Day: March 11, 2026

Heliport rehearing

Controversy surrounding a 26 Mile heliport, and likely litigation too, will continue after the assembly on Tuesday denied appeals from both the borough manager and heliport owners George and Lynette Campbell. 

The requests for appeal followed a Haines Borough Planning Commission meeting last month in which the commission voted to deny the Campbells a new heliport permit. The Planning Commission meeting was plagued by procedural issues, including a key court document that was missing from the packet, and commissioners who said they were unclear about the scope of their powers in the complicated legal quagmire. 

For this week’s meeting, while the Campbells and borough manager Alekka Fullerton were in agreement asking for a rehearing, they differed on why they wanted the rehearing, as well as on most else associated with the issue. 

In Fullerton’s case, she recommended a rehearing based on a video, purportedly of helicopter dust at the heliport, that was emailed to planning commissioners but not made available to the public. The public, and specifically the appellants, Fullerton said, had a right to view all the evidence being considered. 

“George didn’t have any opportunity to say, for example, that’s not even my land,” Fullerton said.

George Campbell, who spoke at the meeting, said the planning commission, among other issues, should not have considered the permit in full. Rather, he argues it should have only had the authority to consider and alter specific conditions of the permit. 

Fullerton said Tuesday that the borough’s legal position, based on input from the borough attorney, is the opposite: that the planning commission acted within their rights in considering the full permit. 

Ultimately, all the arguments are, at least for now, somewhat void: the assembly voted not to rehear the appeal in its entirety, and will hold a partial hearing on only some of the permit conditions. 

In a procedural twist, a majority of assembly members disagreed with the decision they voted for. 

“I don’t think the Campbells or anybody else with a CUP (conditional use permit)  request similar to that is going to get a fair shake with the planning commission,” said assembly member Mark Smith. Assembly member Cheryl Stickler said she “concurred” with Smith’s statements. 

Assembly member Kevin Forster joined Smith and Stickler in voting for a rehearing, leaving only assembly members Craig Loomis and Eben Sargent voting against. But still, the minority won out due to Gabe Thomas’ consequential absence from the meeting: the assembly requires motions receive four votes to pass, regardless of how many members are present. 

That meant no matter how Thomas voted, his presence would have changed the outcome: had he voted with the minority, the resulting 3-3 tie would have put the question to the mayor. Had he voted with the majority, the motion would have passed, triggering a rehearing for the Campbells. 

Note: In a continuation of the meeting on Wednesday night, with Thomas in attendance after his absence the previous night, the assembly voted to rescind its prior votes and vote again on the issue. The body then split 3-3 with Smith, Stickler and Thomas voting in favor of a re-hearing. Mayor Tom Morphet broke the tie with a fourth yes vote in favor of a rehearing. 

“There have been all sorts of allegations that the Haines Borough Planning Commission did something wrong,” Morphet said. “We’re going to review their decision. If we find they did something wrong this review will be an opportunity to do something right.” 

The upcoming hearing likely won’t be the end of the story — particularly if it doesn’t grant a new permit. Campbell all but guaranteed assembly members that another lawsuit would be coming. 

“If I haven’t proved already that we’re fighting this, I don’t know what to tell you,” he said. 

Lutak Dock settlement offer received 

The assembly went into a lengthy closed-door executive session Tuesday to discuss a settlement offer from former Lutak Dock contractor Turnagain Marine. Fullerton said the borough received the offer Friday. 

Turnagain first filed suit over a year ago, on Nov. 11, 2024, alleging unreasonable delays and unpaid invoices by the borough in the dock rebuild. The borough has disputed the contractor’s claims, and court-mandated mediation failed to reach a resolution late last year. 

Hearings in the suit have not yet been scheduled, but the borough has since terminated its contract with Turnagain. 

Fullerton did not disclose the content of the settlement offer or what was discussed in the closed-door session. She did, however, say assembly members consulted with the borough’s attorney in the session, but did not take action on the offer, leaving it on the table for now. 

Tanani Bay sewer outfall petitioned

New Haines residents were on hand Tuesday to petition the assembly to take over a problematic sewage outfall at a Tanani Bay subdivision.

The four in attendance, former Utah residents, said they bought land in the subdivision from developer Don Turner Jr. in 2019 with the intention of building homes and moving to Haines. Now, they say, the sewage issues, which they did not know about upon purchase, could prevent them from moving into completed homes later this year. 

The issue seems to have a long backstory. Turner said he developed the subdivision in 1996 under an agreement that the city would take over the sewage system upon completion. Turner submitted documents supporting that position, and assembly members seemed to agree as well. 

