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

The Haines Borough Assembly Tuesday directed a committee to consider lobbying Alaska Power and Telephone to resume the printing of its phone book similar to its 2017 version. That version was divided by communities rather than a final consolidated version that was printed in 2021.

A press release from the company at the time instructed customers to look for their neighbors' phone numbers by keeping “your old phone book, do a search on the web,” or “Google it.”

Tom Morphet spoke during public comment during the past two meetings in an effort to get the assembly to take up the issue and he suggested contacting the Alaska Regulatory Commission.

Gabe Thomas proposed an assembly committee discuss the issue, citing many Haines residents who still use landlines.

“My uncle is one of the people who uses those things,” Thomas said. “I haven’t used one in 15 years.”

The assembly also approved in its first public hearing a budget amendment to spend $7,000 for a special election and to increase Letnikof Float funding by $27,000. The special election will ask voters whether the planning commission should be elected and will be held June 6.

The additional funding for floats is necessary to install them this month, said borough manager Annette Kreitzer. “Without the repairs, the harbor would not be ready for seasonal use,” Kreitzer wrote in her manager’s report. “The floats will be in place within the next two weeks.”

The assembly also amended a resolution expressing the importance of the grand jury system after the Alaska Supreme Court in December issued an order that requires citizens to go through the Department of Law when they believe a grand jury should investigate a matter. Paul Nelson brought the issue before the assembly and advocated that the public should retain the right to appeal directly to the grand jury rather than the department of law.

“The citizens of Alaska have a Constitutional right of free speech and that right of free speech is guaranteed in the United States Constitution and the Alaska Constitution; and such right of free speech extends to the right of the people to directly approach the Grand Jury without government interference,” the borough’s resolution states.

The amendment changed and combined some of the language adopted at a previous assembly meeting.

The assembly also approved a letter questioning Gov. Michael Dunleavy about the proposed Cascade Point ferry terminal and why it was continuing the project given that the M/V Hubbard has been retrofitted with crew quarters.

“…crew quarters were not a part of the plan for the M/V Hubbard, now that the vessel is being retrofitted with crew quarters, our community is asking how the development at Cascade Point of a ferry terminal will supplement service provided by the M/V Hubbard,” Olerud’s letter states.

The intent of the Cascade Point project was to allow the state’s two newest ferries at the time — both of which went unused— to operate day trips in Lynn Canal without exceeding the U.S. Coast Guard limit of a 12-hour shift for crew. Anything longer than that would require a crew change, and the ferries were not built with crew quarters to accommodate shift work for longer voyages.

But the Alaska Department of Transportation issued a memorandum of understanding with Goldbelt in March for the Alaska Native corporation to evaluate feasibility and permitting of marine facilities at Cascade Point, 30 miles north of Juneau’s Auke Bay dock, to decide “whether or not to fund the construction of the facility.”

Assembly member Debra Schnabel, although she voted in support of sending the letter, said it wasn’t strong enough. “I think the community should come out with a statement that we’re no longer in favor of considering Cascade Point. This letter implies we’re still willing to consider it if these questions are answered.”