As part of the manager’s draft 2023 budget, Haines Borough staff published a six-year capital improvement project list devised through a new program that let community members directly submit proposals to the borough.
Staff reviewed more than 50 suggestions and compiled a list of priority projects to be pursued over the next six years. The list has more than 30 projects for the upcoming fiscal year, ranging from new election tabulators to road repairs to senior center flooring. Much of the funding will come through grants, but over $900,000 would come from the borough’s capital improvement fund, which holds sales tax revenue.
Thirteen community members submitted ideas, with some overlap, and staff submitted the rest.
Only three community submissions were included on the list, but some staff proposals incorporated community input.
Two of the public’s suggestions would be slated for next fiscal year: upgrading the ballfields at Mosquito Lake and Oslund Park (on Sawmill Road) and doing a feasibility study to rebuild the Excursion Inlet boat harbor.
The other public proposal selected by staff is to build a facility near the borough administration building that would serve as an ice rink in the winter and tennis or pickleball court in the summer. Construction wouldn’t start for at least six years, and there would need to be community support.
Other public suggestions — to upgrade the HVAC system at the pool and to improve water access at the Klehini Valley Volunteer Fire Department — were incorporated into proposals from borough staff. Both projects would be scheduled for fiscal year 2025.
A proposal from the Mosquito Lake Community Center to fund equipment like a snow blower, lawn mower and septic tank was rejected and referred to the borough manager because it’s “not actually a capital project,” Fullerton said.
The capital improvement fund, according to borough code, is intended to pay for “costs of constructing or otherwise acquiring public works machinery, equipment and other real and personal property requiring substantial capital investments.”
Three ideas from the public were submitted after the program’s March 1 deadline. Two regarded expanding recreational trails in the borough and one suggested buying a cabin at 25 Mile to rent for public use. Those proposals were referred to the Haines Borough Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee, Fullerton said.
Fullerton said the program, which was announced in January, didn’t get as much engagement as she had hoped, but staff expected low involvement because the program was rushed for this year’s budget cycle.
Borough staff plans in the future to seek public submissions in October, giving community members and staff several more months to think through proposals.
“The reason we were intrigued with this new program is that it’s all about community engagement,” Fullerton said. “We want residents guiding the community in terms of what they want with capital projects.”
Fullerton pointed to the proposal to rebuild the Excursion Inlet boat harbor as “a really great example of something that came from the community” and that borough staff didn’t have on its radar.