5:30 p.m. - 7 p.m. Borough assessor Martins Onskulis will give an assessment overview which will include a real estate market overview, a 2025 update and a look at the assessment work that will occur over the next year and in cycles for the next few years. Afterward that presentation, there will be a Board of Equalization training. In the Assembly chambers and on Zoom.

Tuesday, April 28

4 p.m. The borough clerk’s office has been issuing 2026 tour permits. A kickoff meeting for operators will be held at the library. This annual meeting is run by the tourism director and heads of borough departments. The agenda will include parking, and what the rules are for operating in the borough.  


5 p.m.  Shuttle leaves from the Chilkoot Indian Association office for the Youth PhotoVoice Exhibit at the Chilkoot Culture Camp on Chilkoot Lake Road. Learn about the youth perspective of climate change and food security. You can also drive yourself to the exhibit, which opens at 5:30 p.m.

5:30 p.m.  Members of the borough assembly are meeting as a committee to discuss the townsite service area budget. This is one of several hearings taking place between now and June 9 when the borough has projected it will be done with the planning process for the current budget. Chilkat Valley News reporter Will Steinfeld has been following this year’s budgeting process through a series called Budget Nuggets.  What questions do you have about the borough’s budget? Submit them here. 

6:30 p.m. Haines Borough Assembly meeting. On the agenda this week, a new “Taste of Haines” tour permit. That permit proposes a walking tour that would start at the cruise ship dock and take visitors to the Port Chilkoot Distillery, Haines Brewing Company and the Three Northmen meadery and tasting room. The planned season is October through April. The company expects to do two tours a day and estimates about 900 people a year would take the tour. 
They’ll also be discussing accessory dwelling units again. The general idea is to allow individual homeowners to build small rental units on a single-family lot, something that supporters say could help Haines’ housing shortage.   But opponents – many from Lutak and Mud Bay – say that the proposal could cause crowding in single-family neighborhoods. During the last assembly, members voted to send it to the planning commission for review.  Planning commission members recommended a few changes including slightly different minimum lot sizes. They also recommend that all accessory dwelling units require the owner to provide off-street parking. Now the assembly will hold a third public hearing and potentially take a final vote. 
The assembly will also take up a measure that would establish a sewer maintenance service area in a subdivision at Tanani Bay where a sewage outfall is causing issues for residents. Four former Utah residents told the assembly recently that they bought land from developer Don Turner Jr., with the intention of building homes and moving to Haines. But sewage issues could prevent them from moving into completed homes this year.  Turner says he developed the subdivision in 1996 under an agreement that the city would take over the sewage system, but both he and borough manager Alekka Fullerton say no one has maintained or tested the system for decades. The borough attorney’s opinion is that the borough does not have an ownership stake in the system. The state declared the system out of compliance in 2023.  If the measure passes the assembly, voters will see a ballot proposition in October that will establish that sewer maintenance area if the majority of voters who would be in the new service area approve it. 
Assembly members Mark Smith and Eben Sargent both introduced severance tax proposals – that is taxes on certain natural resources when they are exported from the borough. Sargent’s contains a higher tax rate for the material, while Smith’s includes both a lower tax rate, no tax on timber, and – for certain materials – a payment-in-lieu-of-tax structure. Both would have an initial public hearing on May 12. 
Also on the agenda is a petition to pause the 2026 seasonal sales tax that gathered hundreds of signatures during the week that it was circulated in early April,and a discussion of which Lutak Dock design concept the borough should go with. It’s worth taking a look at the borough’s Lutak Dock public comment page which contains both the comments people have already made, as well as answers to questions some organizations have submitted.

Wednesday, April 29
9:30 a.m. - A community climate resilience workshop for Chilkoot Indian Association tribal citizens at the Chilkoot Culture Camp on Chilkoot Lake Road. Lunch provided, or RSVP to the Chilkoot Indian Association for a shuttle ride that leaves from its offices at 9 a.m. Share how climate and extreme weather are affecting you and the community, help build resilience to these events and prepare for the future.

Thursday, April 30

1 p.m. Chilkoot Corridor working group will discuss solutions to improving the traffic in the Chilkoot Corridor. Also on the agenda, the possible reinstatement of a moratorium on tours going to Chilkoot and a potential commercial tour permit compliance policy for Chilkoot Corridor operators put together by the borough clerk and the tourism director. In the assembly chambers and on Zoom. 

5:30 p.m. Community climate discussion at the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood Hall in Haines. Share how climate and extreme weather are affecting you and the community and learn about adaptation strategies. 

6:30 p.m. The borough planning commission is holding a town hall at the Four Winds Resource Center at Mosquito Lake School and over Zoom. They’ll be discussing strategies for rezoning and community goals for land use in the general use zone.