Bear Trashcans
After much discussion, bear-proof trashcans are finally on the way. The last remaining hold-up in a long saga of free trashcan delivery to Haines residents was approval of $2,250 needed to ship the trashcans from Seattle.
On Tuesday, assembly member Mark Smith raised concerns about lack of documentation of the nonprofit donating the trashcans, and said that while he supported the program, he did not think taxpayers should be asked to pay. He was the only dissenting vote in approving the expense.
Assembly member Kevin Forster and mayor Tom Morphet noted that the $48,000 value of the trashcans themselves, plus $5,000 in shipping from Montana to Seattle, plus $2,250 in shipping from Seattle to Haines, had already been donated to the borough.
More FEMA funding questions
Interim borough manager Alekka Fullerton reported that a dispute over $1.4 million in FEMA funding may be stuck at the federal level.
Haines originally secured the funding in 2020 to repair Porcupine Trail Road in the wake of that year’s severe rainfall. Work was completed in 2023, but controversy arose when FEMA withheld reimbursement and accused the borough of widening the road beyond specifications, failing to consult with Chilkat Indian Village, and allowing Constantine Mining to contribute to the project without proper review. The borough disputed the findings and submitted an appeal in January of last year.
According to Fullerton, FEMA has missed its Feb. 12 deadline to deliver a decision on the appeal. Fullerton said the borough has since been told that “all FEMA projects that are not yet obligated will be postponed.” In her report to assembly members, Fullerton said that might mean a pause on any appeal decision, as well as on any money that might come back with it.
Even without FEMA money, the borough will likely receive state funding to reimburse spending on the project contingent on the FEMA appeal being denied. But now, even that safety net seems uncertain.
The $1.4 million in state emergency funding was obligated last May, and according to finance director Jila Stuart, the borough initially had believed that was final. However, the state sent then-borough manager Annette Kreitzer an email in June that said only 25% of the full funding amount was guaranteed. As for the rest, the state wrote it would “consider funding the remaining 75% of the project’s value contingent upon the Haines Borough pursuing and exhausting all possible appeal options within FEMA’s Public Assistance program.”
Stuart said that she feels the state has made an obligation to pay, and doesn’t know if there are parts of the obligation the state can rescind.
Letnikof Dock Float
The Letnikof Dock float, which critically failed in November, has been out of commission for four months. During that time, the borough decided it was beyond repair, and on March 4 opened bidding on salvage of the float. On Tuesday, the assembly finalized a plan to pay Haines contractor H.L. Tormey $28,000 to remove the float to the Haines Packing Company beach, where Haines Packing will store and salvage the material.
The call for bids initially divided the project into three parts: a main bid for removing the float; an additional bid for securing the float to the beach; and a second additional bid, for disposal from the beach. Three contractors submitted bids for the entire project. Tormey had by far the lowest bid for the removal stage, at $14,000, compared to $130,000 and $85,000 bids from the two other contractors. Tormey also had the low bid for stage two of the project, beating out the other contractors by about $6,000 each. And while Tormey had by far the highest bid for stage three of the project – disposal from the beach – the borough axed that section once Haines Packing Company came forward and offered to take it
Public Facilities Director Brad Jensen, speaking during the meeting, described how Haines Packing Company’s ownership of the beach area limited options for removal. According to Jensen, that meant the only places to put the floats in Letnikof Cove were Packing Company property or on the boat ramp.
Tideline Construction owner Will Tonsgard, whose bid on the project was rejected, said that the best plan he came up with was to bring a tugboat from Juneau and tow the floats out of the cove. Tonsgard said that operating from Juneau – paying for fuel and labor for the tugboat – was a significant cost Haines-based Tormey did not face. The other bidder, Trucano Construction, is also based in Juneau.
There was general agreement that it would not be wise to attempt to fix the float again. The borough, two years ago, spent $140,000 on repairs that lasted less than a year until the most recent structural failure. Jensen said that some components of the float are now too far gone for repair and would have to be removed, which would necessitate installing whole new anchor chains.