But according to both Turner and Fullerton, for the past two decades, no one has maintained or tested the system — not Turner, and not the borough. Then, in 2023, the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation declared the system out of compliance. 

Fullerton and a majority of assembly members expressed a need and willingness to get the system back in compliance, though a formal motion putting ink to the statement failed, with Sargent and Loomis voting against. 

The remaining question seems to be just a structure to pay for the work on the system. Because the system isn’t connected to the borough’s townsite wastewater infrastructure, staff say the sewer enterprise fund can’t pay for it. Instead, Fullerton suggested subdivision residents vote to form a service area, where they would all chip in to fund borough maintenance. The residents present said they were open to the idea. 

Business continues in a mid-week special

The assembly adjourned at 10:00 p.m., leaving much of the agenda for another meeting scheduled for the following day. The Wednesday meeting will cover topics including accessory dwelling units, cell towers, Dalton Trail RMSA user fees, and harbor dead-storage regulations. 

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Keeping an instrument in tune can be a nightmare for any musician during a live show. It seemed particularly challenging for Matthew Baker during Monday evening’s Amour Courtois show at the Chilkat Center. 

Baker, who is from North Dakota, joined a trio of jazz musicians on medieval instruments playing a 17th century bowed instrument known as a baryton. It’s played much like a modern cello and for much of the show he was having to make constant minute, and sometimes major, adjustments to keep it in tune. 

“A baryton likes a humid climate,” he said after the show. 

While Haines certainly meets that requirement, the group is nearing the end of a tour that started in Dawson City, Canada. He said the -40 degree temperatures were a shock to his instrument. 

Near him on the stage, French jazz pianist Baptiste Bailly struggled to keep his hands warm – often sitting on them while the trio re-imagined 14th century music through wide-ranging jazz interpretations bringing modern interpretations to composers like Guillaume de Machaut and Gilles Binchois. 

Despite the climate challenges, the group – which includes Spain’s Efrén López – put on a striking show for a crowd of about 60.  

Long after the concert was over, more than a dozen people crowded around Baker and Lopéz to ask questions about their instruments. 

Sean Bryant leaned in close to examine Baker’s baryton which has a somewhat hidden set of pluckable strings running up the back of the neck. The instrument is exceptionally rare, so he’s not likely to find one to play for himself but joked that he was considering building one. 

López, who is a multi-instrumentalist, had a setup featuring an oud, which is a pear-shaped Middle Eastern instrument, and a Pander de Peñaparda, a square drum generally played by women in a region of Spain near to his home. But it was his hurdy-gurdy which got the most attention. 

The guitar-shaped stringed instrument, which originates from the 9th century, includes drone strings sounded by a hand-cranked wheel which can sound like a set of bagpipes. It also has strings that pass over a bridge which can generate a loud drum-like buzz when played. 

Combine those instruments with Bailly’s penchant for playing the keys while scraping his hands along the strings of the grand piano in the auditorium and the music at times seemed to fill the auditorium with a wall of textured sound. At other moments, the audience leaned in to hear quiet notes or reverberating strings giving way to long, lingering silences. 

Local musician Henry Leasia took on the challenge of mixing that sound. He said he’s still learning how to mix a live show in real time, but that members of the group knew what they wanted, brought their own gear and gave him guidance about how to present their particular, peculiar sound. 

“You want to hear the quiet, you want to hear all of the dynamics, but it’s so hard to get all of that range,” he said. “It was fun.” 

The Amour Courtois tour started in Dawson and was headed to Vancouver for a Friday, March 13 show to cap it off. 

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The state has been promised a more-than-quarter-billion dollar windfall, and some of it could end up in the Chilkat Valley.

The $272 million materialized in Juneau just before New Year’s for the Rural Health Transformation Program — part of the Trump Administration’s tax and spending bill, often referred to as the One Big Beautiful Bill, passed in July.

As a whole, it’s a complex set of changes to state healthcare funding. The federal spending bill included cutbacks to Medicaid that could total between $1.5 to $2.5 billion in Alaska over the next decade, according to the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation.

But state officials hope the rural health funding, a last-minute addition to the bill, could blunt that Medicaid loss, state health commissioner Heidi Hedberg  said in an interview with Alaska Public Media this summer. 

As the plan stands, Alaska is slated to receive similarly sized rural health awards in each of the next four years. But it’s not a one-for-one trade.

The rural health funds come from the federal government’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. But rather than go toward health insurance, the money will go to the state to disburse in grants, which specifically supplant Medicaid payments, according to federal guidelines. As for where the grants will end up, all that’s currently known is a set of wide-ranging eligible categories.

