Mayor honors back-to-back state cross country champs On behalf of the Haines Borough, Mayor Douglas Olerud on Tuesday honored the Haines High School cross country teams, which won their second straight state title on Oct. 9, with a proclamation listing their achievements. “We the representatives of the Haines Borough do hereby applaud the team for their athleticism, their dedication to […]
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Posted inNews
Canadian border reopens with brass
Northern neighbors trickle back into town When Bruce Funk left his Whitehorse home at 8:30 a.m. Yukon time on Monday, he didn’t expect cookies, hot chocolate, a band playing “O Canada,” quote-hungry reporters, curious residents, a police escort, Mayor Douglas Olerud and a gift basket all waiting for him at the Haines visitor information center. But that’s […]
Posted inNews, Housing
Committee proposes yurt definition, zoning code addition
What’s a yurt? Should yurts be allowed in town? The Haines Borough Government Affairs and Services (GAS) Committee recommended a definition and zoning code amendment to the borough planning commission on Tuesday. The committee’s proposal is to allow yurts in the townsite as a use-by-right in the rural residential and rural mixed use zones but to ban […]
Posted inNews
Heliski code hearing reflects sharp divide
Committee-of-the-whole meeting scheduled for Nov. 29 Twenty seven people, including a Scottish expedition guide with National Geographic, commented at a Tuesday hearing on a draft ordinance that would remove Haines Borough’s limit on heliski tour permits for a year. Fourteen people spoke in favor of the ordinance. Thirteen spoke against it. While testimonies mostly advanced familiar arguments […]
Posted inNews
Doctors present latest COVID-19 vaccine info at webinar
SEARHC to administer shot for children starting this week Haines Health Center will start administering the COVID-19 Pfizer vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 this week, following the FDA’s Oct. 29 emergency use approval and the CDC’s Nov. 2 recommendation. SEARHC already has been administering booster shots for people older than 18 who received […]
Posted inNews, Haines Borough
Assembly Briefs
Two new tours approved This week, the Haines Borough Assembly approved two new tour permits—one for Chilkat River Adventures and one for Alaska Mountain Guides Adventures (AMGA). The Chilkat River Adventures new tour, “Explore Haines ‘On Your Own,’” will coordinate travel for visitors coming over from Skagway on the fast ferry and take them on short tours of Fort Seward and […]
Posted inLetters to the Editor
Free enterprise has consequences
After the Mayor at the last Borough Assembly Meeting on Oct. 26 introduced Ordinance 21-10-598 to remove the limit on the number of heliski permits, we were given a lecture on the merits of Free Enterprise by member Stickler. She espoused the virtue of letting business and commerce grow unimpeded; the government’s role is to stay out of the […]
Posted inNews
Assembly introduces law to axe heliski permit cap for a year
The Haines Borough Assembly introduced an ordinance on Tuesday that would remove the cap on heliski operators in the borough for only one year. The ordinance also would require the borough manager to allocate skier days earlier in the year; it would mandate that operators pay the $5-per-skier-day fee before the season, instead of after, as current code allows; […]
Posted inNews
Potential FEMA funding delayed
The Haines Borough won’t be eligible to apply this year for millions of federal disaster mitigation dollars that could help compensate Beach Road residents for landslide damage and buy out properties threatened by future slides. A state specialist and borough staff revealed at an Oct. 13 meeting that Haines can’t apply this cycle for FEMA’s Building Resilient […]
Posted inHaines Borough, News
Commerce committee considers break from grocery sales tax
The Haines Borough Commerce Committee is considering a temporary tax exemption on groceries in Haines. While the committee still needs to iron out details and hasn’t made any recommendations, a Tuesday discussion centered on a suggestion to eliminate sales tax on groceries, or provide tax rebates, for three months in the winter. Committee member Carol Tuynman proposed […]