"Mark Schaefer"

A longtime Skagway Assemblyman who in 2016 was sentenced to a year in prison on federal tax charges will return to the dais. He won by just five votes. And, the city has its first female mayor in two decades.

A Skagway resident who was sentenced to a year in prison on federal tax charges has filed to run for borough Assembly.

Skagway leaders are moving ahead with a new 15-year tidelands lease proposal and they’re hoping to get it to voters this October. The Assembly put some tough questions to the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad president at a public meeting Thursday.

The private company that controls more than half Skagway’s port wants a 20-year lease extension in order to make way for pressing waterfront improvements.

In an effort to move along stalled port renovations, the Skagway Assembly wants to re-open negotiations with the company that controls much of its waterfront.

The Skagway Borough Assembly will soon have an empty seat. Assembly member Angela Grieser handed in a letter of resignation on Friday. In the letter, Greiser cites health issues as the reason behind her departure. Working a full-time job, serving on the assembly and dealing with a medical recovery has been too much, she said.

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation is done watching from the sidelines as Skagway struggles with how to go about cleaning up decades-old contamination in the ore basin.

This week, Skagway Assemblyman Dan Henry was sentenced to just over a year in federal prison. Henry was convicted of failing to file his income tax returns over a four-year period. How Henry’s prison sentence will impact his service on the borough assembly remains to be seen.

Skagway’s filing period closes August 17th and Haines’ closes August 20th. The general election is Tuesday, Oct. 6.