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

The Haines Borough Assembly’s letter to Alaska State Troopers refusing to violate its own charter by providing borough-wide police protection “adds to the conversation the Department of Public Safety will have at the highest levels,” according to Alaska State Trooper’s former acting director Major Andrew Greenstreet.

At a Jan. 8 assembly meeting, the borough assembly unanimously voted to send a letter written by borough attorney Brooks Chandler to Greenstreet saying that the assembly “respectfully declines the request to continually violate its own charter by regularly providing law enforcement service outside of the Haines townsite service area.”

Borough manager Debra Schnabel sent the letter on Jan. 10, and received the response from Greenstreet on Jan. 11.

According to Jonathon Taylor, Alaska State Trooper communications director, the “conversations regarding trooper staffing levels across the state include Greenstreet, Colonel Barry Wilson, deputy director, the deputy commissioner and commissioner Amanda Price.”

Taylor added that trooper allocation conversations are on-going, and that “the major’s letter speaks for itself.”

A ballot proposition to create on-call police service areas in Mud Bay, Lutak and the Upper Valley failed at the polls during October’s election.

Many residents have asked the assembly to continue lobbying for the replacement of its trooper position, which appears on the legislative priorities list unanimously passed by the Haines Borough Assembly on Tuesday under “priorities for the state.”

Colonel Wilson, who replaced Major Greenstreet as the director on Wednesday, was unable to comment by deadline for this story.