Wildhaven Wools founder Julia Billings has collaborated with the Homer-based Salmon Sisters to create a new wool colorway they’re calling Wintershore. Billings said it’s based on the luminescent green the ocean gets during the wintertime, contrasted with dark navy and the bright red of seaweed on the beaches. Billings said she comes up with new colors every season, but this is her first collaboration. Both companies are now selling adult and kid sized wool layers. Billings said clothing with the new color palette has been a popular item since she started stocking it in her Main Street store in November.
(Rashah McChesney/Chilkat Valley News)
An orca skeleton that became a science class project in early 2024 is finished and now hanging in the Haines School lobby. Students in Zachary Tourville’s class got the bones of the juvenile orca from resident Gershon Cohen.
Students attending Klukwan School will have reliable transportation again beginning next week. The Chatham School District bought a 40-foot bus from Metlakatla, and driver Shannon Spring has finished his certification in Juneau to drive it. The district’s old bus was damaged in a crash with a moose and Spring said it was sent to Juneau where it sat unrepaired for years. The new bus still has the “Annette Island School District” lettering and will make its first stop of the morning near the Dusty Trails parking lot at 7:50 a.m., then the Chilkoot Indian Association parking lot by 8 a.m., the Cathedral View intersection by 8:10 a.m., 8 Mile of the Haines Highway by 8:20 a.m. and 9 Mile by 9:25 a.m. before it heads to the Klukwan School. That route will be reversed starting at 4 p.m., though the final stops at the Chilkoot Indian Association parking lot and Dusty Trails will swap. Spring said he’ll have about 18 students to ferry back and forth each day and reminds people to watch for children and remember that it is illegal to pass a bus when it is flashing red lights.
Inez Gross has retired from the First National Bank of Alaska in Haines after 36 years, a month and a few days. Gross said 25 is her favorite number, so retiring on Feb. 5, 2025 seemed to be the right choice. Gross started as a teller, a position she remembers having to interview for three times, then worked her way up to being a personal banker, operations assistant and finally the management position of bank officer in 2023. She said she’s going to miss seeing community members every day. To celebrate her retirement, Gross and her husband are planning a trip to see the rock band AC/DC.
McKinley Research will be calling Chilkat Valley residents beginning on Feb. 10 to survey them about cruise ship traffic and what the community wants in the future. Tourism director Rebecca Hylton said the phone numbers should show up on caller IDs as coming from McKinley Research or a Juneau number.
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