As I sat down to write the 2020 Year in Review, I thought: “I don’t want to relive this year, nor should anyone else.” But tradition dictates an annual recap, which if left unwritten, would end my positive relationship with CVN bookkeeper Jane Pascoe. Plus, the newspaper is a weekly black hole of white space that must be filled. So here it goes:
A January 2020 blizzard that brought 50 inches of snow in two days prompted then-borough manager Debra Schnabel to declare a public safety emergency. She told the CVN she hoped the public would “hunker down” while public works crews cleared roads. The term would soon reappear in a different context two months after the severe weather event that, in hindsight, seems miniscule.
In mid-March, a worldwide pandemic prompted a borough disaster declaration and redefined the way we live our lives. It resulted in economic shutdowns, state hunker-down orders, social isolation, arguments over masking, conspiracy theories, illnesses, high unemployment and budget woes. While depleted ferry service and bears damaging property and getting killed in record numbers also dominated headlines, along with the controversial firings of two borough administrators, a common refrain was heard about town: “2020 is the worst year ever.”
Another disaster declaration came when, less than a month before the year’s end, floods and landslides wrought devastation unlike anything Haines had experienced in recent memory. As local timber framer Cosmo Fudge put it: “December second was a nice little exclamation point at the end of a (crappy) year.”
The beginning of the year showed few signs of a looming crisis. Haines School news was positive. Haines High School junior Wesley Verhamme entered 2020 as a state wrestling champion. The Haines Glacier Bards took second at a state drama debate and forensics meet. The Glacier Bears boys’ basketball team won back-to-back games at home and away. After years of effort, a new sauna was constructed at the swimming pool. But things changed quickly.
COVID-19 all day every day
Since March, not a single newspaper went without a story about the COVID-19 virus pandemic. CVN reporters wrote 285 stories in which the virus was mentioned. In late February, as the number of U.S. COVID-19 cases climbed, local SEARHC staff and borough emergency responders conducted a drill to prepare for dealing with an infected patient. On March 11, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic. Soon after, the Kluane-Chilkat International Bike Relay board postponed its annual race, and Ben Bard and Katie Dickerson postponed their wedding.
On March 11, Gov. Michael Dunleavy declared a statewide public health emergency. On March 17, then-Mayor Jan Hill issued a declaration of emergency as state mandates shut businesses down, limited travel and closed state buildings. Klukwan closed to visitors and the Haines School began virtual learning. The public had to grapple with new terms such as “quarantine,” “shelter in place,” “self-isolation” and “social distancing.” Public meetings began occurring via Zoom, a format that would become widely adopted for virtual meetings. Food and toilet paper disappeared from grocery shelves.
Howsers IGA manager Dylan Beckish watched shoppers “panic buy.” The store ran out of rice, beans, toilet paper, hand sanitizer and wipes, flour and sugar. Beckish said shoppers bought items they might not need when they saw sparse shelves.
“They’re not looking for flour. They’re not looking for sugar. But when they see this,” Beckish said pointing to shelves with few products remaining, “they buy them.”
Heli-ski operators suspended their spring season despite excellent snow conditions and the rest of the tour industry braced for a blow as the Canadian border closed and the Port of Seattle closed to cruise ships, effectively ending cruise sailings to Haines.
In late March, the Haines Borough Assembly approved a “shelter in place” order, requiring that incoming travelers quarantine for two weeks. Dunleavy also issued a self-quarantine mandate.
Neighbors reported mandate breakers to police, and officers told incoming travelers and residents they couldn’t leave their homes.
A week after Bob Lix’s return to town, someone reported him for walking his dog. “The story was we’re endangering everybody in the apartment building by walking our dog in the general area to get to the outside,” Lix said. “I got a personal call from the police chief who said I or my wife or my dog cannot go out the door of my apartment.”
Many local businesses closed and some adapted by offering curbside pickup services. Both business owners and affected employees held their breath for government relief that came in the form of the Payroll Protection Program and the CARES Act, a federal relief bill that provided financial assistance to those who lost income as a result of the pandemic.
The Haines Borough received $4 million in federal relief and an ad hoc CARES Act committee formed to oversee distribution of funds. Money was allocated to households to pay for utilities and garbage disposal, individuals and families with low incomes, affected businesses and commercial fishermen.
In April, state mandates relaxed and the local quarantine requirement for travelers became a recommendation. Some businesses required customers to wear face coverings and continued to keep all or certain parts of their businesses closed.
“We think it is too soon for that to happen,” Mountain Market owner Mary Jean Sebens said of reopening the store’s café. “It seems the better part of wisdom to err on the side of caution and not have to take two steps back when and if we do have COVID-19 in town.”
The Hair Shop and The Rusty Compass opened after being closed for weeks.