The state’s six listed priorities for the funding include phrases like “spark technology and innovation,” and “healthy communities.”

State documents list suggested uses within these categories ranging from telehealth platforms to medical-delivery drones, to postpartum and chronic-disease care.

Like the expansive list of eligible uses, a broad range of public and private entities are eligible to apply, including municipal governments, tribal governments, healthcare providers, tech companies, non-profits and trade organizations. 

In the Chilkat Valley, that means traditional healthcare providers like SEARHC will be vying with non-profits like Haines Huts and Trails and the borough government for a chunk of the same funding pot.

A tight turnaround

While local applicants say the program is a significant opportunity, they’ve also been challenged by uncertainty and a tight timeline.

To get a foot in the door, applicants had to submit letters of interest detailing potential projects by March 11. That was just weeks after information about the program was released.

The total sum for the state was announced by the federal government on Dec. 29, just before the new year. Then, roughly a month later, borough manager Alekka Fullerton said she received notice of the program from Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s office, which she immediately forwarded to all non-profits in the Chilkat Valley.

Meanwhile, the state’s Department of Health rolled out information to the general public at roughly the same time, including a Feb. 10 webinar introducing the general application process and eligibility guidelines.

That left only a month to produce letters of interest.

Many in the borough who hope to apply say that compressed timeline is out of the ordinary.
Borough grants administrator Helen Alten and Four Winds Resource Center board member Erika Merklin both said a more familiar timeline is a three- or four-month grant application window.

Amid the rush for funding, the borough government and local organizations are still trying to get a handle on the application process. At a public meeting last Wednesday, borough officials and non-profit leaders hoped to discuss their applications to avoid overlap. But much of the meeting consisted of organization leaders trading basic application information back and forth, gathered from various webinars and conversations about the program rollout — with frequent refrains of “I heard,” “I read,” and “what’s your understanding?”

It’s not just borough leaders feeling the rush, and it’s not just this week’s deadline that’s the issue. Department of Health communications director Shirley Sakaye this week described the situation as “evolving quickly,” even though the state’s program website says grants may be awarded starting this spring.

Meanwhile, Alten said this week the state’s grant matrix — which will describe criteria for the stage of the grant application after letters of intent — continues to change.

Federal timelines down the road are speeding up the process in other ways. According to federal guidelines, the state has to award the money by October this year. Organizations that receive money then have to spend it all by the following October. According to federal guidelines, whatever funds are unspent by that deadline could be taken away. Failure to spend the full amount could also decrease funding in future years of the program.

Mayor Tom Morphet said Murkowski, at last month’s Southeast Conference, told municipal leaders to “ask for everything and the kitchen sink.” Provided with a high volume of applications, the state can ensure all the funding gets awarded, Morphet said.

But for all the guidance to go big, the tight deadlines have been a handbrake for some applicants.

“I was hesitant to do too much in the first year because we want to be able to get it done,” said Nate Arrants from Huts and Trails at the borough meeting. “At this point, we have a week to get these cooperating partners together.” Amid the rush, certain types of organizations may see existing advantages compounded, Merklin said.

“You know who’s really ready to get this money is SEARHC. People in Anchorage. (Organizations) with grantwriters. With us in rural areas who really need it, it’s a bigger push with less capacity.”

Participants at the borough’s meeting last week, including Alten, said they had heard from Department of Health officials that the state would be prioritizing fleshed-out, “shovel-ready” projects. That could further the advantage for entities with more significant capacity.
Some of those large organizations have a presence in Haines, like SEARHC, or Southeast Alaska Independent Living. But those organizations could be putting in for system-wide grants, with no guarantee the Chilkat Valley will see direct returns. Morphet last week said he had heard from SEARHC officials that they would only be submitting on a system-wide basis.

SEARHC spokesperson Matt Carle did not respond to a question this week about his organization’s applications.

Possibilities for the Chilkat Valley
Some organizations in the Chilkat Valley have ambitious plans.

The Haines Volunteer Fire Department will apply for funding for a mobile paramedicine program to deliver care to people’s homes. With a grant to fund a new vehicle, equipment and training, assistant chief Tim Holm said the department can do more preventative care.
“Wound care, substance abuse care, we could bring antibiotics to people’s houses in Klukwan or Mosquito Lake or Lutak — people who don’t want to or can’t come in to the clinic,” Holm said.

According to department EMS director Julie Anderson, working models for the program already exist in Juneau, Ketchikan and the Anchorage area.

If initial startup costs are grant-funded, the program could then be funded by the department’s new zero-balance ambulance billing system, Holm said.

