(File photo/Chilkat Valley News) Parker Schnabel, right, yells as a Juneau JV player, left, and Haines' Chris Olsen scramble for the ball during a game in January of 2010 in Haines, Alaska.

Parker Schnabel, right, yells as a Juneau JV player, left, and Haines’ Chris Olsen scramble for the ball during a game in January of 2010 in Haines, Alaska. (File photo/Chilkat Valley News)

10 years

Mosquito Lake advocates say they have 6 students

Advocates for Mosquito Lake School this week said they had six students committed to attending the school next year, but haven’t abandoned hope of reaching the 10 required to secure additional site funding and reopen it.

“We haven’t heard back from all the parents. We’re in the process of calling parents and finalizing responses,” said Dana Hallett, facilitator for the Friends of Mosquito Lake and Community Center steering committee.

Haines Borough School District Superintendent Ginger Jewell has previously said she would like commitments from parents of 10 students by Feb. 1 to make preparations for opening the school next year.

Hallett said he “didn’t know if he was optimistic” to reach 10 students by next week, but said getting commitments for that many may be doable by mid-February or March. “I think we have a good shot at it.”

Hallett said Jewell “prefers we have the numbers by Feb. 1, but that’s not a drop-dead date.”

“That ideally gives them the best shot to get a highly-qualified person in (the school’s lone teaching) position,” Hallett said.

Hallett said the Friends group has a demographic survey different from one posted on the school’s website. “We want to know not just about next year, but years from now. We have an interest in knowing down the line.”

The Friends group is promoting the school’s small size and amenities to parents of students in town and at Mosquito Lake. “Kids in town could participate if they found programs at the school rewarding. They have a bus that goes in both directions.”

Hallett said he’s been speaking to borough manager David Sosa about a management plan for a community center at the building that defrays costs of operation through fees or rents. A preschool program, a senior lunch program or a summer arts camp may be investigated, he said.

“We’ve been playing catch-up since this issue came to our attention. It’s a struggle. But the group is very focused and upbeat. People are stepping up to do various projects,” Hallett said.

15 years

Owner chases, nabs snow machine thief

Resident James Sage foiled thieves who went after his snowmachine late Tuesday night, tracking suspects through fresh snow and chasing them down on foot with the help of police. 

“I only caught these kids because they were stupid,” Sage said. “They obviously didn’t know who they were messing with. It just blows me away.” 

Alaska State Troopers also are investigating the theft of their own snowmachine. It went missing last week and was discovered under blankets in the office building at the local golf course. That sled had been parked in the state Department of Transportation yard on Main Street. 

In both cases, the machines were apparently hotwired. Police are investigating possible connections between the crimes. 


This Jan. 7, 1980 graphic shows Carol Flegel’s design which was chosen Sept. 12, 1978 for the official seal of the City of Haines. The seal depicts the killer whale and several aspects of the Haines area. It is colored red, black, blue and green. Flegel was paid $50 for the design. (File graphic/Chilkat Valley News)

20 years

Curbs sought to beaver expansion

Saying the valley’s once threatened beaver population is growing out of control and harming fish habitat, members of the Upper Lynn Canal Fish and Game advisory committee voted Thursday to ask the state for a more liberal harvest. 

The rodents were nearly extirpated from the valley in the 1960s, but are now active at dozens of sites. 

The growth prompted the state four years ago to reinstate a local trapping season. Since then, the take has averaged about nine animals a year. 

But members of the committee said the current five-month season isn’t long enough to make a dent in beaver numbers and that lodge-building threatens important fish habitat. 

They suggested that a contract hunter be hired by the state to reduce the beaver populations in critical areas such as Mule Meadows or that the current trapping season be extended at least a month, to June 15. 

30 years

Two Haines mushers braved rain, sleet, blinding snowstorms and subzero temperatures to finish the Klondike 300 Aurora Sled Dog Derby Tuesday. 

Dan Turner crossed the finish line at Big lake in 23rd Place shortly after noon, followed 15 seconds later by Jim Stanford in 24th. “Got him by the nose,” Turner quipped on Wednesday. 

The two Haines men ran the 300-mile course together, taking turns in the lead. For the last leg of the trip, they had the company of five other teams traveling at about the same place. 

“It was quite a trip,” Turner said of the three days spent traveling a loop from Big Lake to Skwentna, Sheep Creek Lodge and back to Big Lake. 

It was Stanford’s first sled dog race. Turner has run the Dalton Trail 30 here in the Chilkat Valley before, but this was his first long-distance challenge. 

45 years

Editorial: Needed, open meetings

Twice, in as many days, a reporter from the Lynn Canal News was asked to leave a public meeting in Haines. We strongly resent the action. 

On Wednesday evening our reporter was politely requested to leave a city council workshop in which a majority of Haines City Council and Haines Borough Assembly members were present. We contend this was done improperly and in violation of Alaska’s open meeting law. According to law, any meeting of a governmental body is open to the public, with very few exceptions. And even when excepted subjects are to be discussed, a public meeting must first be called, and the body must vote to go into executive session. No subjects may be discussed in executive session except those mentioned in the motion calling for the executive session. This procedure was not followed, yet our reporter was asked to leave. He left only out of courtesy to the Council … and missed discussions of several topics that most certainly should have been public. 

In the second instance, our reporter was at a School Board meeting when the entire board was invited to a meeting being held in the Borough Conference Room. He quite naturally went along, expecting the meeting to be a public one, since no mention was made that it was not. When he arrived he was informed that it was a Haines coalition meeting and that he was to leave. Whether the council members and the assembly members can be called members of the Haines coalition and not our reporter in this instance, we leave that to you to judge. While we feel it is within the Haines coalition’s right to call a private meeting, we seriously question the legality of holding it in the municipal building, which is paid for by the public. 

Situations like these seriously impair the effectiveness of our reporters to inform the public. We work hard at presenting the truth as best we can, and feel we have done a fair and honest job of reporting in the past and believe we deserve better treatment. These incidents have created a suspicious atmosphere and have damaged our reporter’s working relationships with the city, borough and Haines Coalition. 

We intend to push for a stronger open meeting law in Alaska. There are several loopholes in the present law which need to be closed. We agree whole-heartedly with the view expressed in Article 6 of the Alaska Administrative Procedures Act which declares “… governmental bodies…exist to aid in the conduct of the peoples’ business, it is the intent of the law that actions of those units be taken openly; the people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them; the people in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the public to know and what is not good for them to know; the peoples’ right to remain informed shall be protected so they may retain control over the instruments they create.” 

Bill Hartmann

Author