Newscasts
The Haines Borough Assembly voted unanimously on Tuesday to charge a new $9 head tax for cruise ship passengers. The resolution, which still has to be voted into law and would not go into effect until 2025, would go towards port development and other services tied to the industry. And, one dollar from each tariff would go towards cultural preservation.
A team of eight Haines women, seven of them mothers of little ones, earned their way to the championship game last week in Juneau’s Lions Club Gold Medal Basketball Tournament. The team came from behind, bruised but unbeaten, to compete in a David vs. Goliath championship. As KHNS’s Jenn Shelton reports, the Haines women ended up taking silver against a team of speedy collegiate sharpshooters.
The latest Skagway assembly meeting included appeals not to move a building, to spend more money on Ore Dock and to save cottonwood trees.
Karate instructors made the trek from Juneau to Skagway to teach three self defense classes. Two courses were for women, and one was for ages five to 12.
Haines Friends of Recycling is about two months away from purchasing a piece of property near downtown, where it plans to relocate. The non-profit hopes to build a covered collection area, which will accept almost all plastics. And, plans for the new location include a modernized indoor facility with bear-safe storage, plumbing and a plastic upcycling center.
Much of rural Alaska shares the same two problems: old buildings and the need for new housing. Wrangell looks to solve both problems at once. The borough is one step closer to selling its old, former hospital, the Wrangell Medical Center. The prospective buyer plans to demolish the building to construct housing units on the property and six lots next to it.
The Haines Public Safety Building is $12 million closer to being replaced. Congress passed a budget bill earlier this month, which included money for a new building. The bill also provided nearly $100-thousand dollars to Becky’s Place, a Haines safehouse for survivors of domestic abuse.
Haines’ trail-building nonprofit, Haines Huts and Trails, hired a new director last month. Erik Boraas spent nearly the last decade leading a nonprofit trail organization in Juneau. Boraas has big plans to make Haines a travel destination for trail lovers of all abilities, including his cat.
