Should questions about Haines’ $25 million Lutak Dock project be put to a public vote? A proposal for a special election is now officially on the table.
For years Haines Borough officials have been debating how to rebuild the aging Lutak Dock, the borough’s main cargo transit point. Soon the question could come before voters.
A split Haines Borough Assembly voted on Tuesday to move one step closer to scheduling a special election on what kind of dock the town wants. A referendum could be held as soon as July.
The vote would be advisory, meaning borough officials wouldn’t be bound by law to follow the results. Still, Mayor Tom Morphet said he wants to make sure “50 percent plus one of the community” is on board with the project before the borough moves ahead with it.
“I’m standing by the need for a vote on this thing because I’m tired of it, quite frankly,” Morphet said. “I’m tired of it consuming all the time of us. I’m tired of losing sleep over it. I’m pretty set on giving it to the voters.”
A referendum would come after years of disagreement over how to manage the $25 million project and how to spend a $20 million federal grant awarded to the borough in 2021. Last month, the Maritime Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation, called MARAD for short, extended a key deadline for the project, giving the borough an extra three years to sign a grant agreement.
The project has roiled local politics in Haines, after a contractor bought nearly $10 million of steel based on a design questioned by newly elected borough leaders. In February MARAD refused to reimburse Haines for the purchase, saying local officials could accept a grant reduced by the steel’s cost or continue with the original grant but commit to obtaining new steel.
Still, borough manager Annette Kreitzer said if the assembly wants to put the issue to a public vote, it should do so sooner than later. If voters opt for a new design, the contractor overseeing the project, Turnagain Marine Construction, would have to submit a white paper to MARAD explaining the change. According to borough officials, MARAD is open to considering an alternative, but there’s no guarantee the agency would follow the outcome of a special election.
“I just don’t want people to think that if there’s a public vote then MARAD will agree with that scope change,” Kreitzer said.
The proposed ballot measure, which the assembly forwarded to the borough’s Government Affairs and Services Committee for review, would give residents a choice between two different dock designs. One would be the borough’s current plan to encapsulate the old dock with steel and to retain its size and function. The other would be a smaller alternative that would accommodate freight and fuel barges but not larger cargo ships.
Exactly what that second option would look like isn’t clear, though the proposed ballot question describes it as “utilizing a rubble slope instead of a steel retaining wall”; Morphet said he has asked critics of the current plan, who are concerned that the dock could be used to ship ore from future mines in the Chilkat Valley or the Yukon Territory, to identify a scaled-down design to put on the ballot.
The lack of clarity about details — not just about the alternative design but also about the costs associated with both options — caused concern at last night’s meeting. Assembly members Natalie Dawson and Gabe Thomas expressed hesitation about moving ahead with a vote before questions about cost estimates and other specifics had been addressed. Both voted against advancing the proposal, as did assembly member Debra Schnabel.
“How do we bring something to the community and say ‘Hey, you’re going to vote on this or this’ without having everything drafted out?” Thomas said. “We spent years to get to where we’re at, to figure out the price right now.”
Morphet, whose vote in favor of the proposal broke a 3-3 tie, said if details couldn’t be ironed out by July, the question could be put on the general election ballot in October.
An election also could give voters a chance to weigh in on other aspects of the dock project, not just design. The assembly’s proposal includes two additional questions: whether to prohibit the shipment of ore across Lutak Dock and whether borough infrastructure projects costing over $15 million should require voter approval.
Meanwhile, a separate law that would require all ore shipped through Haines to be in sealed containers is scheduled for a final public hearing on May 14. The assembly amended that proposed ordinance Tuesday to define a sealed container as one with a hard, locked, and waterproof lid that prevents material from escaping.
The assembly also on Tuesday paused a plan to charge mining, tourism, logging, and TV companies annual fees for operating in the Historic Dalton Trail Road Maintenance Service Area, the region across the Klehini River from Haines Highway. The assembly sent a proposed commercial fee schedule to the borough’s Commerce Committee for further review. The fees would be used to pay for maintaining roads in the area, such as Porcupine Road and Chilkat Lake Road.
Finally, the borough’s chief financial officer Jila Stuart reported Tuesday that the borough collected about $4.3 million in sales tax revenue in 2023. That’s down 1 percent from 2022, but significantly up from years before that. The biggest changes were in revenue from auto and gas sales — which dropped 15 percent between 2022 and 2023 — and online sales — which went up by 17 percent.
