KSTK’s Colette Czarnecki and the Wrangell Sentinel’s Jonathan Dawe interviewed the contested borough assembly candidates seeking the one-year term on Sept. 11. Incumbents Brittani Robbins and Phillip Mach sat with challenger David Wilson at KSTK and spoke about their priorities and views.
Opening statements
Phillip Mach
I’m Phillip Mach. I’ve been a resident here in Wrangell for about two and a half years almost. My background is in the seafood industry. I have been fishing since I was 12-years-old with my dad, and after college, kind of got into the processing and management side of things and really enjoy that. So that’s what brought me here to Wrangell. And like a lot of people say, when you get here, you really fall in love with the place.
So that’s kind of what got me excited to be more part of the community, and part of that was seeing an opportunity with the assembly and an open seat, and putting my kind of letter of intent and see if I would be chosen to join for a few months. And amazingly, it’s been eight months, and time has flown by. The summer is clearly gone with all this rain. So you know, it’s been a great experience. And I will say that the city has a lot of opportunity and a lot of exciting things happening. And so that’s why I’m running.
Brittani Robbins
My name is Brittany Robbins – lifelong Alaskan. I’ve been in Wrangell since 1989. There are a lot of new people here now. So for those of you who don’t know me or my family, we were the previous owners of what is now Wrangell IGA. You hear it called Bob’s a lot. That was when we owned it. We moved here in ‘89 for my dad to be the general manager. And so sometimes you do still hear Benjamin’s, and that is what it was called when we moved here back in the ‘80s. I went to school here, K-12. My kids are now going through here, K-12.
And when we sold (it) in 2018, I actually was working at the school, and then moved to the Chamber of Commerce after that. During my time at the Chamber of Commerce, I saw a need at the borough as I was attending meetings as the chamber director and just being knowledgeable about what was happening within the borough. So I actually sat down with my kids at the time and I said, “Hey, I know that I’m on the school board and that I’m at the Chamber, and I do a lot of meetings and I’m not home all the time, but this is what’s going on. This is for the city. It would be helping making decisions for your future here. What do you think?”
My daughter looked at me, this was three years ago, so she was around 11, and she said, “Well, I don’t want you to have more meetings, but I want you to help Wrangell and so that was the moment I put in my official Declaration of Candidacy, so I am three years incumbent on the borough, and it has been a really educational and challenging front to do, and I have loved every minute of it. There have been a lot of hard decisions, and actually, Philip has been around for many of those hard decisions.
David Wilson
I’m David Wilson. I’ve lived here for 27 years. (I) have six children that we raised in this community that have all graduated from our school system here. I’ve been heavily involved in different things. I’ve been on the school board now for eight years. I’ve been heavily involved in some of the youth activities and sports. I just love Wrangell. I’ve won a chance to give back. My wife just recently retired, so we have even more time, or I have more time. I know there’s a lot of great things that are happening right now in Wrangell and I’m excited about what’s going. I would just want to be a part of it and try and do my part and give as much as I can.
Why are you running for this office? (Wrangell Sentinel)
Robbins
That’s an easy one. I am running for this office just to continue my time on the borough. Wrangell is incredibly special to me. Like I said, I’ve been in Wrangell since 1989. There are sometimes mistakes, I’ve read in the Sentinel that I was born here. That’s not true, but I was raised here, and I am a lifelong Alaskan. I have lived in Cordova and Yakutat as well, but it’s just a really special place for me, and I want to see it thrive, not just survive. And we’ve been surviving for a very long time, and we’re really starting to see Wrangell turn around and start to thrive again, and that’s been a very exciting venture for me.
Wilson
I love it here. As I said in my opening statement,
I think I have some things to offer. I’ve got a desire to do the best that I can. I am very good at studying out and researching things that are going on. I think we’re at an exciting time in Wrangell where we’re looking at different areas of growth. I’m excited about what’s going on with the waterfront. You know, how things are really shaping up. I want to be a part of it. I think that I can be and I think I can offer something. And so I’m here to offer it.
Mach
I think the reason I’m running is, it’s a very pivotal time for Wrangell. It seems like the community knows that we have our hurdles, and we have a great leadership team at the city, not just the borough manager, but the directors. And there’s a lot of ambitions. There’s a lot of movement forward, and I think it’s truly the time to act and to move forward. You know, we can talk about all the options, day in, day, night, day and night, but truly, I think it’s really time to act. And I’m running because I think that (I) have a new set of eyes, someone that hasn’t been here as long as some of the other people in town, but views from different angles, and I think I can add some other insight that others may not.