Changes at the Public Safety Building
An audit of the Haines Volunteer Fire Department released in December identified significant staffing needs, including a change at the top of the department.
To date, the department chief has been a volunteer position elected by the department. Now, the borough is considering making that a full-time position, appointed by the borough manager and confirmed by the assembly.
Clerk Mike Denker said applications are now open, and public hearings on the position change will be held on March 25 and April 8. Current volunteer chief Brian Clay declined to say whether he would apply for the job.
Over a longer time frame, the department aims to address the size and age of the volunteer force. The department currently has 32 firefighters, 29 of whom are volunteers. Of those 32, seven are 50-59 years old and nine are 60 or older. That’s an unusually high number of firefighters classified as “post-retirement” age, who, according to the strategic plan, would ideally be in training and mentorship-focused roles.
In fact, the average age of the force is functionally even older than those numbers suggest. That’s because the older age group responds to an outsized number of calls. Of the 12 firefighters who responded to 10% or more of calls, only two were under 40 years old.
That issue doesn’t have a quick fix. But while longer-term recruitment and retention strategies are being considered, the department has been conducting training for firefighting with short-staffed trucks.
Volunteer fire chief Brian Clay said that at full staffing, the lead truck in an emergency response would carry a team of six. Right now they are carrying four. However, Clay says this isn’t a significant dropoff in firefighting capability, and that the new training is mostly about drilling which roles to prioritize when arriving on the scene.
Next door in the Public Safety Building, the borough is moving forward with its police chief search, which is down to three candidates. These candidates are Jimmy Yoakum, a former Loudon, Tennessee Police Department officer; Joshua Burkeen, an officer at the Killdeer, North Dakota Police Department; and Patrick Lee Farris, a former Tuscaloosa, Alabama officer.
This is their second go at narrowing down the field to a finalist after their first choice, Gregory Boris, withdrew from consideration following a clash with current interim chief Michael Fullerton.
The three candidates will go before an interview board on March 19. Whichever candidate is selected to go forward will do an in-person town hall and meet with key borough stakeholders.
Also in the news from the police department, HBPD has received a bid for body-worn cameras and is currently in the early stages of evaluating a body-camera program.
Another nonprofit funding delay
Disbursement of $100,000 in nonprofit funding will have to wait another two weeks.
Initial discussions at the Jan. 28 assembly meeting were bogged down by disagreement not only on how to divvy up the funding, but also whether the total amount of funding should be spent at all.
A decision was made at that meeting to “postpone (the resolution) with the condition that all assembly members complete the (scoring) rubric.”
That rubric asked assembly members to score organizations based on merit. Those scores would then be averaged and used to assign organizations portions of the $100,000.
Decision-making based on those scores was on the agenda two weeks ago, but at that meeting, Denker said tabulation of the scoring was incomplete and the assembly decided to postpone.
This week, the same problem arose. Further discussion revealed that the specific problem was that not all assembly members had scored the nonprofits. Assembly member Richard Clement was the only member not responding. And because the January motion specified that “all assembly members” complete the process, Denker advised, and the assembly agreed, that they not move forward with a vote.
Clement did not comment during the discussion, but said later that he was disappointed when the assembly moved to assign the scoring to each assembly member, rather than using already-completed scoring by the government affairs committee. “They created work for me and gave me a task I didn’t anticipate doing,” said Clement.
Clement said that he didn’t want to delay moving forward, but said questions about the delays would be better aimed at those who voted to put in place the ranking process. When asked if he wished he had filled the rubric out sooner, Clement said that he had been ready to vote on it when it first came up and wished the process had not been changed. Clement completed his scoring Wednesday afternoon.
Morphet said after the meeting he worries that this sets a negative precedent. “I think the initial motion obligated the members to do the rankings. It’s the same way you can’t abstain on the dais – you have to vote. If the assembly says it’s going to do something, it has to do it.”
