Main Street’s new Aspen Hotel opened as scheduled Monday, after a Saturday blessing by the Gideon’s Society and a last-minute push to mount headboards and other furniture. Tony Latzel was the first guest. A Department of Transportation equipment operator from Yakutat here for two months on a chip-seal project, Latzel said he appreciated the room’s […]
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Harbor critic to host forum
Joe Parnell, a former assistant harbormaster and harbor expansion project critic, is holding a “town hall” meeting on the project. Parnell said he’s holding the meeting “because I oppose the town going broke.” The meeting will be held 6 p.m. Monday, June 15 at the assembly chambers and is open to everyone. “I hope to […]
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State DOT plans 26 miles of chip seal this summer
The Alaska Department of Transportation will resurface 26 miles of roads in the Haines Borough over the course of two months this summer. The $2.3 million project will chip seal the roads between June 1 and Aug. 1, said DOT communications director Jeremy Woodrow. The work includes 15 miles of the Haines Highway (from 25 to 40 […]
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Bell replaces Benner as head of harbor department
Shawn Bell is the Haines Borough’s new harbormaster. Bell, 31, was appointed assistant harbormaster in April 2014. He grew up in Colorado and previously worked as a general contractor in Grand Junction, Colo. An Air Force veteran, Bell was born in Kasilof and said he’d wanted to come back to Alaska. “Family here informed me […]
Posted inNews, Haines Borough
Sales increased 2 percent in 2014
An upswing in sales tax from tourism and construction helped offset a dip in retail sales, boosting Haines Borough sales tax income 2 percent in 2014. Taxable sales last year reached $52.4 million. The increase seems to defy previously held speculation that sales tax income was largely decided by the price of fuel: When the price of […]
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Tank farm contractor lays out cleanup work
Since cleanup began in the early 1990s, about 630 holes have been drilled at the former U.S. Army tank farm property at Lutak Road, tracking contaminated soil and water. Beginning in June, an Anchorage contractor will drill another 1,000 holes, focusing on untested areas and ones suspected of contaminants. The stepped-up drill program is made possible by […]
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Town ‘Clean Sweep’ hits streets on Monday
“Operation: Clean Sweep,” the town’s annual roadside cleanup effort, starts Monday and runs through May 9, with targeted cleanup efforts May 1-2. An organized town cleanup is a spring tradition that dates back 100 years in Haines, and Chamber of Commerce executive director Debra Schnabel said she’s hoping citizens will pitch in again this year. Besides prizes […]
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UV rays to track contaminants
Busy field season planned at tank farm A site-wide search for contaminants using ultraviolet screening technology should make for one of the largest, single field seasons of cleanup work this coming summer at the former U.S. Army tank farm on Lutak Road. “We’re going back to recharacterize the site as a whole and pick up little pieces […]
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State to begin work on ferry dock rebuild
The state last week began work on the new $15 million ferry dock, a project that will make the facility look like its Auke Bay counterpart in Juneau. The project will remove the ferry dock’s sheet pile bulkhead and replace it with a boulder riprap slope, catwalk and steel pilings. “It’s an aging facility and […]
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Sosa’s budget: Cut HARK, leave 1 police job unfilled
Haines Borough Manager David Sosa released his draft $12 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year Wednesday. It includes a mill rate increase, leaving a police officer position unfilled and transferring the job of catching loose dogs from the Haines Animal Rescue Kennel to the police department. Sosa’s budget also proposes to close the pool […]