Author: alaskaadmin

Sunday, April 12

A caller reported smoke alarms going off in the 400 block of Fourth Avenue. The volunteer fire department responded. 

A caller reported someone banging on their door in the 100 block of Dalton Street early in the morning. An officer was advised.

Haines Borough police assisted another agency in Haines. 

Tuesday, April 14

A caller reported a person driving a motorcycle on the beach on River Road. Officers responded. 

Thursday, April 16

A caller reported that a neighbor at Third Avenue and Union Street had copious amounts of garbage in their garage and the door was open. An officer was advised. 

A caller in the 1000 block of the Haines Highway reported unsecured trash and was worried about it being a bear attractant. An officer responded.

A caller reported a person trespassing on their property in the 1000 block of the Haines Highway. An officer took the call. 

An OnStar automatic notification of a vehicle accident at 25 Mile Haines Highway was received by dispatch. Police, the Haines Volunteer Fire Department and Klehini Valley Fire Department responded. 

A caller reported stolen property from their vehicle in the 100 block of Third Avenue. An officer was advised. 

A caller reported a subject throwing lumber off the dock into the water. An officer responded. 

Friday, April 17

A caller reported damage to their vehicle after a vehicle backed into them on Main Street. An officer responded. 

A caller reported harassing and threatening behavior from neighbors in the 1000 block of the Haines Highway. An officer responded. 

Saturday, April 18

A caller reported smoke in their house in the 30 block of Tower Road. The Haines and Klehini Valley volunteer fire departments and police responded. 

The Haines Volunteer Fire Department performed a post-fire follow-up in the 30 block of Tower Road. 

There were two 911 hangup calls, no canine calls, 14 EMS calls and 27 burn permits issued during this reporting period. 

Monday, April 20 

Caller reported a vehicle parked for a week in front of the entrance to a business in the 200 block of Main Street. An officer responded. 

A caller in the 70 block of Deishu Drive reported multiple vehicles speeding in the area. An officer was advised. 

A caller in the 1900 block of the Haines Highway requested a welfare check on a family member. 

A caller in the 400 block of Main Street reported a stolen bicycle. A description was obtained and an officer advised. 

A caller reported that a customer left without paying for services on Main Street. The customer returned and paid. 

Tuesday, April 21

A caller reported moose in the Tlingit Park area. An officer was advised and a Nixle alert was sent out. 

A caller reported the suspicious behavior of a customer a Mile 3 Haines Highway. An officer responded. 

An officer checked out an abandoned vehicle at Port Chilkoot. 

A caller reported items missing from a property in the 30 block of the Haines Highway. An officer took the call. 

Wednesday, April 22

A caller in Haines reported a scam on social media. They were given the information for the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. 

A driver on Beach Road was given a verbal warning for not meeting requirements to display a license plate. 

An officer put a 72-hour notice on an abandoned vehicle on Beach Road. 

A caller in the 100 block of Dalton Street reported a suspicious phone call. An officer responded and performed a welfare check. 

An officer checked a license plate during a vehicle stop. 

Thursday, April 23

A caller reported a moose on Fifth Avenue. A Nixle alert was sent out. 

An officer issued a trespass notice in the 800 block of Spruce Grove Road. 

Friday, April 24

A caller reported a parking violation on Main Street. An officer contacted the vehicle’s owner. 

A caller in Klukwan reported a vehicle fire. The Haines Volunteer Fire Department and state park ranger responded and extinguished the fire. 

A caller reported a boulder obstructing traffic on Lutak Road. The state’s Department of Transportation and an officer responded. A Nixle alert was sent out. 

A caller on Small Tracts Road was given a verbal warning for not meeting taillight requirements. 

An officer was advised of an abandoned trailer on the side of Mud Bay Road.

Saturday, April 25

A caller reported a person driving a motorcycle on the mud flats near Pyramid Island. An officer took the call. 

Officers were advised of a disabled vehicle on the side of Raven Road. It was not obstructing traffic and the vehicle was later retrieved by the owner. 

