The cost of a noise study to monitor the impacts of a heliport near 26 Mile Haines Highway has ballooned from a Haines Borough staff estimate of about $7,000 to nearly $52,000. The borough assembly voted in April to solicit bids for a helicopter noise study after it voted to overturn a planning commission decision and approved a conditional use […]
Search results
Posted inNews
Crime, weather left mark on 2014
The Haines Borough, its school and police department, came under new management in 2014, a year marked by lopsided weather patterns, infrastructure worries and chronic crime. Acts of courage brightened a townscape clouded as much by economic uncertainty as by months of rain. Luke Marquardt ran back into a house fire to save a friend. Novice […]
Posted inNews
Ski event gets room to roam
The Haines Borough Assembly voted unanimously Tuesday to allow an international ski and snowboard competition to use area outside the borough-approved heli-ski map for its spring event. After almost no discussion on the issue, the assembly voted 5-0 to allow the Freeride World Tour access to the face of Telemark Ridge, which faces the Chilkat River. Dave Berry […]
Posted inNews
Heli-ski event seeking extra area
A worldwide ski and snowboard competition affiliated with Southeast Alaska Backcountry Adventures has applied to hold an event in Haines, and is seeking areas outside of borough-created boundaries for its show. Borough manager David Sosa has approved in-bounds use for the event but has asked Freeride World Tour to submit an additional application for use […]
Posted inNews
State plans to check on heli-skiing operations
Enforcement officers from the Alaska Occupational Safety and Health Section will conduct surprise compliance visits at random heli-ski operations throughout the state during the 2015 season. Agency safety consultant Mike Buck revealed last month the governmental agency is putting together a “local emphasis program” for Alaska’s heli-skiing industry in the wake of the deaths of […]
Posted inNews
Resident files court appeal of 26 Mile heliport decision
A resident of a neighboring subdivision filed an appeal in Juneau Superior Court last week challenging the Haines Borough’s decision to issue a permit for development of a heliport near 26 Mile Haines Highway. Jessica Plachta claimed the assembly erred when it voted in March to overturn the Planning Commission’s decision to deny the conditional use permit […]
Posted inNews
Heli-ski safety under scrutiny
Following the deaths of three Haines heli-ski guides in as many years, the Alaska Occupational Safety and Health Section is investigating measures the agency can take to improve worker safety. Mike Buck, a safety consultant with AKOSH, started researching the issue about a year ago, after Southeast Alaska Backcountry Adventures guide Christian Cabanilla died in […]
Posted inLetters to the Editor
Donate air bags for heli-ski industry?
Tread lightly when you call for the borough to impose more regulatory requirements. Every industry has regulating organizations. Typically in the ski industry this begins with the insurance carriers, landowners, and programs like OSHA. Every ordinance or regulation the borough imposes on the heli-skiers is one more liability the borough takes on and must enforce. […]
Posted inLetters to the Editor
Air bags should be required for guides
So sorry to read about the death of another Southeast Alaska Backcountry Adventures guide, the second death of a guide while working for SEABA in two years. How is this acceptable? Haines Borough and the federal and state powers that be, do your job and require that all guides and their guests wear airbags, Ava-lungs and helmets while out […]
Posted inNews
Assembly OKs 26 Mile heliport
A Haines Borough Assembly meeting that lasted nearly nine hours this week after it was continued to a second night resulted in a split decision for the heli-skiing industry. On a 4-3 vote Tuesday tipped by Mayor Stephanie Scott breaking a tie, the assembly rejected a special event allowance for two heli-ski firms that sought to open nearly 10,000 acres […]