During public comment prior to the discussion, Helen Alten of the Alaska Arts Confluence said she was concerned about further delay. Alten said that the organization’s funding had been requested for Artfest, its major event, which will be held in less than a month.
The assembly agreed to postpone a final decision until next assembly meeting, but adopted a motion to modify the resolution to proceed based on whichever rubrics have been submitted by then.
Making a statement
Mayor Tom Morphet brought a request from Haines Junction mayor Diane Strand to the assembly requesting they speak out in favor of Canadian sovereignty. One might have expected some disagreement on how to proceed. After all, as Morphet said to the Chilkat Valley News when the request came in, it has been at least his personal policy not to litigate national issues at the borough level. As it turned out, this particular issue would be litigated at length not once, but twice.
Initial opposition was from assembly member Mark Smith, who said the statement could potentially be a violation of the Logan Act – a federal law prohibiting citizens from negotiating national affairs with foreign governments without government authorization. Smith described the motion as “bad business,” and advised leaving decisions regarding Canada to the president and governor.
Morphet responded with an opinion from the borough’s legal counsel that the statement would not violate the Logan Act, as it was not a decision or negotiation. Morphet was joined in strong support of the motion by assembly members Loomis, Clement, and Forster. Assembly member Cheryl Stickler also raised concerns. While Stickler said she was “in favor of the concept,” she said she was worried the statement could jeopardize pending federal funding needed by the borough.
When time came to vote, it went according to those divisions: Loomis, Clement, and Forster in favor; Stickler and Smith against. Assembly member Gabe Thomas was absent from the meeting. But while some in the room took that 3-2 vote to mean the motion had passed, Morphet announced the motion had failed. That was because assembly motions require four votes to pass – a majority of all six members of the assembly – even if only five of those members are in attendance.
A number of audience members counting along were audibly surprised when Morphet announced the motion’s failure. As were, more importantly, some members of the assembly. After a flurry of whispering back and forth across the dais between assembly members, the mayor, and clerk, Morphet called a 10-minute break.
When the assembly reconvened, Stickler announced she had not realized that a 3-2 vote would fail and introduced a motion to reconsider the vote. The only vote not to reconsider was Smith. During renewed discussion on the statement, Stickler restated her initial arguments: support for Canadian sovereignty, but concern about funding repercussions.
“There is no doubt in anybody’s mind that Canada is a sovereign nation,” Stickler added. “The idea that there is a request for our small town to make a statement saying this blows my mind.”
Though Stickler’s argument did not change, her vote did. On revote, the motion passed 4-1, with only Smith in opposition.
Beyond the drama of the assembly room, many in Haines are still trying to figure out just how significant the cost of Canadian resentment might be. During the first round of on-again and off-again tariffs in April, tourism director Rebecca Hylton pointed to Beerfest ticket sales as an important bellwether.
Good news for Haines tourism: according to Southeast Alaska State Fair president Jeremy Reed, ticket sales have so far been in line with a normal year. Reed says they’ve sold 65% of tickets since they went on sale at the beginning of the month, with 63.5% of those sales to Canadians.
Still, the picture remains cloudy. Gershon Cohen of the Chilkat Challenge Triathlon said that three riders from Canada have cancelled specifically because of the national conflict. And multiple assembly members talked Tuesday night about conversations with Canadians saying they are currently boycotting the United States. They will now hope Haines’ new statement of support will help.
Rate Changes
Water and sewer rates may be going up, and sooner than expected. The assembly will consider a rate schedule for new increases, which will have public hearings on March 25 and April 8. If adopted, it would go into effect July 1.
Until then, the borough will be operating on the current plan, which was supposed to run through 2026. The borough says the change has been made necessary by expenses outpacing projections. According to finance director Jila Stuart, costs for the water fund have increased 32% over the past four years, compared to 18% rate increases in that same time frame. Same story with sewer expenses, which the borough says have gone up 15% compared to 10% in rate increases.
The new plan proposes yearly 7% increases for water and 3% for sewer fees. Those rates are higher than before, but still lower than the reported rate of increase in expenses.