The borough will be submitting letters of interest for other programs. The top priority, Fullerton said last week, is funding for a padded jail cell in the public safety building and funding to train police department and fire department employees in responding to mental health crises.

Borough grants administrator Helen Alten said the borough will also be applying for two more initiatives. One would replace the HVAC system and increase pool programming, including a partnership with SEARHC for pool-based health and rehab activities. The other grant application would fund more meals at the senior center, bumping the senior lunch from three times a week to daily. 

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Haines resident Graham Kraft hosted a friend from Whitehorse, and one day turned into four with the closure of the Haines Highway north of the border. A highlight of the extended stay was that Canadian friend Ryan Bougie finally got to meet local Brian Rougie. Both are friends of Kraft, and he had eagerly awaited the opportunity to introduce them. Ryan Bougie and Brian Rougie shared a fun ski day.

Lenore (Nori) Nash and Dan Henry joined Harlequin Romance writer Anna Grace on March 1 for a presentation of their past and upcoming publications in Eugene, Ore. Bill Winkley, former Haines Children’s Theater director, hosted the panel at The Abbey, a senior living center in downtown Eugene. Stan Coleman, another former Children’s Theatre director, entertained with piano tunes. Former Skagway resident Nita Nettleton, who now lives in the Abbey, attended. Robin Grace cooked a brunch of local organic produce and a sensational frittata. The audience was treated to a lively discussion as the authors shared inspiration and experiences writing novels and non-fiction. Nori Nash has written 11 books. Her mother Nancy Nash’s love of Agatha Christie and assorted “ladies of crime” were some of the inspiration for Lenore’s foray into a new genre for the soon-to-be- released, “She Fell Away,” a mystery thriller. Nancy and Dwight Nash missed the event as their ferry out of Haines was canceled. They are headed off to Portland for a family visit.

Tim Huber was asked to represent Alaska at the national AgrAbility conference mid-March in Michigan. Agrability is a relatively new program in Alaska run by University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension. Huber was recommended by Leslie Shellcross. Huber will receive training and visit farms with disabled farmers. Shellcross did an assessment on Alten’s land and Henderson Farm last spring, while in town for the growers conference.

A predator ate Helen Alten’s chickens. Her neighbor, Blythe Carter, also lost a few ducks and chickens to something. The neighbors lost 20 birds between the two houses in under a week. Taylor Ashton lost a few birds nearby. Local trapper Nate Motes speculated that it could be a marten, so he set some traps. The animal escaped the first traps, and left prints. Motes caught a mink in the live trap by 8 p.m Thursday. “This is the culprit,” said Motes. He said that minks like water, so Chilkoot Lake is where the mink lives for now. So watch out Lutak chicken tenders. “Them critters ain’t gotta chance when they got the Cajun on the case.” Motes is from Louisiana.

The 39th Buckwheat International Ski Classic started in the rain, was delayed two hours for avalanche danger, and ended with sunshine. This year’s theme was “The Blizzard of Oz.” Chip Lende and Thom Ely completed the 16-kilometer course. Lende’s time was 1:30:27.5 and Ely’s time, 1:59:32.5. Deborah Marshall was disqualified, but had a good excuse. Ely says that she followed someone and went off course.
Amanda Painter, Leslie Ross and Cynthia Adams attended the Fisher Poets Gathering in Astoria Oregon. Painter describes it as fisherfolk from California, Oregon and Alaska sharing stories, songs and poems about their fishing experiences, sharing their joy, emotions and grief on stage. Ross says it was an incredible show of community expression, and cannot wait to go back.
Chloe Copeland helped her friend Lylith Widmer rehome 12 boxes of stuff and hundreds of pounds of heavy houseplants from Haines to Fairbanks. None of it would be possible without Copeland’s prowess with a wheelbarrow and heavy jade plants on ice-covered walkways. Copeland says that they made the trip in record time to avoid shocking the plants. The roadtrip included a Sarah Bishop e-book recommendation, and 15 hours of curated music from Copeland. Widmer has lived in Haines since 2015 and said she plans to be back. For now, she will enjoy Fairbanks, skijorning regularly and having a dishwasher.

Hammer enthusiast and museum owner Dave Pahl has been preserving the history of the hammer for years. Recently, he had the opportunity to share his expertise with a wider audience, contributing a series of articles to Gristmill Magazine, a publication dedicated to traditional tools and woodworking. Pahl has written three articles for Gristmill Magazine – Midwest Tool Collectors Association. Pahl said that the three articles, “A Tale of Two Hammers,” “The Wedge,” and “Daisy Guard for the Tool Heads,” appeared in the June, December and March editions, and should be available at the Haines public library soon and at the Hammer Museum by mid-May.

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