The Haines Borough Assembly last week hung up on a proposal to refer a discussion of pay phones to a committee. Newspaper editor Tom Morphet, at the request of Mayor Stephanie Scott, prepared a resolution asking Alaska Power and Telephone to reactivate a half-dozen pay phones around town. Morphet took interest in the issue last spring, after AP&T removed […]

Mayor Stephanie Scott on Tuesday broke a tie vote of the Haines Borough Assembly to adopt an ordinance that removes code language mandating the municipality have a department of economic development and an economic development director. Assembly members Debra Schnabel, Norm Smith and Joanne Waterman also voted in support of eliminating the department from code. “I’ve been here long enough to say that this […]

Members of the board of the Haines Borough’s Dalton Trail Road Maintenance Service Area have an idea for the “Steel Bridge,” the aging, metal and timber span over the Klehini River at 26 Mile – put it over the Tsirku River to access Chilkat Lake. The state Department of Transportation is scheduled to replace the […]

The Haines Borough Assembly is investigating a state-collected municipal motor vehicle registration tax that would help fund local storage and disposal of junk cars, or an annual “junk car clean-up.” The municipality for years has discussed how best to deal with junkers parked around town and abandoned on public property. Its interest sharpened last year when residents […]

The Haines Borough Assembly last week rescinded a February disaster declaration for sloughing of the Mount Ripinsky hillside at Lutak Road. Borough manager Mark Earnest provided the assembly with an e-mail from Kerry Seifert, an emergency management specialist with Alaska’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, before the 5-0 vote. Member Joanne Waterman was absent. Seifert wrote “the slope has stopped or slowed movement […]

The future of the annual, Fourth of July fireworks display was in question this week, following a 4-1 vote by the Haines Borough Assembly March 27 against taking on insurance liability for the display. Member Debra Schnabel voted to provide the coverage. Joanne Waterman was absent. Haines Chamber of Commerce president Ned Rozbicki recently told the assembly the business group is […]

The Haines Borough is seeking a federal grant to purchase and install a new dispatch console that would improve response to 911 calls. “Thank goodness I do not have to call 911 very often, and the one instance where I did have to call it, it was very frustrating, because the equipment is so old, and on […]