On Tuesday, the Haines Borough Assembly’s finance committee gave chair Brenda Josephson the authority to work with staff to draft language for a ballot measure asking voters to approve a draw from the borough’s permanent fund. Assembly member Zephyr Sincerny, who proposed the measure, said the intent is to ask voters to approve a $450,000 draw, roughly […]

Raw TV’s crew has returned to Haines to film another season of “Gold Rush,” a reality show about miners in Alaska and the Yukon aired on the Discovery Channel. London-based production company Raw TV began filming in Haines in 2010, bringing roughly 15 employees a year to town. However, the mechanics of filming this year […]

In April, Haines Borough unemployment rose to 27.3%, an all-time high for the Chilkat Valley. Haines’ seasonal economy typically means unemployment is at its highest January through March before steadily dropping to a low in the summer months. This year didn’t follow that pattern. According to Alaska Department of Labor statistics, the 2020 April unemployment rate is […]

As students enter summer vacation amid decreasing COVID-19 restrictions, administrators are busy preparing for what the next school year might look like amid the ongoing pandemic. Haines Borough School District superintendent Roy Getchell is creating surveys and conducting focus groups with students, parents, teachers and residents to try and learn what worked well with distance learning, […]

Former Haines Borough manager Debra Schnabel on Tuesday night addressed the assembly members and Mayor who fired her last week, and placed final responsibility on Mayor Jan Hill, who broke a 3-3 tie vote in favor of firing Schnabel. “This decision was yours,” Schnabel told Hill. “I am very disappointed. It seems to me that this could have been an opportunity to lead, […]

Does Haines have an inability to retain borough managers or is the community’s turnover rate par for the course? While all communities experience manager turnover, the recent turnover rate in Haines is higher than that of many neighboring communities. Since 2002, Haines has averaged a permanent borough manager hire every 1.8 years. During this same […]

At a meeting Tuesday night, the Haines Borough Assembly voted to use a mixture of capital funds and CARES Act coronavirus relief to address the borough’s $448,149 budget shortfall. The shortfall was created last month when Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed all of the state’s support of municipal school bond debt payments, leaving communities across Alaska with unexpected […]

The Chilkat Center for the Arts is on the chopping block for the fiscal year beginning July 1. CARES Act coronavirus relief funding may offer the assembly an alternative to eliminating the facility from the borough’s budget. During budget discussions this spring, assembly members have said that cuts will be necessary to compensate for an […]