“We change aprons in between every client,” Hair Shop stylist Jackie Brewington said. “The capes they use are one-time use. We wash them after they use them. The phones have been a little slow. I think people are still scared and they shouldn’t be. We disinfect the place from top to bottom.”
In addition to the Kluane-Chilkat bike relay, spring and summer events such as Beer Fest and the Southeast Alaska State Fair were also canceled.
By April, unemployment in Haines increased to 27.3%, the highest ever recorded in the Chilkat Valley. In May, it was the highest in the state.
As 2020 Haines High School seniors celebrated their May graduation ceremony with a parade down Main Street, Haines School administrators made plans to begin the 2020-2021 year with in-person classes and numerous mitigation measures including mandatory masking, shortened days and voluntary testing for staff. Klukwan implemented distance learning.
Haines reported its first COVID-19 virus resident case on June 7, a symptomatic male. By July 1, two additional resident cases were reported. The fourth resident case didn’t come until September. Two more residents tested positive in October and a Haines School student tested positive in November. Others who tested positive included Excursion Inlet cannery workers, a contractor from Anchorage and several residents who weren’t in town when they tested positive, bringing the total case count in Haines to 16.
“Tuesday morning is when I noticed it was difficult to breathe, difficult to even walk because I was so dizzy and the endless headache,” said Maggie Martin, who spoke publicly about her symptoms. “At that point, I hadn’t taken anything medicine-wise, just a couple vitamin C tablets. Wednesday it felt like I got ran over by a car.”
She quarantined in a room at the Captain’s Choice Motel.
In September, state health officials told the Haines Borough Emergency Operations Center to prepare to administer a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the year. On Friday, Dec. 18 the first shipment of a vaccine arrived and was administered to health professionals, emergency medical volunteers, Klukwan elders and residents of Haines Assisted Living.
Bearpocalypse
In late-January, the borough’s Bear Task Force, responding to an uptick in 2019 bear activity, discussed purchasing bear-proof dumpsters and changing code to regulate them. It marked the beginning of an impasse between Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologists, who warned that bear attractants in town would ramp up the problem, and a police chief who said residents weren’t to blame.
“People aren’t doing anything wrong but it’s no longer adequate for our environment,” police chief Heath Scott said of bears who no longer had easy access to the landfill. Scott would later shoot and wound a bear that knocked over his garbage can stored outside his home, which prompted an investigation from the Alaska Wildlife Troopers that’s still ongoing.
“One thing that I’m seeing a lot in Haines is sheds and vehicles with food and trash in them are getting damaged,” Fish and Game wildlife biologist Carl Koch said in August, after a bear had broken into a commercial storage facility and a home on Small Tracts Road. “I recommend people clean out vehicles and secure sheds with an electric fence if they contain any food or garbage, even if it’s sealed in an airtight container.”
Koch’s comment came after a wildlife trooper and police shot four bears near a Small Tracts home after two of them tore away the walls of a shed to get to food.
“All of a sudden gunfire broke out. Heavy gunfire,” Tracy Mikowski said of the shooting that another resident described as the “O.K. Corral.” “After a bunch of shots, I saw a bear walking through the woods. I saw two armed people walking after him. Then the shots kept coming. There were dozens of shots. I lost count.”
In September, Kristine Harder was woken up at 1 a.m. to the sound of her fox terrier barking at a bear busting through her front door.
“I was just in overdrive running to lock my bedroom door. My heart was so loud I wouldn’t have been able to hear the bear walking in if it had been,” Harder said. “I think it just opened the door and left when it heard the barking.”
Police first killed a bear in June after the sow had gotten into a resident’s compost pile. Law enforcement cited the Highland Drive resident-one of four residents cited this year for creating bear attractants. Later that month, officers killed a female and two cubs.
Between the January task force meeting and the incident where Scott shot the bear outside his home, bears damaged sheds, homes, garages and the same commercial storage facility multiple times. By November, the police received more than 420 calls related to bears, and residents and police had killed 29 brown bears outside of the hunting season. The borough asked residents to report damage and the associated cost.
The bear task force continues to meet, and recommendations such as hiring a seasonal safety officer have been made. As of yet, no decisions have been made on how to move forward should the bear problem return next year.
Local politics, budget cuts, manager sacking
Budget cuts and the tie-breaking vote to fire borough manager Debra Schnabel also dominated headlines this spring.
The borough faced unexpected shortfalls this year including a loss of the state’s portion of school bond debt payments, about $900,000, and a projected 50% reduction in sales tax revenue.
The borough assembly was opposed to raising taxes to cover the losses, and instead cut the museum, library and police department budgets. The assembly declined to fund the Haines Economic Development Corporation for an additional year, transferred Community Youth Development to the school district and planned for a 3-month summer swimming pool closure.
