During the Sept. 22 assembly meeting, assembly members discussed the Lutak Dock, Four Winds Resource Center’s continued rental of a borough building and more.
Changing diapers for 29 years
Kicking off his mayor’s report, Tom Morphet read a proclamation honoring Haines resident Kim Larson. Larson has provided childcare in Haines for the last 29 years, as the owner and operator of “Kids R Fun Childcare.” In this proclamation, Morphet listed off accolades, saying childcare providers like Larson “serve a critical role in our community’s economy, making it possible for parents to hold employment, make ends meet.” Larson provides care to children from ages four weeks old to 12 years and is currently the only licensed provider offering infant care.
“Larson’s dedication to the children of the Chilkat Valley is a testimony to our hard work, dedication and abiding care for our valley’s most precious and vulnerable citizens,” said Morphet before unveiling a bouquet of flowers for Larson, who was sitting in the audience. As Larson went up to get the flowers and a copy of the proclamation, the room filled with applause from assembly members and audience.
While on the topic of childcare in the Chilkat Valley, Morphet read from a “Haines childcare by the numbers” flyer with numbers accumulated by the Juneau-based Southeast Childhood Collective which also includes the Chilkat Valley Preschool, Chilkoot Indian Association, Haines Borough school, Larson and Morphet.
According to the report, out of the 195 children ages birth to nine, in the Chilkat Valley around 122 need childcare. Between Larson’s childcare program and the Headstart program, there are 25 licensed spaces available for children.
Borough manager Alekka Fullerton said that she was contacted by the Chilkat Valley Preschool saying they had a plan to provide a preschool co-op for the winter. This means parents would go and take care of each other’s children, while still using the facility. She said she saw no problem in this because “it would still be providing a full-service nonprofit preschool education facility.” Kim Larson questioned if their license would cover that, to which Fullerton responded that the Chilkat Valley Preschool might lose their license.
Lutak Dock
Moffat & Nichol sent three options for the borough to consider to move forward with the Lutak Dock replacement. Option 1A is nearly $5 million over the $24 million in project funding, while the other two options are below this, sitting around an estimated cost of $20 million and $20.73 million. Fullerton said that “since time is of essence, we have gone ahead” and requested that borough contractor Solstice Consulting “proceed with option 1A for permitting purposes.” The permit application was due by the end of September.
She said the borough will still be able to advance options 1B or 1C. She said that this permit is a mechanism so that the borough can get to the point of putting out a request for proposal.
“I also agree with (assemblyman) Eben Sargent when he said we do not know what it’s going to cost until we get that RFP out there and we get the proposals back,” Fullerton said. She said that a separate request for proposals for a project manager position closed on Friday and got two responses.
Fullerton said that the borough got an invitation to submit an application to the Denali Commission that would bring in an additional $1 million. She said she also talked with Delta Western to see what kind of financial contribution it could make to the borough.
“We are hoping it will be in the neighborhood of $1.5 million,” Fullerton said. She said that they have not directly talked with Alaska Marine Lines because it is a “little bit differently situated,” and said that she is worried any financial contribution costs would be passed onto residents through increased shipping costs. Fullerton is planning on bringing a resolution to the next meeting to “take action” on the applicants for the project manager position.
Four Winds Resource Center
The Four Winds Resource Center is working with the assembly’s Government Affairs and Services (GAS) Committee to come up with a system that would allow it to become independent. Currently, the center leases a school building in Mosquito Lake and 2.5 acres of land.
Fullerton presented the assembly with a six-year memorandum of agreement with the center that would transfer the cost of utilities and snow removal to the nonprofit organization. Outside of the $30,000 service-driven contract that the center will receive, the borough would continue to cover the cost of insurance, since it is a borough building, and maintenance for utilities like the septic system and boiler.
“This is designed to be a mechanism so that the Four Winds Resource Center can wean themselves off the support that the borough has been providing them,” Fullerton said. One of the requirements for the center is to provide a quarterly list of its community services prior to receiving a quarterly payment from the borough.
Assembly member Mark Smith said in the spring of 2025, he constructed a resolution that would split up the 11 or 13 acres of land where the center currently is, and sell off the lower property where the center is not located. This idea did not come to fruition. Fullerton said that the planning commission considered this idea but did not recommend selling it.
“If you give a six-year MOU, this is not weaning, it’s going to drag it out for six more years,” said assembly member Cheryl Stickler. Fullerton said that the reason for a six-year lease instead of a shorter lease was to allow the nonprofit to apply for grants in a secure position.
The assembly, led in a decision by Smith, voted to postpone the introduction of the ordinance to the Oct. 13 meeting.
Alaska Passenger Access Act
During the manager’s report, Alekka Fullerton brought up a statewide conversation that she has been having about the “intended and unintended consequences” from a piece of legislation, called the Alaska Passenger Access Act, that Alaska Representative Nick Begich is introducing. Currently, through the Passenger Vessel Services Act, foreign-flagged vessels are required to stop in a foreign country, like Canada, before coming to Alaska. The legislation proposed by Begich would change this so that ships carrying over 1,000 passengers could forgo the requirement if they stop at a qualifying Native American port instead.
To be a qualifying Native American port, the ports need to be majority owned and controlled by an Alaska Native corporation, placed entirely on Native-owned land acquired through ANCSA and located in a borough with fewer than 6,500 residents at the time of enactment.
This legislation has not been introduced yet.
“This would be a huge boon to Huna Totem with respect to their Icy Strait port because they are really the only ones so far that are set up to receive such big ships,” Fullerton said. The borough is still trying to understand how this legislation would affect Haines. The Haines cruise ship dock would not qualify. But Fullerton thinks this legislation could bring ships to Alaska for longer periods of time as they would no longer have to stop in Victoria, B.C. or other Canadian ports to satisfy the current requirements.
EMS billing
The borough got its first payment of $1,700 for ambulance services. Fullerton said that this “was great to see” to ensure that all the direct deposits and accounts are working. She said that this is just the beginning, and that they are anticipating getting much more money coming in in the near future.
The borough debuted a plan to charge for ambulance calls last year through a process it called zero balance billing which doesn’t charge any patients out of pocket, but bills what will be covered by insurance.
Billing started July 1, 2026.
Grant transparency
Barbara Nettleton requested that the assembly have grantees submit an expense report or detailed explanation of how they used the funds given to them by the borough. Nettleton used the $10,000 appropriation to the Chamber of Commerce for Fourth of July as an example of wanting to know what exactly the money was used for. The $10,000 was an appropriation to the Chamber, allocated by the assembly, therefore it is not a grant award. Fullerton said that the assembly could ask the Chamber, a nonprofit 501c6 organization for an explanation of how itused the money.
Nonprofit funding has been a controversial topic, with questions of both if and how to distribute public funds. In recent years, the assembly has at times used a standardized request form by which the assembly can evaluate requests against one another. In 2025, the assembly did not budget any money to give to nonprofits.
Assembly member Mark Smith said he has had a lot of people ask him how the $75,000 that the borough gave to the Freeride World Tour was spent.
The assembly members unanimously agreed to send this request, with service driven contracts, to the government affairs and services committee to flesh out the details. The committee can create a policy that would make it so each entity that receives an appropriation or donation has to write a report of how the money was used.