Following a commercial Dungeness crab harvest last summer they say depleted subsistence catches here, residents may petition the state Board of Fish to expand areas closed to commercial crabbing in Lynn Canal. “This isn’t over,” said assemblyman Norm Smith, who arranged a presentation by the state Department of Fish and Game at last week’s Haines Borough Assembly meeting. “Every […]

Besides casting ballots in the national election, residents on Nov. 6 get to weigh in on a Haines Borough motor vehicle registration tax, a proposal aimed at addressing junked and abandoned cars. On Tuesday, the assembly voted 5-1 to introduce an ordinance for the tax, which would be collected by the state and raise $40,000 annually for […]

A drop in highway traffic and unusually cool weather dampened the early visitor season in Haines, but numbers recovered a bit later, according to Haines Borough officials and operators of tourism-related businesses. It was a “scary, slow start” for her family’s catamaran tour, with business in May and June down compared to those months in previous years, […]

Resident Norm Smith recalled a Boy Scout campout in the early 1960s, when a Scout leader took him and others out to Chilkoot Lake in an old school bus. “We tried setting up tents. It was raining so hard and it was so cold, we climbed in our sleeping bags and got back in the bus. A couple of […]

Casting a tie-breaking vote, Haines Borough Mayor Stephanie Scott stopped an assembly motion Tuesday aimed at extending manager Mark Earnest’s contract through June 2014. With Scott’s vote, the assembly agreed, 4-3, to postpone the matter to Nov. 6, when Earnest has been asked to make a formal proposal. “My concern is that it’s a big decision,” Scott said. “I’m […]

The Haines Borough Assembly voted Tuesday 4-2 to introduce an ordinance that would charge heli-ski companies a $5 per skier-day fee and allow fines up to $1,000 per day for permit violations. Establishment of the fee would not be effective until the 2014 season. Under current borough law, fines are limited to $300. Members Jerry Lapp and Norm Smith voted in […]

As immediate measures to prevent further erosion of the slumping, Mount Ripinsky hillside, the Haines Borough will extend two drainage pipes, redirect an uphill drainage eastward and pursue an impermeable liner for a roadside ditch, manager Mark Earnest said last week. In the future, the borough may also encourage or require retention of trees on the hillside, Earnest said, following up […]

A third and expected final public hearing on a proposed Haines Borough financial disclosure law for local leaders bogged down Tuesday when assembly member Debra Schnabel raised a list of issues, including changing the definition of “sources of income.” Another change proposed for the meeting would have added real estate brokers to a list of professions that under the […]

At the urging of Mayor Stephanie Scott, the Haines Borough Assembly on Tuesday introduced an ordinance to spend $15,000 to restore the senior lunch program to four days a week. The borough contribution would provide four-day service for 10 months. The assembly also: · Approved $37,000 in funding and a revised scope for the first phase of a borough […]