A caller reported the door of a public building in the 600 block of the Haines Highway was open after hours. Officers responded. 

Officers performed a tag check on an abandoned vehicle on Second Avenue. 

There were three 911 hangup calls, one canine call, nine EMS calls, and 38 burn permits issued during this reporting period. 

The post Blotter: April 12 – April 25 appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

The Alaska House of Representatives voted to approve a revised bill to reinstate a pension system for all Alaska public sector employees, following passage by the Senate on Tuesday. The bill now heads to Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s desk for consideration.

With just 21 days to go in the second year of the 34th Legislature, the governor has 15 days, excluding Sundays, to approve or veto the bill, or allow it to become law without his signature.

A spokesperson with Dunleavy’s office declined to comment on the governor’s position on lawmakers’ pension plan on Wednesday. 

If enacted, the bill would revive the state’s defined benefit retirement system that was eliminated in 2006, a top priority of both the multipartisan Senate Majority and House Majority caucuses. 

The proposed defined benefit system would be open to all state employees, including teachers, public safety workers and public employees of cities and boroughs statewide. Those municipal employers have six months to decide whether to participate in the program or opt out beginning in January, and the new program would be launched in July 2027. 

Within the new plan, retirement for teachers and public employees would be possible at age 60 or any age after 30 years of service. For public safety officers, including police and firefighters, it would be age 50 with 25 years of service, or age 55 with 20 years of service. 

The House narrowly passed the bill along caucus lines by a vote of 21 to 19 on Wednesday. The Senate passed the bill with significant revisions the day before, by a vote of 12 to 8. 

Sen. Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, a longtime proponent of reviving the plan, said it took two decades of work in the Legislature and praised the House vote at a news conference on Wednesday.

“We are pleased that it was successful. And it was designed to be a modest, and yet secure, pension for retirement. And it had some amendments made on the floor that kind of made it a little bit more moderated. Choice was put in for employers, which is a big deal,” she said.

But she pointed out that the governor has yet to weigh in: “We still have one more stop, though. We have the big red pen potentially. So we’ll see what happens.”

House Majority Leader Rep. Chuck Kopp, R-Anchorage, carried House Bill 78, and told the Anchorage Daily News that he’s discussed the proposed plan with Dunleavy and members of his staff and is “encouraged” by those conversations.

Kopp, speaking on the House floor Wednesday, said the new plan is entirely separate from the old plan, and has been revised with safeguards to prevent future unfunded liabilities. 

“Do we want to continue down this path, with high turnover, constant vacancies and a growing strain on public services?” he added. “Or do we want to move forward with the plan that’s been vetted, improved and supported by both chambers, a plan that’s involved a lot of collaboration and compromise, and a plan that reflects Alaska’s long term interests.”

State lawmakers voted to axe the state’s defined benefit contribution plan in 2006, after the system accrued a multi-billion dollar shortfall that was misreported by a state actuary. Alaska sued the actuary, Mercer, for $1.8 billion in damages for miscalculating liabilities and settled in 2010 for $500 million. But, opponents of the bill noted, the state still owes billions of dollars on the old system and is on track to pay it off in 2039. 

Proponents of the bill say the new pension system is structured differently to avoid repeating the same mistakes —  it includes mechanisms to adjust contributions up and down, safeguards in the form of three actuaries checking each other’s work and no healthcare insurance benefits — to prevent the pension system from going underfunded.

Health insurance benefits, a major driver of ballooning costs of the old pension system, isn’t included in the new proposal. Under the new plan, employers would pay into a health reimbursement fund of up to 3% of teachers salaries and 4% of public sector workers’ salaries to supplement Medicare for those over age 65. 

On Wednesday, members of the all-Republican House minority put up a potential technical hurdle by voting against the effective date clause of the bill, which needed a two-thirds majority vote to pass. That sets up a potential conflict between the effective date written in the bill and the Alaska Constitution, which says that the bill would be enacted within 90 days after the governor’s signature without a two-thirds majority vote to do otherwise.

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