At a recent Haines Borough committee meeting on tour regulations, operator Sean Gaffney made a statement that some people interpreted as a breakthrough or godsend: He said the borough could eliminate the 1 percent tax for tourism promotion, as far as he cared. If you’re not fond of tourism or you don’t follow local politics closely, you might misconstrue Gaffney’s…
I chatted up former Haines city administrator Tom Healy during a chance meeting on the ferry a couple years back and he got to reminiscing about things he appreciated about Haines. Healy had gone on to work many years as the municipal manager of Palmer, Alaska. The Haines barter economy, Healy said, was one of the interesting facets about the…
Forty years ago, before there was a Haines tourism department, before there was a 1 percent tax for tourism, before there was even much of a tourism industry, there was an idea that the annual eagle migration to the Chilkat Valley could become a tourist attraction. That potential, in fact, was one of the arguments prompting the State of Alaska…
After five weeks out, I returned to Alaska with a pocketful of Cape May diamonds* and a new appreciation for family and the people from my childhood. We are patching things back together following the death of my father, as all families do. Siblings take on new roles to fill the gap. Life goes on. My dad was good, a…
I’m back in Media, Pa., my hometown, promoted without irony as “Everybody’s Hometown.” Media has a picturesque main street lined with storefronts, featuring a trolley car and a grand theater and few stone buildings any one of which, placed in Haines, Alaska, would be crowned as an architectural wonder. Miniaturized in plastic, it’s the kind of place assembled alongside toy…
The Haines 5-Year Economic Development Plan is a good one. Let’s see if we can do anything with it. The Haines Borough has paid for good plans in the past, including a downtown plan. Follow-through is the hard part. That requires commitment and a ton of meetings. People lose interest. The economic plan holds no big surprises. It’s a good…
The state Division of Parks, which had about $600,000 in hand for improving the bear-people situation along the Chilkoot River, just received another $1.5 million for its project. That should be good news, but it could be the opposite, depending on what Parks does with the dough. The Chilkoot desperately needs a fix. Condemned by some longtime visitors as a…
An apparent breather in the University of Alaska’s plans for a huge timber sale in the Chilkat Valley is an opportunity the Haines Borough shouldn’t pass up. Officials with the university’s land office say they’re taking another six months before moving ahead with a contract to cut up to 150 million board feet of trees here in the next 10…
The Haines Borough Assembly is being asked to gamble with $30,000 in public money. The request is coming from the borough staff. This is what’s going on. Public library supporters are seeking up to $2 million in private grants for expansion of the facility, and they’ve been told by the Alaska-based Rasmuson Foundation – the presumed provider of the $2…
The voters in the rural areas of the Haines Borough have spoken, and they’re not interested in on-call service by the townsite police department, even at the relatively low starting price of $70,000. Does this mean residents in outlying areas don’t want police, or that they don’t want to pay for it? It’s difficult to know, but a good rule…