We have a voice with our votes at the Oct. 7 election to stem the incivility that has crept into our borough assembly. The assembly members who currently treat our mayor with disrespect at the dais, and those who refuse to acknowledge the existence of citizens they disagree with (me, among others) have chosen a […]
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Posted inLocal News
Assembly Briefs: Historic preservation, meeting limits, cell towers, sales tax
Historic Preservation Committee PausedA plan to make Haines buildings eligible for federal historical preservation funds remains a controversial, and at times heated, topic.An assembly vote to designate Haines as a “certified local government” with the National Park Service, and establish a historic preservation committee, would, proponents say, be a no-risk way to bring in extra […]
Posted inLocal News
Assembly Briefs: Lutak Dock, manager hire, and sales tax
Lutak Dock The Lutak Dock rebuild has once again reached a crossroads, with the assembly deciding whether to go on the hunt for more money to resuscitate the project, or to change tack altogether. The trouble began—or began again—at the end of last month, when a promising dock redesign fell through. The borough and contractor […]
Posted inLocal News, Economy
Longtime Bigfoot owner sells to Haines Industrial
Paul Nelson squinted into his cell phone, lining up a photo Thursday of about 30 people crowded in front of the back bay door of Bigfoot Auto. A Cuban cigar hung from his lips as he prepared the shot. From the back of the group, Mayor Tom Morphet started a rendition of “For He’s a […]
Posted inNews
‘Exhausting and demoralizing’: How public media in rural Alaska is responding to federal cuts
On July 17, Congress voted to eliminate federal funding for public media across the United States. The cuts, called a “rescission” in Congress-speak, are huge: They will take away some $1 billion that the federal government had previously allocated for the next two years to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides funding for national […]
Posted inEducation, Alaska Legislature
Alaska Ignored Warning Signs of a Budget Crisis. Now It Doesn’t Have Funding to Fix Crumbling Schools.
When Alaska House Speaker Bryce Edgmon toured the public school in Sleetmute last fall, he called the building “the poster child” for what’s wrong with the way the state pays to build and maintain schools. The tiny community 240 miles west of Anchorage had begged Alaska’s education department for nearly two decades for money to […]
Posted inLocal News
Assembly evaluates interim manager, considers permanent hire
After seven months as a temporary hire, interim borough manager Alekka Fullerton could soon shed the interim tag. Fullerton filled the top job in the borough administration in December, but it was supposed to be on a short-term basis as the assembly searched for a long-term candidate. The job has been open since previous manager […]
Posted inEducation, Local News
‘We need a bus’ Parents weigh in after district drops busing service for students
What would it take to get the Haines Borough School district to bus students to and from school this year? That’s a question parents, students, and Haines school district employees tackled during a Monday evening meeting at the former Mosquito Lake school in the upper valley. An estimated 30 students bus to school from in […]
Posted inLocal News
After years of decay, Mosquito Lake baseball field gets a facelift
It’s mid-morning on a Sunday in early July and Julie Korsmeyer has given up on a posthole digger. Instead, she kneels down and sticks her arm deep into the ground of the Mosquito Lake baseball field, to clear the last of the dirt out of the way for a wooden fencepost. Nearby, Jim and Deb […]
Posted inLocal News
Assembly Briefs: The Lutak Dock, cell tower regulations, historical preservation, sales taxes and boat storage
Lutak Dock Good news on the Lutak Dock has been hard to come by in recent years, but there seemed to be some of it last month when interim manager Alekka Fullerton announced the borough and dock contractor Turnagain Marine had agreed on a new design concept that would fit within the borough’s budget. That […]