While the Haines Borough’s drug enforcement task force has worked since June 2017 to find solutions to drug-related issues, recent data analyzing 12 months of emergency visits to the Haines Health Center and eight years of substance abuse data from the Lynn Canal Behavioral Health Clinic point to alcohol as a far greater issue. The behavioral health […]
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Assembly discusses budget priorities
Haines Borough Manager Debra Schnabel will prepare next year’s budget without incorporating Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s proposed spending plan that would cut an estimated $1.7 million of state revenue to the borough. “Basically, the assembly would like me to start looking at things that could be cut, small and big, but we are not going to develop a […]
Posted inNews, Haines Borough
Officials to discuss tax increases in face of state budget cuts
Town Hall scheduled for March 13 Along with tax increases and spending cuts, the Haines Borough Assembly will consider raising the borough’s tax cap during budget discussions because Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s proposed budget would reduce state revenue to the borough by about $1.7 million. Dunleavy’s cuts to school debt reimbursement, raw fish tax and the education budget […]
Posted inNews, Housing
GAS committee pulls stakes from tents in draft housing ordinance
The Government Affairs and Services Committee advanced a recommendation to the assembly on a substitute ordinance for employee housing that would prohibit tents and impose sanitation requirements. “We’re trying to hold employers to a standard that they need to pay people well enough so that they don’t have to live in a tent,” committee chair […]
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State considers status of wildlife Trooper position
State wildlife trooper Trent Chwialkowski will leave Haines before summer for a post in Cantwell, Alaska. “No decision or change has been made in regards to the Haines Alaska Wildlife Trooper post,” said Department of Public Safety spokesperson Megan Peters. “At present, all one-man trooper posts are being analyzed.” A “blue shirt” trooper position in […]
Posted inNews
Resource extraction debate surfaces conflict-of-interest issues for officials
For the second time in three months, planning commission members examined if their voting powers were compromised by a commissioner’s potential conflict of interest. According to borough code, conflict of interest is defined as “substantial financial gain or personal interest.” It defines the former as interest that would result in a gain or loss exceeding […]
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Assembly favors ‘soft opening’ for tour code
The Haines Borough Assembly unanimously approved a temporary change to tourism code for 2019 that will reverse by March 1, 2020 if the borough does not further develop the code. “This resolution lets us look at unintended consequences and allows us to have a soft opening,” borough clerk Alekka Fullerton said in a commerce committee meeting last […]
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Kiehl: Governor used ‘meat ax’ approach
State Sen. Jesse Kiehl’s visit to Haines was dominated by questions about Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s proposed budget that aims to reduce more than $1 billion in state spending by significantly cutting the Alaska Marine Highway System, education and municipal revenue-sharing programs. Kiehl described the governor’s proposed budget as a “meat ax” approach, and told assembly […]
Posted inNews
Resource extraction in Mud Bay is again on the table
The Haines Borough Planning Commission reversed course last week, advancing a code change that would allow large-scale resource extraction in the Mud Bay zoning district, including by non-resident landowners. Commissioners voted 4-1 to resurrect conditional use permitting for property owners seeking to move over 30,000 board feet of timber or 1,500 cubic yards of gravel on a […]
Posted inNews, Haines Borough
Manager approves permit for Alaska Excursions
Haines Borough manager Debra Schnabel approved the issuance of Alaska Excursions’ Glacier Point canoe tour permit after company owner Robert Murphy appealed the borough’s earlier decision to deny the permit’s renewal over failing to register his canoes. An Alaska State Trooper investigated the drowning that occurred during a canoe tour last summer. In the trooper report, the […]