The Haines Borough has cleared a major hurdle toward realizing its goal of converting its public facilities from oil-fueled boilers to wood pellet burners. The Alaska Energy Authority recently recommended the borough’s biomass project, which will convert 10 public buildings from oil boilers to ones burning pellets, be funded with $1.2 million in grant money from its […]
Search results
Posted inNews
State OKs 6 percent electric hike
The Regulatory Commission of Alaska on Monday granted local utility Alaska Power Company’s request for a short-term 6 percent power rate increase pending an investigation into whether the company’s request for a permanent, 18 percent increase is warranted. The 6 percent increase came into effect Tuesday and raises residential and small commercial rates from 13.06 […]
Posted inNews
Borough to alter its budget process
Budget season is around the corner, and the Haines Borough is already preparing for how it will decide to carve up the financial pie in 2015. Interim manager Julie Cozzi and chief fiscal officer Jila Stuart are working with department directors and preparing them for a potentially dismal fiscal situation. This year, Cozzi asked department managers to […]
Posted inNews
Chief hopeful explains leaving job
Interim Haines Borough Manager Julie Cozzi said this week she was comfortable with a police chief candidate’s explanation of why he resigned a $96,000-per-year job as chief in suburban Boise after being placed on leave in 2007. Bill Musser worked on the force at Meridian, Idaho, for 20 years before being promoted to chief in 2003. “We’ll […]
Posted inNews
Negotiated sale for hotel site
The Haines Borough Assembly voted unanimously Tuesday to dispose of two Main Street lots totalling about 1.2 acres through a negotiated sale. The action comes as a response to a proposal by Aspen Hotels to buy property at the site of the former primary school and build a $4 million, 49-room hotel there. Haines Borough interim manager […]
Posted inNews, Haines Borough
Assembly offers Sosa manager’s job
The Haines Borough Assembly voted during a special meeting Tuesday to offer its manager job to candidate David Sosa, a 20-year U.S. Marine Corps officer. He holds a master’s degree in public administration but has never worked for a municipality. After a 30-minute closed-door session, the assembly voted unanimously to extend the job offer to Sosa and […]
Posted inNews
In 2013, projects belied forecast
For the first time since the rebuilt Haines School was oriented toward Old Haines Highway in 2007, students could make it to the school along a sidewalk. The $975,000 project was one of several changing the face of downtown in the past year. Work also started on the $6 million Soboleff-McRae Veterans Village and the […]
Posted inNews
Committee endorses harbor ‘wave barrier’
The Haines Borough Port and Harbor Advisory Committee is recommending the assembly endorse a wave barrier breakwater – instead of a rubble mound – so the harbor expansion project can move forward. The committee voted unanimously Monday to recommend the wave barrier option, as all rubble mound options presented by PND Engineers were too expensive for the […]
Posted inNews
Parnell pencils in $35 million for Juneau Road
Gov. Sean Parnell’s proposed capital budget for 2015 includes only one Haines item: $20 million for ferry terminal modifications so the facility can accommodate the new Alaska Class Ferries. The capital budget totals about $1.7 billion, including $35 million for the Juneau Access Road. DOT communications officer Jeremy Woodrow said the $35 million will go […]