January 27, 1969
WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE… in the street… under the street… but not in the pipes, so City of Haines maintenance men spent their Saturday locating a water main break under the new blacktop of Second Avenue. By the time they had located it and patched it, the city was out of water.
To everyone’s surprise, as soon as the patch had been made, the water returned even to the highest houses, which has led maintenance chief Frank Wallace to speculate that the city’s springs are doing better than anyone had expected.
However, says Wallace, conserve water. Breaks can occur at any time; the city can lose water as it did Saturday; care is needed so that drinking water and fire-fighting water is not in short supply.
January 27, 1994
Liability and safety concerns raised by a recent Mud Bay fire have prompted the Haines Volunteer Fire Department to stop responding to calls outside of fire service districts.
According to fire chief Roc Ahrens, the department’s practice of dispatching a small crew and a 250-gallon pumper truck to blazes outside service districts was questionable because it called on firefighters to make decisions that run counter to training and could put lives in danger.
Three fire service districts cover almost all the valley outside the city except Mud Bay Road beyond Carrs Cove and Lutak Road between 6 and 9 Mile.
Although residents outside service districts don’t pay for fire protection, Ahrens said it’s been unwritten policy to send one truck and trained volunteers to tackle a fire’s most threatening front in those neighborhoods.
Besides risks inherent in a minimal response and jurisdictional questions about the fire department’s role outside of a service area it’s also unclear whether the city’s workman’s compensation insurance would cover volunteers in such situations, Ahrens said.
January 29, 2009
The Haines Borough Assembly Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution supporting projects developed by Alaska Power and Telephone to provide the borough with a new, cost effective, environmentally appropriate, reliable and renewable source of electricity.
AP&T had hoped Jan. 13 to gain assembly support specifically for design and construction of a hydroelectric project at Connelly Lake in the upper Chilkoot River valley, but the assembly wasn’t ready to commit.
Assembly members met Jan. 21 to rework AP&T’s resolution, leaving out specific mention of Connelly Lake or a recently proposed project at Schubee Lake above Taiya Inlet and adding stipulations reflecting community concerns about cost, reliability and the environment.
Borough manager Tom Bolen said Tuesday the borough’s resolution of support would be enough for AP& T to continue forward.