Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

Trespassers apparently have been helping themselves to the recently vacated Mosquito Lake School.

Jim Stanford, a Mosquito Lake resident charged with checking on the building, said he has found its door propped open several times in the past week despite locking the building.

“Somebody has been getting into the school, but it seems as if nothing has been taken,” he said.

The Haines Borough school board voted in March to close Mosquito Lake School due to low enrollment. The borough also added $28,900 to its fiscal year 2015 budget to “mothball” the school, meaning it will continue to maintain and heat the building despite its closure.

Everyone who had a key to the facility said they’ve turned the keys in, so Stanford said he doesn’t know who could be breaking into the building. There have been no signs of vandalism or theft, he said.

After hearing about the unauthorized entries, public facilities director Carlos Jimenez said he asked Stanford to remove the lock cores from the doors. Jimenez said he will order new cores to replace all the locks.

Stanford said he hasn’t contacted troopers and won’t unless the break-ins continue after the lock change.

Mayor Stephanie Scott said she thinks if the building continues to sit vacant, it will attract more trespassers and vandals. “A vacant building is just asking for trouble. It just is,” Scott said.

“Of course I’m concerned that it will get worse,” Scott said. “Probably what will happen is security cameras will be installed and next we’ll put in a chain-link fence. You have to protect an asset if you’re going to own it.”

The building is particularly vulnerable to misuse because it’s in an area with minimal law enforcement surveillance, she said.

Scott said she doesn’t want to keep the building under borough ownership.

“I think we (should) put the building on the market. We get rid of it. I don’t think we should keep it,” she said.

Scott said nearby Klukwan School could continue to serve the community in Mosquito Lake School’s absence.

“I’d like to see if the private sector is tempted by that building,” Scott said.

Stanford, a Mosquito Lake resident for 30 years, said it would be premature to get rid of the facility. He said he’d like to see it used as a community center or rented out to a private enterprise.

“It’s a municipal facility. So if we’re going to sell that building, let’s sell the library and the museum and all of them,” he said.

Stanford said he has perceived an anti-highway resident attitude in town recently.

 “It’s almost a mean spirit coming from town toward the people of the outer-borough, like they don’t deserve anything,” Stanford said. “That’s the attitude that is just pervasive in Haines.”