I have talked with the dog breeder/trainers, police chiefs, city managers and/or the K9 officers themselves in Wasilla, Yakutat, and Juneau researching costs involved in having a K9.

Dog purchase: $11,000 to $13,000. (Haines has people willing to gift this to us)

Officer/dog six weeks of training: No cost. (Sponsored by Alaska State Troopers this summer if we can get our dog soon.) Otherwise $6,000.

Equipping one police vehicle for the dog. $3,000. (Someone has offered to pay for this.)

Annual maintenance cost such as food and vet bills: $2,000, unless the dog chokes on dirty socks etc. then the vet bill could be more. (People in town have said they would help with this cost.)

Labor agreement for officer who is in charge of the dog: No cost. Our police force has agreed to deduct half hour per day of duty to use for this purpose.

Purchase of “fake” drugs for local training throughout the year. $3,000.

Not yet covered by donors: Cost of replacing officer while he is training with the dog for six weeks or while taking occasional reinforced training in Juneau or Anchorage.

Let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth. Encourage your borough assembly members and our city manager to support the citizens of Haines to bring a drug-sniffing/search-and-rescue dog here. Make Haines safe! Stop illegal drugs from ever coming to the Chilkat Valley and have a trained dog to help in the search of lost people.

Greg Podsiki

Author