Mayor honors back-to-back state cross country champs
On behalf of the Haines Borough, Mayor Douglas Olerud on Tuesday honored the Haines High School cross country teams, which won their second straight state title on Oct. 9, with a proclamation listing their achievements.
“We the representatives of the Haines Borough do hereby applaud the team for their athleticism, their dedication to the sport of running and their academic achievement. Thank you for representing our community with honor, pride and for bringing home the gold. Haines is proud of you,” Olerud said. The packed chambers burst into cheer, with two dozen high school runners there to receive the standing ovation.
Assembly approves school gym roof replacement, Care-a-Van transit service funding
The Haines Borough Assembly authorized the borough to spend $179,967.00 to replace the leaky Haines High School gym roof. The new roof is to be installed next summer.
The borough assembly also approved $100,029 to fund the Care-a-Van Transportation Services, a door-to-door transit system for seniors. The Catholic Community Service operates the program across Southeast Alaska.
In other news, borough staff are negotiating with Alaska Indian Arts (AIA) about conveying the Parade Grounds at Fort Seward to the borough. “The premise of the potential acquisition is the desire of AIA to rectify its past due property taxes, and to potentially donate a portion of the so-called Commercial Portion to the Chilkoot Indian Association,” borough manager Annette Kreitzer wrote in a Tuesday report to the assembly. Kreitzer told the CVN there are still “lots of steps” before a document with negotiated details will be presented to the assembly for review.
The borough received $37,239.58 in raw fish tax from the 2020 fishing season. That number was slightly above the borough’s prediction of $35,000 for the current fiscal year but well below years past due to an extremely poor fishing season in 2020 and reduced processing at Excursion Inlet. Fish tax revenue was $128,174 in fiscal year 2018; $352,884 in 2019; $226,890 in 2020 and $159,924 last fiscal year.
The borough also received $90,000 in Pink Salmon Disaster funds this year, which could go towards replacing the decades-old U-shaped float at Letnikof, in addition to float design work at the harbor, according to the borough manager’s report in Tuesday’s assembly packet.