In May, then-Mayor Jan Hill broke a tie vote to fire Debra Schnabel from her position as borough manager. The firing came after assembly member Paul Rogers asked Schnabel to resign in a private meeting that Hill also attended. The assembly voted 4-2 to suspend Schnabel with pay after Rogers publicly criticized her during the meeting. Rogers detailed several accounts of what he described as failures of leadership. The majority of residents who submitted written and verbal public comments condemned the decision and asked that Schnabel be given an evaluation. The public outcry wasn’t enough to save her job.
Similar frustrations were lodged after the Haines Sheldon Museum board eliminated museum director Helen Alten’s job, a decision it made in order to save money, according to a board statement. Alten filed a grievance against the borough, which is ongoing. The museum board is also considering making the museum an independent nonprofit, separate from the borough. Under the restructure, the borough would still be responsible for building maintenance and some degree of financial support that would be defined by a memorandum of understanding.
Three new assembly members–Cheryl D. Stickler, Caitie Kirby and Carol Tuynman–and incumbent Jerry Lapp were seated after October’s municipal election. Incumbent Brenda Josephson and Helen Alten ran unsuccessfully. Voters also elected Douglas Olerud, who ran against incumbent Mayor Jan Hill.
State budget cuts and maintenance problems kept the Alaska Marine Highway System from providing Haines with ferry service for seven weeks last winter. The loss of service made it difficult for students to travel for activities and seniors to travel for medical appointments outside of Haines. The Glacier Bears basketball teams were stuck in Juneau after planes couldn’t fly. Some residents drove to Whitehorse to fly as weather grounded planes in Haines for long stretches. The service gap inspired a “Save Our Ferries” rally where more than 200 residents gathered at the public safety building to lobby for increased ferry service. In February, the borough assembly subsidized two Allen Marine charters in an effort to provide transportation. On Friday, March 6, residents cheered as the Tazlina sailed into Haines, only 10 minutes behind schedule, bringing the community’s seven-week stretch without ferry service to an end.
A natural disaster, another disaster declaration
On Tuesday, Dec. 1, Haines state transportation foreman Matt Boron’s crews cleared a small landslide at 6 Mile Haines Highway. The debris blocked a single lane of traffic. It was the first of many slides that would fall across the valley.
National Oceanic Atmospheric and Atmospheric Association forecasters put Haines on a flood watch. Two inches of rain fell by Tuesday morning, and forecasters warned that landslides were possible. By Wednesday, Dec. 2, precipitation overwhelmed soil structures, causing slides, debris flows and flooding.
Slides and flooding affected the Haines Highway, Piedad Road, Cathedral View Road and Soap Suds Alley. Young Road caved in. More than 50 slides fell across Lutak, cutting off access to town for two days and power to 46 homes for five days. Several homes on the Lutak Spur were destroyed or badly damaged. Flooding displaced dozens of residents across town. In total, nine Chilkat Valley homes were destroyed.
Rain set loose a massive, 600-foot wide slide Wednesday, Dec. 2 on Mount Riley, which destroyed David Simmons’ Beach Road home, and left him and kindergarten teacher Jenae Larson presumed dead.
A massive search and rescue effort ensued, involving coordination between the U.S. Coast Guard, the Alaska National Guard, Alaska State Troopers, SEADOGS, Capital City Fire Rescue, Juneau Mountain Rescue, the Salvation Army, the Red Cross and more than 100 local volunteers. Beach Road residents trapped on the other side of the slide were evacuated from beaches below their homes.
Mandatory evacuations in several areas left more than 50 families displaced. The evacuees flooded into the Captain’s Choice Motel, the Aspen and the Eagle’s Nest. The dormant Hotel Halsingland reopened to accommodate those who had to flee their homes. The Red Cross arrived to provide shelter and support, and to bolster local counseling services. Donations including clothes, toiletry items, food and money flowed into Haines from across the state.
A record-setting 10 inches of rain fell on Haines in two days, what NOAA forecasters call a 200-year storm. Gov. Michael Dunleavy issued a disaster declaration for the Southeast region in response to damage reports from roughly a dozen different communities.
Continued rain prevented ground search efforts, frustrating the hundreds of volunteers at the fire hall who stood by conducting drills and waiting. State geoscientists reported continued instabilities throughout the Haines Borough.
“It will take time before the soils are back to the way they used to be and freezing is not going to increase that speed,” Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys geohydrologist Ronald Daanen said during a community update at the American Legion. “All exposed areas that have no vegetation because of landslide events now likely will have more instabilities during spring snow melt.”
State trooper ground search efforts were suspended as the debris field transformed into a slurry of waist-deep mud.
