The proposed University of Alaska timber sale is so big, so far-reaching and so sudden, a person can’t help but wonder where it came from and why. For about 70 years, the university has held 13,000 acres of forest in the Chilkat Valley, property it received around the time of Alaska statehood to develop or exploit as a source of…
We’re in a bind at the Lutak Dock. Let’s take action now so that we’re never in a bind like this again. Here’s the story. About 50 years ago, the U.S. Army gave Haines the Lutak Dock. The Army had built the earthen embankment dock in the mid-1950s, to build and supply a military tank farm located near the present-day…
Before any more lawsuits between neighbors, the Haines Borough needs to identify and acquire access to popular public beaches and waterways. In the past three years, longtime users of Chilkoot River and Viking Cove have faced off in court against property owners and the results have been disastrous. They’ve been disastrous to residents’ pocketbooks, to neighborhood relationships, and to our…
(There are two federally recognized Indian tribes in the Chilkat Valley, the Chilkat Indian Village and the Chilkoot Indian Association. In much of this essay, I will use the word “tribe” in a more generic sense, to describe a group of people who share common beliefs and common livelihood. In Webster’s New World Dictionary, this is definition number 3 of…
People on the political left, right and center have groused to me about the borough spending $49,500 on an economic development plan. That’s not a big surprise. If there’s one thing Haines agrees on, it’s disagreement. Plus, $49,500 is real money. I have been critical of some previous borough-funded studies, including ones about the police department and borough worker morale…
I’m heartened and humbled by your show of support during the recent recall election. I intend to live up to your expectations of me. That is, to be open and fair-minded and to put in the hours required for thoughtful consideration of local issues. For most of the past year I’ve been fighting with one hand tied behind my back,…
Imagine if the wealthy lady down the street showed up at your doorstep with her child and said, “Here. You raise my kid. I don’t want to any longer.” You would say, “Tough, lady. Live up to your commitments. Raise your own kid.” But you’re not the Haines Borough. In the past 20 years, the borough has taken over ownership…
A friend said I sounded flippant when I told KHNS that “it didn’t really matter to me” whether or not the Haines Borough Assembly censured me for mistakenly releasing the names of two officers contained in complaints about police behavior that I made public back in April. (“Censure” means to officially scold.) I apologized, in writing, to the two officers…
I was ready to go all Chuck Norris on the Haines Borough budget this year. Give it a karate chop and show it who was boss. Vote to lop some heads at city hall. Jack up some fees on underpriced services. Maybe lay on some specialty taxes. Much of the rest of the assembly was feeling the same way, as…
After serving about 20 years on the Haines City Council, Chip Lende joked that his biggest achievement was helping to establish an ice rink under Payson’s Pavilion at the fairgrounds. Lende intended the remark to demonstrate how difficult it is to bring change as an elected leader in a small town. But the ice rink – made possible when the…