline and bitch and bitch and bitch. Or you can jump in and be the one that people are bitchin’ about,” said candidate Ryan Cook.
Other candidates for the two open seats are incumbent and Deputy Mayor Diana Lapham and challengers Leonard Dubber, Judy Erekson, Heather Lende and Tom Morphet (Disclosure: Morphet owns the Chilkat Valley News, and Lende writes obituaries for the paper)
Different philosophical stances on Wednesday include Dubber calling to shrink the borough’s government. “I think we have way too many studies. We spend too much money. … We need to cut the budget,” he said.
Lende called for optimism and a can-do spirit. Lapham said being an assembly member is complicated with compromises constantly needed.
Morphet contended that small matters have occupied a disproportionate amount of the assembly’s time while big issues about the borough’s future get lost in the shuffle. Cook pushed for creating new jobs, especially for young people. “I understand budgets and can look at the numbers,’ Erekson said.
All six agreed that a major priority is keeping roads and docks in good shape, while also supporting replacement of the aging wastewater treatment plant. However, the candidates forum did not address where new money would come from or what cuts should be made to deal with the borough‘s $500,000 deficit. The exception was Dubber saying: “Government needs to shrink and get out of the way.”
Erekson said more affordable housing is needed.
All six agreed heli-skiiing takes up too much of the assembly’s time with new proposals allowed every three years under the current borough code. “We have bigger fish to fry,” Morphet said.
Candidates floated trial balloons of changing the borough code to allow new heli-skiing proposals every five years, with Cook speculating a 10-year interval could be considered.
“It’s constantly being pushed that we need to change the rules,” Lende said. Dubber added: “I want the borough out of heli-skiiing.”
While the Mosquito Lake crowd did not like expanding heli-skiing, Lapham said the helicopter ventures also have rights under the borough’s code, and the industry is a way for people to make a living.
Discussion was sparse on expanding and upgrading the Haines Small Boat Harbor.
Cook and Lapham supported the proposed upgrades. “The harbor is a prime economic driver for Haines. … We have an opportunity to make Haines harbor a show place,” Lapham said.
Dubber, Erekson, Morphet and Lende did not voice clear-cut opinons. Morphet believed the matter should be taken to a public referendum.
Meanwhile, Morphet argued that the assembly should tackle some issues affecting the local economy and its effects on the residents. He said Haines has one bank, one freight company and one fuel provider, which have created monopolies not pressured to lower prices. He thought the borough needs to study how to bring more competitive prices to Haines in these fields.
In another matter, mandatory trash collection sparked little or no enthusiasm among the six candidates.
A mandatory universal trash collection fee “is another tax as far as I’m concerned,” Lapham said. She also worried about the borough’s one trash collection company having a monopoly with a mandatory universal pick-up fee.
“This is one of those basic services that I’m kind of on the fence about,” Dubber said.
Two more candidate forums are scheduled for Sept 16 and Sept. 21.