A few days after the slides, the Haines Borough Emergency Operations Center told residents living north of Main Street between Piedad Road and Picture Point to pack their bags and be ready for an evacuation notice. That notice continued through Tuesday evening for those living 200 feet above sea level or higher.
A week later the rain let up and patches of blue sky appeared for the first time in a week. Helicopters buzzed through the sky carrying geoscientists who were finally able to make more substantial observations from the air.
Geoscientists remained in Haines to monitor the landscape and water pressure. Haines public works crew patched damaged roads and infrastructure.
Residents volunteered to help neighbors tear out flooded carpets and flooring, and discard ruined possessions. The Grubb family, who live on the Lutak Spur Road, rebuilt a wall that was smashed in by sand.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial donations poured into fundraising efforts for the Simmons and Larson families, and other disaster relief efforts.
Most displaced residents have returned home. Sections of Beach Road, which the EOC classified as an evacuation zone, have been downgraded, and some residents returned to their homes south of the slide to assess damages and winterize. A crack extending south from the original slide fracture has left some Beach Road residents wondering if they can safely live in the neighborhood in the long term.
State geoscientists and geoengineers will continue to monitor the area. The borough will continue to assess damages as it awaits Federal Emergency Management Agency funding and other relief that will support rebuilding efforts.
Good news, finally
The Chilkat River king salmon run met escapement for the second year in a row, the highest number since 2009 based on Fish and Game data. Fish and Game designated the king run as a stock of concern after the run failed to meet escapement goals for several years in a row.
Fish and Game biologist Brian Elliott said the strong performance in the 2019 and 2020 runs has a lot to do with strong runs in parent years. Most of this year’s fish were five years old, produced during the 2015 run.
Four nonprofits received a boon in May in the form of sizable donations from the trust of the late Lucy Harrell, including $1 million to the Chilkat Valley Community Foundation. Harrell’s trust also donated $100,000 to the Haines Sheldon Museum, $200,000 to Haines Assisted Living and $25,000 to the American Bald Eagle Foundation.
Harrell died in September 2019 and, during her years in Haines, donated millions of dollars to local organizations.
Both the girls and boys Haines Glacier Bears cross-country teams were this year’s Region 5 champions, and sophomore MacKenzy Dryden was the regional champion. Four Haines girls placed in the top five spots. Luke Davis placed third and Carson Crager placed fourth.
Dryden also set a school record last held by Stoli Lynch. Grace Long set the third fastest school time.
Becky’s Place Haven of Hope, a nonprofit that assists those experiencing domestic violence or sexual assault, is in the process of renovating a four-bedroom safe house. The new house, roughly double the size of the current two-bedroom the nonprofit operates, was purchased with a $246,000 grant from the state’s Coronavirus Nonprofit Relief Fund.
In June, about 60 volunteers helped cultivate a new “victory garden” at the Mosquito Lake Community Center in an effort to address food security concerns that surfaced during the pandemic. Organizer Erika Merklin has been trying to reinvigorate the community center since earlier this year. The garden provided food to roughly 75 families in the Chilkat Valley. Originally targeted for defunding, the borough assembly provided $20,000 to the center in this year’s budget after volunteers worked on cultivating the land.
Lifelong resident and teacher Lily Boron became the Haines School principal. Boron taught in the school district for 21 years and was teaching secondary social studies, Spanish, cooking, and serving as an administrative intern at the time of her hire.
Deaths
Reported deaths this year include: Bernadette Maust, Freddie Sloan, Mark McNamara, Sherrie Brewington, Anna Stevens, Marvin Leak, Marcia Turnbull, Deborah Young, Robert Bears, Alan Traut, Robert Bruce Hanes, Daphne Ormerod, Patricia ‘Pat’ Kistler, Barbara Ann (Conrad) Puckett, Ellen Rasmussen, David Simmons, Jenae Larson, Johnnie Willard, Phil Reeves and Hal Mathews.
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It’s been a tough year. As we move forward into 2021, I am inspired by a section of writing from Hank Lentfer’s prologue to his biography of Richard Nelson “Raven’s Witness” where he quotes writer Rebecca Solnit.
“…Solnit explores how disasters, both human-made and natural, shatter the patterns that isolate and divide. In towns flattened by winds, in cities leveled by bombs, people emerge from the rubble and become their brother’s keepers. In helping each other survive, she writes, they find a ‘purposefulness and connectedness that brings joy even amid death, chaos, fear, and loss.'”
Haines is no stranger to these patterns of division. The lines dividing “us” and “them” were flooded and reshaped this month by forces that humbled us all, forces more real than any abstract political ideology. As the waters receded, a different landscape was revealed. How we navigate it, I suppose, will be detailed in next year’s annual recap.
