I urge fellow residents of the rural areas of the Haines Borough to vote against expanding police service to the town’s road limits. Although the ballot proposition calls for only “on-call” service at $70,000 per year, the recent history of the Haines police reflects a desire for more officers and a bigger budget. Starting two years ago, borough police have…
The Haines Borough Assembly has little choice but to pursue suspension or revocation of the Alaska Excursions tour permit for canoe tours at Davidson Glacier. The assembly also should consider suspending the company’s ATV tour at Glacier Point. Detailed and unsolicited statements made to the assembly by a dozen or more former employees in February established that Alaska Excursions has…
I guess it had to come to this, what with books and learning out the window, the rule of law on the trash heap, and a Visigoth in the White House. Our little ones, already struggling as “kids,” have been downgraded to “kiddos.” I first heard this reference a few years ago at a Haines School Board meeting, where a…
The coolest thing about Haines is not glacier-capped peaks, wilderness kayaking or the hip atmosphere at the Fireweed Restaurant. It’s a full retail sector owned entirely by residents. That’s right. Not a chain store in sight, not even a Starbucks. Skagway can’t make such a boast, nor can Juneau, Sitka or Ketchikan. Starbucks has its teeth in Skagway, and on…
There are at least 8 good reasons to vote “yes” on Ballot Initiative #1 in the Haines municipal election Oct. 2. Voting “yes” would allow you, a voter registered in Haines, to elect members of Public Safety and Planning Commissions, Tourism Advisory Board and Ports and Harbor Advisory Committee. 1) As a Haines voter, you should have the right to…
“We are going to fight like crazy to get that trooper position back.” – State Sen. Dennis Egan, in a front-page story in the Chilkat Valley News, Jan. 19, 2017 Did Dennis Egan really fight like crazy to restore the Haines state trooper position eliminated in December 2016 by a trooper bureaucrat? Maybe, maybe not. But a better question is:…
The Haines Borough is discussing options for public safety outside the townsite in response to the elimination of Alaska State Trooper (blue-shirt) service in January, 2017. (The troopers have maintained Haines wildlife trooper Trent Chwialkowski, who responds to local crimes as his time allows). The borough’s options include lobbying candidates for state office for resumption of blue-shirt trooper service, pursuing…
Preventing littering and providing public safety outside the Haines townsite are right and worthy goals. How best to achieve those goals is the issue before the Haines Borough Assembly. The borough administration has proposed a major restructuring of local garbage service, including a 1 percent hike in sales tax and borough participation in waste management, in order to eliminate the…
Some people in Haines are ask me why I’m running for the Legislature when there is still so much to be done on the Haines Borough Assembly. Believe me, I’d rather keep my focus on Haines. The problem is that some of the biggest issues we deal with in Haines — and on the Haines Assembly — are responding to…
If you still have your 2017 AP&T phone book, the yellow one with the picture of the bear cub munching a hunk of salmon on the cover, hang on to it. The new phone book is a mess, and next year’s may not be better. (Also, new books weren’t mailed to customers this year. You must pick yours up at…