Recovery efforts from last December’s deadly landslide in Haines and defending gun ownership were both hot ticket items at Tuesday’s Haines Borough Assembly meeting. 

Haines residents made passionate pleas on both sides of a symbolic gun rights resolution. The resolution brought by Haines assemblyperson Paul Rogers’ would effectively show that the people of Haines support the second amendment of the U.S. constitution and would seek to prevent the borough from spending funds to enforce any measures that would be in violation of the amendment.

Haines resident Karen Hess said that she supports the resolution and is okay with Rogers removing the language calling for Haines to be a so-called “Sanctuary City” for those seeking expansive rights to bear arms.

“If you read it and see why we have the second amendment, you’ll see why we don’t have a government militia. It’s very important for citizens of the United States to be able to keep and bear arms,” said Hess.

Haines resident and business owner Joe Ordonez strongly disagreed with the notion that the borough assembly should  be weighing in on such a divisive national issue. Ordonez argued the resolution could be misinterpreted by potential visitors and keep some tourists away. Ordonez urged the assembly to look at the issue from a financial viewpoint.

“If this resolution turns off even one of my potential guests, and turns them away from Haines, direct and indirect revenue as well as the tax revenue is lost forever,” said Ordonez.

Haines elected leaders were fairly divided as well, with assemblyperson Katie Kirby wondering whether the borough should be singling out the second amendment rather than supporting the entire Bill of Rights. 

I don’t think it’s more important than the other rights we’re given. And putting it in this context where it’s deemed a higher level of importance, because we’re specifically saying ‘This one,’ to me speaks that we then think less of the others. To me that’s not right,” said Kirby.

Haines Mayor Doug Olerud, who owns a local sporting goods store that sells guns supported the resolution. 

“Any of our Bill of Rights are not given to us by the government, these are rights that we have as individuals that the government can’t take away from us. Expressing that, I think, is something that the borough can do. If we can’t have these discussions at the local level with our neighbors in a small community like Haines, how do we expect anybody at the state or national level to deal with these,” said Olerud.

The resolution passed 4-2 with Katie Kirby and Carol Tuynman opposed.

In other business, recovery from the early December storms is still ongoing. The Haines assembly discussed efforts to reopen a stretch of Beach Road that was destroyed by a catastrophic mudslide that killed two people. 

State disaster officials had raised concerns that local improvements to Beach Road could affect eligibility for Federal Emergency Management Agency funding.

But at Tuesday’s meeting Sam Walton with the state’s Disaster Assistance Program walked that back. And he assured the assembly that wouldn’t be the case. 

“It appears, preliminarily, that the funding for that has been secured at the state level. And our discussions with FEMA so far do not indicate that there’s any jeopardy to that from the FEMA side,” said Walton.

The assembly unanimously voted to improve the temporary access road and get bids to permanently repair Beach Road. They also voted to install road signs to alert motorists that the road will only be accessible to residents and essential service providers.