Projects in the Chilkat Valley would receive $18.9 million in state funding from bills approved in the past week by the Alaska Legislature, including $6.1 million for a new veterans’ home and $4.5 million in harbor breakwater improvements. The amount is the highest in years. State Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Haines, who helped secure the funds, said […]

Residents got a look at the first round of the state’s thinking about improvements along the Chilkoot River corridor at a meeting Tuesday with officials from several agencies involved in planning. State archaeologist, biologists, landscapers, planners and state Division of Parks employees hosted the meeting, attended also by Ben Ellis, the division’s director. State Rep. Bill […]

State Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Haines, hammered on the need to limit spending at a Friday Chamber of Commerce meeting attended by local school officials seeking increases in the state’s foundation formula. “I don’t know how many times I have to say ‘no,’” said Thomas, who co-chairs the powerful House Finance Committee, where a bill to increase […]

State Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Haines, told the Haines Chamber of Commerce last week he wanted to serve six more years in the Alaska Legislature and would like to be the first Alaska Native named Speaker of the House. Thomas is seeking re-election this fall. He’s vying for a seat that represents rural communities that was recently […]

Haines Assisted Living is negotiating to buy the Thunderbird Motel as the site of a possible veterans’ home in Haines. Purchase would be funded by a $500,000 legislative appropriation secured by state Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Haines, to HAL last year for a feasibility study of a home. The appropriation also could be used to reduce HAL […]

Commercial fishermen are hoping to enlist broad community support in an effort to reverse a perceived decline in the area’s wild salmon runs, starting with an upcoming meeting with Alaska Department of Fish and Game officials from Juneau. Haines Borough leaders, who sought the meeting and have designated money for research, have joined what area gillnetters […]

The Haines Borough school board, parents and supporters are spreading the word far and wide – in letters, on Facebook and on blogs – that school funding is a critical issue this year and that they support the passage of a bill in the Alaska Legislature to increase the base student allocation. Senate Bill 171 passed the […]

A committee of the Haines Borough Assembly took a baby step toward funding a Chilkat Center roof repair at a Dec. 27 workshop. The borough recently received a $650,000 estimate to rebuild the center’s roof, including structural work and replacement of cedar shakes with metal roofing. Adding insulation is expected to stem a problem that starts when […]

Gov. Sean Parnell has included $4.5 million for Haines harbor improvement in the coming year’s budget, work that will go toward reducing wave action in the current basin by building a new structure at the south end of the existing breakwater. Parnell’s budget also shows $1 million for Haines Highway reconstruction between 3.5 Mile and […]