10 years ago
Water, sewer rate increases looming
An ordinance increasing water and sewer rates 5 percent annually for the next three years is set for adoption at Tuesday’s Haines Borough Assembly meeting.
If passed, the combined water/sewer rate for unmetered residential customers would increase from $78.40 today to $91.20 in July 2018.
Manager David Sosa said the increases are necessary to cover operating costs, meet loan obligations, and save money for future improvements to water and sewer facilities. However, even with the proposed increases, the water and sewer department would still not be taking in enough money to fund repairs of the wastewater treatment plant.
At last week’s assembly meeting, assembly member Mike Case asked why the borough wasn’t raising rates further to cover those repairs. “If we have this opportunity to change now, why are we letting it fall short?” he asked.
Sosa said the rates were already “going up considerably” and that the staff and assembly group that worked on the issue wanted to make sure increases were bearable. The ordinance also only addresses the next three years, he added.
“There would likely need to be more increases in the future,” Sosa said.
Assembly member Ron Jackson was leery about the rate chart because of its failure to raise water charges for cruise ship companies. “It seems like we are raising the rates for everybody except the commercial bulk water,” Jackson said.
Under the ordinance, rates for cruise ships remain steady at $4.50 per 1,000 gallons. The service charge is also staying at a flat $50.
The ordinance also plans on transferring $6,000 to $8,000 annually of cruise ship head tax money to subsidize the water fund. Jackson said it seemed like this was indirectly giving money to the cruise ship companies.
“Cruise ships can buy water in any port they visit,” said chief fiscal officer Jila Stuart. “And in Juneau, last time I checked, they pay $4.67 per 1,000 gallons. We don’t want to price ourselves out of the market.”
The ordinance also would eliminate the metered residential rate for customers in the Crystal Cathedrals water system and put those users on the flat residential rate. The borough took over Crystal Cathedrals, a formerly private utility, in 2010.
Two years ago, the borough contracted with Ferguson Waterworks for $26,000 to purchase and install new equipment to make the meter-reading process less time-consuming. The equipment can still be used to read usage on commercial businesses, which are required to be metered, Stuart said.
Former Crystal Cathedrals customers also would see their monthly surcharge reduced by $1.75, from $17.95 to $16.20. Crystal Cathedrals customers pay a surcharge to offset the $370,000 the borough spent on buying the system.
The ordinance also would nearly double the seasonal turn-on, turn-off fee, which allows customers to pay a reduced rate on their utilities when they are out of town or not living in the residence for extended periods of time. It would increase the fee from $45 to $85.
The increases would go into effect May 1.
The ordinance is scheduled for its second public hearing Tuesday.
15 years ago
Nutmeg find leads to discussion of abuse
Parents should be aware a spice commonly found in the kitchen and easily purchased at grocery stores can be ingested with intoxicating effects, police say.
It’s nutmeg.
Police responding to a domestic incident last week found a tin of nutmeg in an unruly teenager’s pocket.
“I don’t think we have a big problem with nutmeg abuse,” said police chief Gary Lowe. “Maybe a few people have discovered this over the internet. It would be nice for parents to realize it’s out there.”
The spice, which can be inhaled or mixed with a liquid and ingested, can have an effect similar to that of amphetamines: euphoria, visual distortions, and even hallucinations.
Taken in large doses it can also cause liver damage, dehydration, nausea, fever, convulsions, and psychiatric disorders. It can cause a condition called “nutmeg psychosis,” marked by hallucinations, irritability, excitement and depression.
A 1978 study in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that, “Nutmeg abuse can be serious. Not only are the psychic effects disturbing and dangerous, but poisoning and death due to fatty degeneration of the liver have been reported.”
Lowe said ingestion of nutmeg as a drug was nothing new but “it never really caught on.”
While it could be harmful, he said, nutmeg isn’t addictive. “It would be nice for parents to file it in the back of their brains. If they go up to their kid’s rooms and see a tin of nutmeg, ask them if they are in cooking class.”
Nutmeg is among several household or over-the-counter substances, including cold medicine and diet pills, commonly abused as recreational drugs by teenagers.
25 years go
Bears clinch tournament top seed
The Haines Glacier Bear boys finished a season sweep of Petersburg last week, beating the Vikings in a pair of games in Petersburg.
The wins give the Glacier bears a lock on first place in the northern tier of the Southeast 3A standings, ensuring the Glacier Bears a first-round bye in next month’s Southeast tournament.
Coach Don Nash said the team has responded well to a game plan that includes all players on the roster. “I told the guys if they get a big lead established we’ll go into an 11-man rotation and that gives them incentive to really put out.”
