The cruise season may be over, but news is ramping up about who will control Haines' waterfront and who will benefit. Reporter Will Steinfeld has this trio of stories:

The Haines Borough Assembly now has two offers to take over management of the Port Chilkoot cruise dock, and both project millions of dollars for the borough over the coming decades. Neither guarantees more than the borough already expects to collect on its own. Will Steinfeld breaks down the competing bids from Global Ports Holding and the regional partnership Port Chilkoot Development Corporation: what each offers, what the borough would give up, and how their very different passenger projections could reshape summers in Haines.

Who wants Global Ports to win the dock? The company would prefer you not know. About 12 hours after its proposal went public, Global Ports asked the borough to redact letters of support from four cruise lines, calling them confidential financial information. The Chilkat Valley News has published the letters. A look at both bidders’ backers turns up some surprises, including two major cruise companies that have endorsed both competitors.

Meanwhile, a few hundred yards away, the Chilkoot Indian Association has finalized a moorage deal with American Cruise Lines. Every one of the company’s 31 Haines dockings this summer is expected to move to the tribe’s Portage Cove dock next year. Tribal administrator Harriet Brouillette explains how the deal fits a long-term plan to build “unencumbered income” the tribe can spend on its own priorities, and why she believes the tribe’s dock and the borough’s can both succeed.

— Rashah McChesney, Editor