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

I’m leaving for a few weeks to go commercial fishing in Bristol Bay again this summer and I want to introduce readers to two individuals who are going to work at the CVN in my absence. Jenny-Marie Stryker comes to Haines from California. She spent this winter in Anchorage working for the municipality in the Alaska Fellows Program. The fellowship aims to bring young people to the state and engage them in positions that are civic minded and serve the public. She is enthusiastic and has a high interest in local politics. To wit, Stryker attended her first Haines Borough Assembly meeting Tuesday night and still showed up smiling for work the next day.

Larry Persily, a 20-year veteran Alaskan journalist, will run the paper while I’m gone. Persily was the publisher of the Wrangell Sentinel for eight years, worked in newspapers in Juneau for eight years and also reported for the Anchorage Daily News, the Anchorage Times and Petroleum News. For the past 20 years he’s worked in public policy for federal, state and municipal government. He’s decided to revisit his past and is excited to join the CVN where he will write and edit news.

On a personal note, I’d like to take this moment to celebrate my first year running the paper. This town is never dull. We’ve covered the exciting and bizarre: ragfish, amputated chicken wings and first ascents on granite spires. We’ve covered the difficult and painful: resource extraction, drug addiction and sexual abuse. It’s gone by fast, and I’m looking forward to another year. I want to thank all our readers and advertisers for supporting the newspaper. Most of all, I’d like to thank Jasmine Taylor, Natalie Helms, Jane Pascoe, Bonnie Hedrick and Janine Allen for all their help and work this past year. Thank you.

See you in July.

-Kyle Clayton