Andrew Letchworth is leaving town, and that’s too bad.
Andrew is a respectful, thoughtful and kind man who headed up the Haines Chamber of Commerce the past few years. He’s young and energetic but had the unenviable job of standing up at public meetings and speaking for industrial development of this place that most closely resembles a national park.
It’s a job few people would want, proved by a high rate of turnover in recent years, but Andrew managed to pull it off with sincerity. That was a credit to him.
If there’s good to come from Andrew’s departure, it’s an opportunity before his replacement is hired for the business group to re-evaluate what it does, and why.
For too long the chamber has been used as a cudgel and mouthpiece for large and controversial projects and industries. That’s a mistake. There are so many more worthwhile efforts to pursue, ones that would boost our town economy, promote the town’s civic life and attract membership and participation in the chamber itself.
Here’s how:
Stop staking out political positions that divide the business community. Chamber support for a large dock at Lutak or a mine at Constantine doesn’t make a lick of difference in whether those projects get built, succeed or fail, so what’s the point?
Instead, the Chamber should take on community business issues that have real consequences on businesses and residents every day.
These are issues that can’t or won’t be addressed by the borough staff or assembly for any number of reasons, including that they can’t be resolved in an hour or two and that they require some community involvement and long-term commitment to sort out.
For example:
Expensive or non-existent transportation options are gutting our economy.
We’re a tourist town, funding the industry with $500,0000 in local tax revenues annually. Without reliable and consistent ferry service or affordable air service, visitors can’t get here.
Ferries no longer reliably serve this town in winter, including during foul weather that grounds airplanes. As a result, the town is bleeding younger residents who like to travel for pleasure and older ones who must travel doctor’s appointments.
School and professional travel have become exorbitantly expensive, jacking up the cost of living here. Flying round-trip to Juneau is more costly than flying round-trip to Seattle from Juneau. That means Greens Creek miners, with their two weeks off each month, can live more cheaply in Seattle than in Haines.
The Chamber of Commerce should be a battering ram against the Dunleavy administration for better ferry service. It also could be in the business of investigating why a second airline hasn’t come in to serve Haines when, for many of the past 50 years, three air carriers served upper Lynn Canal.
The State of Alaska is starving our state parks into oblivion.
Our town boasts five state park facilities, including the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve, which attract visitors from all over the world. Unfortunately, the State of Alaska is treating them like an Arkansas trailer park. Park roads are deeply rutted, a park at Mosquito Lake is effectively abandoned and the Portage Cove campground – a haven for independent travelers – is now closed to camping.
Why? How does this benefit our town? Why can’t we seem to get the attention of state officials to this problem? Why can’t the Haines Borough or one of our two federally recognized tribes step in to shore up these facilities or take them over from the state?
Haines businesses lose money every day when our parks are dilapidated, inaccessible or unsightly. Why isn’t there an organized local campaign to reverse this trend? The Chamber would be the obvious group for leading such an effort.
Our phone utility has left us no usable directory for reaching each other.
A pluralistic society cannot function if people cannot reach other people they don’t already know. Parents need to call their children’s Little League coaches. Policemen need to contact witnesses to crimes. Teachers need to phone parents.
But Alaska Power and Telephone, inexplicably, discontinued a local directory three years ago, leaving most phone customers using a 2017 book that was sensibly organized and printed in type large enough to read. Unfortunately, that book becomes more obsolete each year.
For any business that relies on use of a phone, the actual efficiency of a phone has dropped due to the increased time required to find numbers. The phone company is not untouchable. It’s regulated by the state’s utility regulatory commission.
The Chamber could be beating on doors to force the phone company to resume publishing a directory, or leading an effort with the Haines Borough and others to print a directory ourselves, including cell phone numbers. It’s likely that many or most phone users would volunteer their numbers for the chance to get the numbers of most everyone else in town.
There are many other worthwhile efforts the Haines Chamber of Commerce could be leading in this town with new members and new support that would come if the group got out of the rhetoric business and turned its attention to actual community betterment.