Alaska will spend $1.3 billion dollars in federal funding over the next five years to revamp healthcare infrastructure in rural communities.
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Haines just got a piece of that pie. The borough was awarded $2.4 million to establish a new wellness program, with a large emphasis on improvements for the local pool.
“This is a huge advantage and opportunity for our community to look at smaller, individualized wellness projects that will really increase the standard of living, and make people in Haines happier and healthier,” said Haines Borough Manager Alekka Fullerton.
The money comes from the federal Rural Health Transformation Program, which was funded by President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.” The legislation made major cuts to federal healthcare spending, including Medicaid, while also setting aside $50 billion for rural healthcare projects.
As of last week, the program had awarded $239 million in funding for across Alaska.
In Haines, the money will go toward establishing a “coordinated community wellness initiative” and a wellness advisory group. Both will focus on issues including behavioral health, crisis response, seniors and wintertime recreation.
The borough’s application for the funding highlights “significant community challenges” including suicide prevention, social isolation and insufficient services for seniors. It also notes that the borough’s suicide rate – roughly three per year – far exceeds state and national rates.
“It’s not just about healthcare,” Fullerton said. “It’s also about wellness.”
The funding will be divided into three main buckets, the largest of which will go to the local pool.
Some of the money will be used to provide additional programming, to hire and train more staff, and to increase pool hours. But the bulk of it – more than $1.4 million – will go to a new and desperately needed HVAC system to improve indoor air quality at the pool.
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“You have fumes coming from chlorine that physically makes some people sick,” Fullerton said.
Replacing the 40-year-old HVAC system should make the pool a more welcoming place for all residents, particularly in the dark winter months. The ultimate hope is to provide a better environment for residents to gather and exercise.
The next bucket of funding will focus on improving services for people in crisis. That includes additional mental health training for first responders and remodeling one of the public safety building’s jail cells into a “soft cell.”
It would be used to house residents going through mental health crises, particularly when they are at risk of harming themselves or others.
The borough handled 10 emergency psychiatric holds in 2025. Currently, people in that situation are held in a normal jail cell until they improve or can make it to a hospital, which officials say is far from ideal.
“To the extent that we can provide a place for people to be that doesn’t feel so much like a jail – it doesn’t feel like it’s punitive – then that will be a benefit to everyone,” Fullerton said.
The last chunk of funding will focus on seniors. Nearly $85,000 will go toward providing five lunches per week at the senior center – up from three – plus another $89,000 to increase transportation for seniors.
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