The Alaska Boundary Commission will meet on Friday, Jan. 19 to hear an update on the petition of the Southeast city of Hoonah to create a new borough in Alaska.
The proposal would encompass Elfin Cove, and Funter Bay, where some residents don’t want to be involved with the proposed borough, which would be known as the Xunaa Borough.
Elfin Cove, population of maybe 20, is now in the Hoonah-Angoon Census Area, and is in what is called the Unorganized Borough, as is Game Creek, which is also included in the proposal, population 18. Hoonah has a population of about 937.
The extension of the proposed Xunaa Borough into the other tiny communities meets resistance in part due to the fact that the borough could tax the residents but not deliver services.
The City of Hoonah’s website dedicated to the new borough proposal can be found at this link.
The Local Boundary Commission’s meeting starts at 9 am in Room 106 of the Atwood Building in downtown Anchorage. The meeting is also available toll free by calling (888)788-0099.
To join the meeting via Zoom, use the following link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89640340348?pwd=V3dSMHpiM2xKZ04xVTdVS2t0Mkl4Zz09
Meeting ID: 896 4034 0348
Passcode: 152855
Meeting materials, including past minutes and agendas, are at this link.
It is unfortunate that our state has decreed that of of it should eventually be incorporated into boroughs. This is an inevitable outcome for all of those living in the bush. It will provide no benefits and add cost. I will say that if I had the choice, I think Hoonah is a good one to be merged into.
I really like Hoonah, but don’t see the point of this.
Ha! Lemme tell you about the hotel “room” I stayed in Hoonah a few years ago. Furniture was all broken; random bits of clothing in broken drawers; spent condom on the floor in corner of room by bed; bed sheets sweat/skin oil stained and with body hair all over; heat stuck on highest setting (in summer time); casement window crank busted but replaced with vice grips however window would only open a couple inches; shower stall walls and shower curtain plastered with hair (looked like a sasquatch shedded their winter coat); used coffee grounds and filter left in coffee maker all molded; toilet clogged up. REAL classy!
I’ve probably stayed there myself. If it is the place I think it is, it’s a warped badge of honor to survive the stay.
I still like Hoonah and go there often. Pretty, great fishing, nice people.
So, you got the Presidential Suite, it looks like!
(If I owned a hotel, and the current ‘president’ [meaning Joetato] were to want to stay there, that is certainly the room that I would give him.)
They give you the good room, the one w/ amenities like a vice grip and a toilet and what do you do?
Complain.
Well, at least I got to pay full price for the room. And once I was drunk enough re-using some of the other “amenities” that came with the room wasn’t so bad either…
Are we referring to another southeast, I mean north Seattle community? Move the capital as has been voted to twice. Enough of the BC communities
The cruise ships pull into Hoonah to give the tourists a zip ride and show them how the Natives live in Alaska. After a few hours (yawn), the tourists go back to the ship and eat steak, gamble, dance, scroo, and look at the pictures they took of Hoonah from their cell phones. …..from their ship balconies as they sail back to warm waters. Memories!!!!
What’s the population number? Does it meet the statutory minimum to “create” a borough per Alaska corporate bylaws (statutes extending Roman Codes as our hidden form of government) at present to ensure (some opportunity for sustained) economic duration?
Hoonah was already incorporated as a borough in 1946, they are just proposing to expand just like Petersburg did. State Constitution indicates that “The Entire State shall be divided into boroughs, organized or unorganized.” Hoonah put together a solid proposal, and they didn’t try to make is a secret to sneak it through. CBJ’s two previous proposal efforts for some of the same land areas were only about money/land grab. Hoonah has real ancestorial history with the land they are proposing to absorb. Kind of hard to put up a legitimate argument to deny it.
Thanks JM. Anchorage loves reaching out expansively then getting all Democrat about it and doing mob rule cherubically. But there is a numbers matrix noticed in older organized divisions elsewhere that worked out numerically for practical reasons. We aren’t there yet. And, never will get get there.
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