The key to the Haines economy is to do better with what we already have and to encourage and support people already busy with worthwhile projects that have popular support.
We tend to think of government as a budget and departments, funded by tax collection. But government can do so much more than the essentials. One of the things the Haines Borough does well is to partner with local organizations, individuals and businesses to provide services and facilities to borough residents.
An example of such a partnership is the borough’s relationship with the Southeast Alaska State Fair. The borough each year provides a grant of about $20,000 to help support the fair, a local non-profit. In turn, the fair provides myriad benefits to our community.
Besides organizing and operating our region’s annual four-day fair, the fair provides space for local businesses and nonprofits at Dalton City, offers its park facilities to residents, including courts for disc golf, ice hockey, volleyball, horseshoes, and hosts events ranging from weddings to summer farmers’ markets and special events including Winterfest and Halloween.
The fair returns great value to Haines residents for a tiny contribution from the Haines Borough. A similar relationship with Haines Animal Rescue Clinic, a local nonprofit supported by an annual borough grant, helps residents get the help they need for their animals.
Where else can the borough forge partnerships in the public’s interest?
Can the borough partner with tribal governments? The Chilkat Valley’s two tribes – the Chilkoot Indian Association and Chilkat Indian Village – bring an estimated $20 million into our town annually. Add in the tribal health consortium SEARHC, operator of the Haines medical clinic, and that number likely doubles.
The Chilkoot Indian Association already is a key funder of our senior center and its bus. It has created an attractive housing development and public trails near the fairgrounds. It sponsors cultural events open to the entire community. Can we help the CIA in its plans to rebuild the Fort Seward tribal house? Can we assist in its dream to acquire and re-establish Fort Seward’s hospital building into a working, Native arts center? Can we incorporate the tribe into the funding and management of our borough museum? Can the tribe and borough work cooperatively to address a local housing crunch? Other Alaska municipalities meet regularly with councils of local tribes. Shouldn’t the Haines Borough?
The Chilkat Indian Village operates the impressive Jilkaat Kwaan Heritage Center, displaying the storied Whale House artifacts, perhaps the finest totems ever carved. It also operates the Bald Eagle Preserve Visitor Center and is home to Klukwan School, educating Native and non-Native children who live outside the village. What partnerships can the borough build with the Chilkat tribe involving our annual eagle festival? With the Haines Borough School? With the Haines Sheldon Museum? Are there efficiencies that can be gained, such as shared marketing/promotion efforts?
The tribal health consortium SEARHC came to the rescue of the Haines Borough in the mid-1990s when it offered to take control of our town’s medical clinic, then struggling under borough management after decades of private ownership. By providing medical service to Natives and non-Natives, SEARHC provides a vital service to our community, including counseling. In recent years, the consortium also has offered wellness programs like Wisewoman that promote community health and healthy lifestyles. Can the borough partner with SEARHC on creating a borough recreation program or a recreation center?
What partnerships might be forged with Takshanuk Watershed Council? Besides protecting and enhancing area salmon streams, offering education programs in our schools and providing its sprawling property at Jones Point as public parklands, the watershed council is building a community composting facility. As communal composting of food wastes might provide vital help toward reducing bear attractants, what help does TWC need to make this project a reality? Can the borough and TWC work together toward establishing new public trails along the lower Chilkat River? Are there other areas of beneficial collaboration?
Haines Friends of Recycling was established about 25 years ago and has proved itself a valuable asset to the community, offering 24-hour recycling and special promotions and efforts. Currently, waste collection in Haines is covered by a patchwork of groups and agencies including HFR, privately-owned Community Waste Solutions, Haines Borough and some private businesses. Can the borough work with HFR to provide citizens with an easy-to-use guide on where to take wastes and recyclables?
HUTS, a nonprofit organized by younger residents, recently framed up the first public use cabin built in Haines in more than 50 years, on a mountain ridge above town. Can the borough forge a partnership with HUTS, using borough funding, to build more public use cabins in the valley? (There are hundreds of such cabins in Alaska but only one in Haines.) Or can the borough work with HUTS to expand its mission to including working on public trails and park recently abandoned by the State of Alaska?
What about partnerships with the Chilkat Valley Community Foundation or with civic-minded community builders like Chris Thorgesen who single-handedly revived much of our Main Street?
We are challenged to improve our town in an era of declining state and federal support. Partnerships will be key to meeting Haines Borough needs by tapping into existing resources in the private and nonprofit sectors while fostering cooperation, goodwill and town spirit.