Planning commission on the 24-mile heli-port: We don’t live up there so we will listen to 24-Mile area residents. 24-mile area residents: We don’t want a heliport. Planning commission: heliport approved. Turnagain Marine Construction on the Lutak dock: Yes, handymax ships would be able to dock here. Yukon Mining Executives: We could make this dock work for us. Haines Borough: […]
Search results
Posted inLetters to the Editor
Democracy at its worst
As I do every morning, I’m outside drinking my coffee in the quiet that surrounds my home when I realize that my life will be forever changed because the planning commission decided what’s best for me, leaving me to wonder if democracy even exists in the Haines Borough anymore. The planning commission showed us democracy at its […]
Posted inNews, Elections
Planning commission decisions sparks calls for election of members
A controversial Dec. 8 planning commission meeting motivated a citizen and borough assembly member to seek turning the commission into an elected body rather than an appointed one. The call for change, which could occur through a ballot initiative or by assembly decision, came a few days after the seven-member commission, operating with only five […]
Posted inLetters to the Editor
Embarrassed by planning commission
Last week’s planning commission meeting was disturbing. Despite vocal opposition from nearby residents and the Chilkat Indian Village, Commissioners Diana Lapham, Don Turner and Richard Clement voted to allow yet another heliport in our small community. Prior to the three-to-two vote, Lapham said she had helicopters flying over her house everyday and that the noise didn’t bother […]
Posted inLetters to the Editor
Please close ‘Pandora’s Box’
As a member of the Planning Commission when this heliport idea surfaced all those years ago, the overwhelming recommendation of the Commission was all commercial helicopter operations be based out of the Haines airport. This was done for obvious reasons, mostly public safety and public and environmental health. The assembly ignored it and hired a professional consultant […]
Posted inNews
Mud Bay residents submit petition to assembly to ban commercial events
Mud Bay residents submitted a petition to the Haines Borough Assembly requesting a code change to prohibit commercial events in the Mud Bay Rural Residential Zone (MBRRZ), which encompasses much of the Chilkat Peninsula south of Carr’s Cove. Signed by more than 100 residents, the petition asks that commercial event venues join heliports and resource extraction on […]
Posted inThis Week in History
This Week in History
Sept. 24 2009 A miner who was in the shack that blew off the side of a mountain near the border last weekend said the roof of the building was tethered to its base, not to the ground. “It has been tied better than it was. You have to go directly into the ground,” said […]
Posted inNews
Residents build case for community center
Friends of Mosquito Lake School and Community Center board members are building a case for keeping the facility open for the coming fiscal year. At a meeting in February, Haines Borough Assembly members identified the Mosquito Lake Community Center as one of several facilities that could be offloaded in an effort to reduce the borough’s budget in […]
Posted inNews
Heli port application withdrawn
After a 40-minute discussion at the planning commission meeting Thursday, Big Salmon Ventures owner Scott Sundberg withdrew his application for a heliport near 26 Mile on the Haines Highway, though only temporarily. “At this point I will withdraw because… I do hear that it’s not going to pass, so that’s the main reason,” Sundberg told commissioners. “I […]
Posted inNews
Helipad application withdrawn due to lack of full commission
Four hours before the Haines Borough Planning Commission was set to hear a conditional use permit application for a heliport at 26 Mile, the applicant Big Salmon Ventures withdrew the application, citing lack of commissioners at the meeting. In 2011, the Planning Commission denied Big Salmon Ventures’ heli-port application. In 2014, they approved a one-year permit while the borough […]