This week I laid out a plan for addressing illegal garbage dumping in the borough: To launch an education campaign and have the government buy pre-paid orange landfill bags for folks who need help affording their trash bill. My wealthy, educated white friends were aghast. Use my tax dollars to subsidize miscreants who foul our valley and flout our laws?…
Fifty or more years ago, people didn’t worry too much about their trash. Many dumped theirs at the first pullout heading out Lutak Road. Down went garbage, washing machines, even cars. For some visitors, their first view of Haines was of a beachfront garbage dump. The rock outcropping became known as Garbage Point. Although a sanitary landfill was established and…
A friend of mine described his residency: “I live in Alaska year-round except for Novembruary.” For those four months, my friend went to Mexico or Thailand or Florida or anywhere warmer, brighter and drier than here in deep winter, which would describe most of the rest of the world. I give my friend credit for owning up to his annual…
If I had my druthers, I’d give the Lutak Dock to Lynden Transport or Delta Western or to both. But they wouldn’t take it. They wouldn’t take it for the same reason you wouldn’t take a free milk cow even though your family drinks a lot of milk: The cost of maintenance. In the long run, it’s much cheaper for…
As long as I am Haines Borough Mayor, I will support the non-profit corporations that work to make our valley a better place. If your nonprofit needs a letter of support from the Haines Borough to receive a grant or anything else, come see me at the borough office. The firefighter who shows up to put out your chimney blaze…
Only thin crowds turned out for last weekend’s basketball homestand against Metlakatla. That was a shame. The Haines teams didn’t win but they played well against Met, an aggressive and longtime rival. Two Haines friends who have watched prep hoops all over Alaska remarked that besides being thin, the crowds were quiet compared to in other towns, where they are…
If you hunt, fish, run a boat, snowmachine, hike, pick berries or cut firewood between 10 Mile Haines Highway and the border, your voice on management of those activities by the State of Alaska is in jeopardy. Act today to defend it. Alaska Gov. Michael Dunleavy has issued an executive order to abolish the local advisory council of the Alaska…
For a town that bills itself as a recreation mecca, we have a parks and recreation problem: Our parks and outdoor facilities need help and our recreation events occur on a spotty, irregular schedule. Because we compete with the rest of the world for visitors and residents, these are important issues. Magnificent scenery won’t solve them. Nonprofits and volunteer efforts…
The addition of the Alcan 200 snowmachine race to this year’s Winterfest celebration promises to add critical mass to the fledgling event, making it a bigger draw that can bring more visitors and money to our town. Winterfest happens Feb. 16-18. That’s enough lead time to start promoting this year’s event as a blockbuster. Former tourism director Leslie Ross created…
Starting around 2013, Chris Thorgesen arrived from Colorado and did a remarkable thing. He bought five prominent and empty commercial buildings on Main Street, refurbished them and filled them with tenants. Then he bought others. When retired golf pro Dave Canipe, who owned the King’s Store building, complained to Thor that he’d bought every crappy building on Main Street but…