To change the course of events, you have to organize and raise a little hell. They don’t teach that in high school civics class, but they should. History’s great men – Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi – were not beloved in their lifetimes. They were pot-stirrers maligned by authorities and resented by the masses for agitating and challenging…
What are our rarest and most valuable resources? Majestic mountain vistas can be found all over the western United States. So can dramatic coastlines. If you know where to look, the world is still teeming with wildlife. Away from big cities, there are tiny towns and corners every bit as tranquil as this place. So what does Haines have that’s…
What makes Haines special? Majestic mountain vistas can be found all over the western United States. So can dramatic coastlines. If you know where to look, the world is still teeming with wildlife. Away from big cities, there are tiny towns and corners every bit as tranquil as this place. So what does Haines have that’s just not…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Let’s have a round of applause for the Chilkoot Indian Association. While no one was paying much attention, the Haines-based tribe did as much for public recreation as has been done in a decade or more. The CIA recently completed two miles of trails and boardwalk that snakes through the wetlands across the Old Haines Highway from the Haines School.…