Staff at ProHNS debuted a new survey on Tuesday during a meeting at the library laying out the borough’s participation in a national program called Safe Streets for All.
The program is the result of a collaboration between the Chilkoot Indian Association and the Haines Borough, which is the lead applicant on a grant through the Department of Transportation. The project was awarded just under $200,000 to develop a safety plan which helps identify and rank local roadway and pedestrian safety projects.
The 18 people who attended Tuesday’s meeting quizzed ProHNS staff about how the program worked, the timeline for completing it and when the borough’s planning commission and assembly would be looped into the process.
Helen Alten, who works for the borough, and was one of several employees in the room, pointed out that there are not a lot of ways for people with disabilities to get around Haines easily, and that children were often arriving and leaving school in the dark.
“One of the types of projects that could end up on the list is a lighting project,” said ProHNS civil engineer Ethan Roemeling, who led the meeting. “The plan itself is really what the community wants to make of it.”
The transportation survey opened on Tuesday and closes Dec. 31. It can be filled out online, or downloaded and printed at Safestreetsforhaines.com. Paper surveys are also available at the borough’s administration office, the Chilkoot Indian Association’s administration building, the library, Haines School, senior center, Four Winds Resource Center in Mosquito Lake and the Chilkat Indian Village’s main office in Klukwan.
The federal Safe Streets for All program awards two types of grants, one for the plan development Haines is currently launching and then another for implementation grants that help fund projects identified through the planning process.
The program was born from a federal law, nicknamed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, and signed into law by former president Biden in 2021. According to the Department of Transportation, $5 billion was put into Safe Streets for All grant program, which was supposed to last through 2026 with nearly $2 billion available for future funding rounds.
Several communities in Southeast Alaska, including Metlakatla, Ketchikan, Juneau, Gustavus, and Sitka, have gotten grants to develop action plans. Other communities in the state have made it through that process and are applying for implementation grants, including Anchorage, which was awarded just under $25 million this year, and Yakutat, which got $6.2 million in 2022, according to DOT data.
Roemeling said his company is also looking for about 10 people to serve on a steering committee for the project. Anyone interested can email [email protected].