Staffing at the Haines Chamber of Commerce is in flux. The current director is leaving, and a previous director is stepping in to train a potential new director. 

 

Andrew Letchworth is stepping down from his position as director of the Haines Chamber of Commerce.   

Letchworth: “Several things that happened, major life changes all hit at once, and sometimes, you gotta take a step back, and you gotta reorient, and you gotta make some big changes, leaving the chamber was one of those.”

Letchworth came to Haines in 2020, dreaming of learning to ski at a high level. When COVID hit, he saw how the local economy struggled, and decided to put his graduate studies in business administration to good use.

Letchworth: “Kind of like came out of a heart to do business consulting for free to be able to help people turn loans from barely able to survive and then bankruptcy, after we ran out of food and money, to using loans to catapult yourself into a place where when growth comes back, you are able to stand on the foundation you laid in the bad times, and then really excel  int hegood times.”

Letchworth’s kind hearted impulse led him to work with the chamber of commerce, and eventually becoming its director. Speaking with business owners, Letchworth came to the conclusion that the best way to help the local economy would be to lower shipping rates. He thought increasing the volume of merchandise transiting through Haines would do just that. Letchworth started communicating with Yukon officials He landed in hot water after inviting them to discuss the Lutak dock at a spring 2022 ports and harbor committee meeting. 

Letchworth: “I thought that was going to be a win-win for everybody, but then that kind of blew up in my face.”

Yukon mining officials attended the meeting, and described their infrastructure needs, to an enthusiastic audience. Environmentalists started suspecting the borough was working to turn the Haines highway into an industrial corridor, with the Lutak dock rebuilt as a facility for ore transfer.

It didn’t help that shortly thereafter the borough approved a new design for the dock that seemed to fulfill the Yukon mining official’s wish list. 

Letchworth: “There was one days where I walked into the bank, someone walked up to me and said ‘How does it feel to be the most hated man in Haines?’”

Letchworth says much of the ill will came from pro development people, who blamed him for destroying good will that had taken years to build. Despite all this, he stuck with the job. But this spring, he decided to move on. 

The chamber hired Lee Zion as an office administrator, and he has applied to the director position. Zion recently moved to Haines after running a newspaper in Minnesota. He says this taught him a lot about how to run a business, and he wants to use his experience to help others.

Zion: “It’s one thing if just one random business person stands up, but if the chamber of commerce is fully behind it, then it has extra force. And I’d like to be that extra push.”

Zion says he wants to look at the impact of internet service on businesses, and he sees great potential for the chamber to be a networking tool for business owners. The chamber hired previous director Tracey Harmon to take Letchworth’s duties, and train Zion.

Harmon says there is discussion of having Zion as the new director, but no decision has been made at this point. She says it’s a multifaceted role.   

Harmon: “It’s everything from maintaining records and bookkeeping, there is administrative parts to the position, being able to attend borough meetings and being plugged in to local government, a good communicator that is comfortable speaking publicly, as well as someone that maybe is familiar with the legislative process,a nd being comfortable going off to Juneau, and possibly advocating on behalf of priorities and advocacy issues that might be affecting the business climate in Hianes.”

Harmon says ideally, two people would take on those duties, a director and an administrative assistant. She says she will remain with the chamber until the director position is filled. Until then, she would like to promote winter tourism in Haines. There have been discussions about creating a ski area up valley, with a lift. Harmon sees this as a great idea to promote.

As for Letchworth, he is headed to California. He is going to join friends, and a church group he is connected to.

Letchworth:”Kind of do a little bit of reorient time, i’m going to do a kind oof a retreat, a spiritual retreat, to get some vision for my life.”

Letchworth says he might join a friend and go do some rebuilding work in Hawaii. When asked if he would reapply for the director’s job if he comes back to Haines, he is categorical.  

Letchworth: “Hell no!”

Still, Letchworth is grateful for his time here. He says “Thanks for all the fish”

 

Note: Andrew Letchworth reached out after the airing of this story, he wrote that ill will did not accurately describe the sentiments of the people who confronted him for his part in bringing Yukon mining officials to the Ports ande Harbor Committee meeting. He wrote: “Each one of them continued in friendship with me. They even continued to encourage me to continue to do good in Haines.”