My favorite flavor of concerned citizen is the government worker, often a retired one, who stands up at a public meeting and says we have to get government off our backs. Astonishing how many of these guys forget to offer up their pensions as a place to start. A good number of these people – including retired policemen – were…
“Recently (the borough planning commission) has become the object of scorn, derision and angry letters to the paper and a movement to abolish the appointed board and replace it with an elected one. What has happened here? I think this has happened because the planning commission has not followed borough code.” — Former planning commission chairman Rob Goldberg, who was…
Saturday night was “Board Game Night” at Mosquito Lake Community Center. A sign on the front of the building said, “You Belong Here.” A bulletin board at the entrance was covered with postings about the center and what was going on there, and other notices of interest to folks who live up the highway. Inside the center were jigsaw puzzles…
On Jan. 9, the day before last Tuesday’s assembly meeting, Haines Borough Planning Commissioner Don Turner Jr. submitted the following letter, in writing, to the Haines Borough. I’m printing the letter here exactly as Turner wrote it. (“Miss Huling” refers to assembly member Tyler Huling and “LCC” to Lynn Canal Conservation, apparently.) “Manager, Mayor, Assembly Members: …
The Chilkat Indian Village doesn’t strike out in local politics. It bats one thousand. The tribe doesn’t play against minor league teams like the Haines Borough, so residents and borough officials witnessed a rare occasion when the village’s big guns put on a batting clinic at Tuesday’s assembly meeting. Jones Hotch Jr., the village council vice-president, came with a kind…
Nothing in politics gets attention like a pile of money not vigorously defended. So explains yet another attempt to part out the Haines Borough’s tourism program and the 1 percent sales tax revenues that make it work. The latest is a pitch by borough manager Annette Kreitzer to eliminate the town’s tourism director job and to contract out the duties…
When I was a child, my father would sing to me to sleep with “The Big Rock Candy Mountain,” an ode to hobos and a life lived freely as a wandering bum. On the Big Rock Candy Mountain, lemonade bubbled up from springs, cigarettes grew on trees and they hung the jerk who invented work. It was an odd lullaby.…
Over time, the Haines Borough Assembly’s mistaken decision in 2011 to demolish the former elementary school gym becomes more egregious. As our weather becomes more extreme, as our device-obsessed children fall into obesity, as we learn more about the importance of regular, strenuous exercise, it’s clear that we need more opportunities for year-round physical recreation. The historic closure of our…
We just returned from a night at Chilkat State Park public use cabin. Here are some tips: RENTING THE CABIN The cabin, officially “Glacier View Cabin,” can be rented online only. The rate is $60 per night. Rentals are limited to three consecutive nights. Go online to dnr.alaska.gov/parks/aspcabins/glacierviewcabin.htm. At the bottom of the page, click on “Check Availability on Reserve…
It’s virtually never that the town of Haines gets ahead of major, European nations on enlightened social policy, so this bears reporting: France made news this week in announcing free condoms for citizens aged 18 to 25. Haines has offered free condoms for more than 25 years – to anyone. There’s a grab-box of complimentary rubbers mounted on the outside…