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

The Haines Borough Assembly approved a smaller water and sewer rate increase than initially proposed at its Tuesday meeting, after borough finance director Jila Stuart suggested refinancing the sewer fund’s existing debt.

The $1.7 million debt is being repaid over a 40-year period through 2033. The assembly voted to authorize a 5-year loan from the areawide general fund to the sewer enterprise fund for $250,000 at 3% annual debt repayments. The loan would go from $86,000 per year through 2033 to $54,000 per year through 2026.

“The rate increase for the sewer fund could be reduced by $3.15 per service per month,” Stuart wrote in a memo. “This loan refinance would be a win-win because we would be paying the interest ‘to ourselves.’”

The ordinance as amended will raise rates by roughly 4% instead of 5%.

Borough staff’s move to increase the borough’s water and sewer utility rate schedule came about to compensate for state funding cuts and a rise in expenses that have outpaced revenues. In the current fiscal year, water and sewer spending is expected to exceed revenue by more than $80,000.

The assembly also unanimously approved an amendment to the borough’s minor offense code titled “Disrupting meetings and processions.”

The amendment added language making it unlawful to “use any profane language, language which could reasonably be expected to cause a reasonable person to fear personal violence being inflicted on themselves or others, or to make obscene gestures or similar demonstrations, which conduct substantially interrupts, delays or disturbs the peace and good order of the meeting, procession or gathering.”