I am amazed at the flagrant corruption our current governor exhibits. What state elected official, who won an election because of large out-of-state donors, shows up to a small town, unannounced, with a regulatory oversight official to visit a large international corporate interest who is proposing a project that could wipe out the town’s 2,000-year-old way of life, and can’t even take an hour or two to visit with the elected officials of the town? This sounds like a B movie villain – it’s hard to imagine its happening here. Do they think we are a bunch of moronic bumpkins or what? Come on, it’s a small connected town and we know why the governor came just days after the whole mining permit process was thrown on its head because of the high likelihood the mine’s waste processing won’t be sufficient to protect the Chilkat River. Yeah, the days of “trusting” the government and their regulatory processes are way over – especially when they don’t even care enough to hide their level of corruption, like this current governor and his paid-for DEC crony. I wonder what pay day these two are getting to grease the permitting process for the mine? Folks, there are far better ways to insure our economic vitality than with ruining the Chilkat Valley with this mine. It reminds me of the “O-Ring” disaster on the space shuttle – yes, Morton Thiokol created lots of jobs in Utah too but do you want your job destroying an entire town and a 2,000-year-long way of life for the Tlingits? I’m not against mines or mining – I’m against this mine at the headwaters of the Chilkat River being shoved down our throats by a corrupt and inept government and a greedy international corporation.
Michelle LaBrosse, A concerned, and educated citizen of Haines (not a moronic bumpkin)