The approach worked against the slower, shorter Vikings, with Haines scoring 50 and 51 first-half points in the series. “That’s a substantial amount of scoring.” Center Ben Egolf led the Glacier Bears Thursday with 24 points.
Nash called Friday’s 99-67 win the team’s best of the season, with 10 scorers making 65 percent of shots attempted.
Players who had been slumping snapped out of it against the Vikings, Nash said. Senior Ryan Josephson was two for three from the field and eight for 10 from the free throw line. “He came out of a shooting slump, especially in the second game he made a significant jump.”
Game high-scorer Tyler Healy was 10 for 14 from the field and five for seven from the free-throw line for 24 points.
Nash said the team will work on its half-court offense during the week-long layoff leading up to the Feb. 25-26 series with Juneau. “I don’t want to have just one style of game. We need to be versatile enough to do both well. We’ve got the speed, height and intelligence to go with what we do even when we get into a close game, and that’s a half-court game,” Nash said.
Nash said the team will spend the week conditioning and scrimmaging with players coming to town for the Dick Hotch Memorial Tournament.
Egolf is the statistical leader of the team through the Petersburg series, averaging 17.8 points and 12.1 rebounds per game. The senior’s 78 percent free-throw shooting average is also the team’s best.
Healy is next, with 16.1 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. Sophomore Wes Hopkins is the team’s assist leader with 41 for the season and tied with Egolf and Healy in steals with 27.
“We’re faster with Wes in the game. He’s creating most of those assists off his steals, and he’s only playing about 16 minutes per game,” Nash said.
35 years ago
Former Haines police chief arrested
Former Haines police chief Clifford Christensen was arrested in Anchorage Monday, six years after he left here trailed by a warrant for his arrest.
Christensen is charged with three misdemeanor counts of theft for allegedly keeping $250 cash from a bank deposit intended for the Haines Volunteer Police Reserves. The action reportedly took place in late September 1983, and is a class A misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison and a $5,000 fine. Christensen served as chief here from 1981 until early 1984. He was arrested Monday evening at the Dimond Center Mall, the site of one of two Mrs. Fields Cookies stores where he worked as manager. He is being held in an Anchorage jail on $5,000 bail.
The warrant for Christensen’s arrest was issued February 16, 1984, two weeks after he resigned from his position as chief under pressure from the Haines City Council.
At the time, the city council refused to specify why they asked for his resignation, although they did acknowledge a state trooper investigation of the chief was under way. Christensen had been suspended from his job Jan. 17 and left the state two days before the warrant was issued, State Trooper Quentin Higgins said this week. Anchorage police captain Gary Novacky said the outstanding warrant for Christensen was discovered in the course of a separate police investigation.
Police Monday were probing the disappearance of $671 from a safe at the downtown Mrs. Fields Cookies store Christensen managed when background checks apparently revealed the outstanding warrant.
Anchorage police would not comment on that case except to say that it was under investigation. They would not say if Christensen was a suspect in the recent case of the missing dough.
Cookie store worker Ed Mason said he was “shocked” by the news that his boss was taken in. He described Christensen as “usually pretty calm, cool, and collected.” Although he probably didn’t have to, Christensen often baked the store’s cookies himself, Mason said.
The net of justice may have been closing on the former police chief from several directions. Current police chief Bob Smart also heard of Christensen’s whereabouts Monday when he received a call from an anonymous tipster. The caller asked if the warrants for Christensen were still valid, then identified the former chief as a Mrs. Fields Cookie Store employee.
Smart said the call sounded long distance, and the caller offered no motive for his involvement. The chief said he followed up the call by faxing a copy of the arrest warrants to Anchorage police Monday night.
Smart said Wednesday he was surprised to learn Christensen had returned to Alaska, as the misdemeanor warrant wouldn’t have been served out of state due to the expense of extradition for a relatively small crime.
According to KHNS news, the former chief returned to Alaska in October when transferred to Anchorage by the cookie company.
Christensen was arraigned Tuesday in Anchorage court, and is set for a further proceeding here on Friday, via teleconference.
When little could be determined about Christensen’s life since leaving Haines, he had learned to bake a tasty cookie, Mason said. “We’re all good cookie-makers. It’s our job.”
50ish years ago
Petersburg prepares perennial pentathlon
The Petersburg Women’s Athletic Assn. wishes to invite all women over 19 to participate in their annual pentathlon in Petersburg April 19.
Pentathlon events will be:
2-mile bicycle race
50 basketball free throws
Best of 3 baseball throws
200-yard swim (in the Petersburg Olympic swimming pool)
A contingent of Haines women is forming now, and anyone interested is invited to call Sue Jensen 766-2319.
If ladies wish to bring their husbands with them, the Athletic Assn. is providing a ping pong tournament for them.
Housing will be arranged.