Leah Wagner and Nick Schlosstein recently signed a lease to rent a storefront in Dalton City to be the headquarters for Foundroot, the open-pollinated seed company, the couple say the space will be used as an office and a retail store to sell their seeds and other sustainable garden supplies, but they also hope to make use of the commercial kitchen at the old Josie’s Bread and Bagels store. “Plans are evolving, but we want it to be a gathering space around local food,” Wagner said. Foundroot has been run as an online store for the past 12 years. The couple lost the farmland they’d been growing crops on in 2021 and weren’t sure they’d be able to stay in Haines. Now, they say they’ve almost secured a new plot of land, which will let them commit to staying in Haines, where they’re raising a daughter Ayla. “It’s the first time we’ll have a public-facing space,” said Schlosstein. They say they’re working on renovating their new Dalton City space this fall and hoping to be open to the public by November, the main season for seed sales.

Haroldas Subertas of Haines won a 50-kilometer ultra-marathon near Lake Tahoe, Calif. On Aug. 13. The 32-year-old finished with a time of 3:53:07 on a challenging trail on the Nevada side of the Lake Tahoe Basin from Spooner Lake to Marlette Lake and back. Subertas won the Susitna 100-mile race in Southcentral Alaska in February and has several other ultramarathon victories under his belt in the last several years, including in the 200-mile Sangre de Cristo Trail Festival in Colorado last year.

A celebration of life will be held at 2 p.m. on Sept. 2 in Juneau at Auke Bay Bible Church for former Haines resident Paul Rodriguez, who drowned in Mendenhall Lake in Juneau in July. Rodriguez, who was 43 years old at the time, was paddling in the lake and his kayak was later found capsized. Someone later turned in a helmet and GoPro to Troopers, which confirmed Rodriguez had drowned. Rodriguez lived in Haines before moving to Juneau for high school, according to his obituary published in the Juneau Empire. He was remembered for his love of photography, music, and adventure. He is survived by his 20-year-old son, his parents, and his two sisters.

Author