What are your top three priorities? (KSTK)
Robbins
I think my top three priorities, coming at it as an incumbent, I would say, are, of course (the) six mile property and waterfront. The decisions to be made there, again, no decisions have been made. We’re still really feeling all of that out, but making a decision sooner than later. Because, like I said, I want Wrangell to thrive, not survive, and we need to, like Philip just said, now is the time to move forward. Now is the time to change.
I think education funding and as much education help as we can, even if it’s not funding that we can provide, just ideas and conversation with education, that’s a big part of why people move anywhere that they move.
And then I would say the third priority would be, that’s such a good question. I think probably those are my two priorities, and I’d have to think a little harder about what other priorities might be.
Mach
I think my top three are economic development, housing and childcare.
To add on to my last item there is that this city has so much potential. It really has potential for growth and building on the current infrastructure, whether it’s the Marine Service Center, the waterfront, things like that, there’s so much potential for growth. But I also think that really a part of that is, if we’re going to grow our economy, we need to bring people in. We need to have people to be part of that economic growth. And that really comes down to housing. And we’ve done great progress on Alder Top. Really excited about that. But I also think that childcare is also a big part of it. If you want families in town, if you want to grow our school, we have to have an opportunity for them to be here and to raise their kids from newborn to K-12.
Wilson
I would have to say economic development, waterfront development (whether it be six mile property or whether it be the shipping yard, there’s different things that can be happening) and education, of course, that’s probably my top priority.
Is the education system in our community…I don’t think that education can be enough. It’s life blood of the future of the community. It’s what we want to develop and what will bring people into the community.
Two main things that people are going to look at in their community, if they’re thinking about moving somewhere, is one, healthcare and two, education. And SEARHC (Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium) is doing a great job right now in healthcare, we need to do our job with education and then economic development.
Do you support the effort to move the town’s barge landing to the six mile mill site, and why? (Wrangell Sentinel)
Robbins
I wouldn’t say it’s an effort to move it to the six mile mill site. That is the site that we are currently working with AML (Alaska Marine Lines) to discuss the potential of. Should that be the decision we make, I would say I’m going to support the best decision for all of Wrangell. It’s just whatever decision I make will be based on what’s best for the community as a whole, not a certain facet of the community, not a certain group within the community, it will be what’s going to be the overall best for all of Wrangell, and that is really all I feel comfortable saying about the six mile property and barge system right now.
Wilson
I would certainly like to be able to study it out more. But, you know, I think that’s a very viable option to move out there. It takes it right out of the city, center of the city, but rare, do you have such an industry or a barge line or something like that, right in the middle of the city? I think it would be a better place for it. But I don’t know all the information. I don’t know all the studies going on right now, but I think it’s very viable, and I think it’s wherever it is. It needs to be redone. I mean, what we have right now is not sufficient, and I think we need to definitely look at that as a very viable option.
Mach
This is a hot topic for sure, as many have heard about it and spoken about it, I think that a lot of this is really a partnership between the city and AML and Sampson. We really have to work together with them. They are the service of freight to town, and they are a core part of this town. Without them, we won’t really be able to survive. So it’s really a partnership.
We have to find something that works for both the city and their operations. I know that there’s a lot of concerns about what that would mean if they went down, and it would affect many parts of the economy, but I also think that there’s pluses and minuses, and you know, the great thing is, is that people have been very open about it and willing to reach out to some of the assembly members. So it’s definitely something that’s being worked on.
If you could set the top priorities for growing our local economy, what would they be? (KSTK)
Mach
That’s a good question. I think that top priorities for growing, we have some great things.The borough has really pursued different opportunities in the lumber industry that has a lot more momentum than it has in the past. I think that tourism is a big part of the community. It’s something that’s been fairly consistent other than the COVID time period, but it’s also an opportunity. The waterfront ties into that, for sure. But I also think that the Marine Service Center is some place that could see a lot of growth. I think that’s something that makes Wrangell very unique. And I think that there’s a lot of opportunity there. We’re known around Southeast Alaska for the services we provide, so supporting the current infrastructure and economies we have, those are probably some of the main ones there.
Wilson
As Phillip just said, a lot of the big growth is right in the marine center, the marine centered industry, the boat haul out brings a lot to this community, and it has since it began. I don’t think anybody saw how far it was going to go and how much it was going to grow, and I think it still has more potential to grow even further. So I’d like to see that continue to be developed. There’s other industries that have been interested in coming in. I know that they’ve been talking about some other things happening out at six mile, but I think bringing people into the community also will help us develop our economy.
Robbins
I would have to agree with Assembly Member Mach and Mr. Wilson, what we have economically, the Marine Service Center, the waterfront and tourism, while maintaining control when we’re talking about tourism, I know that that’s a topic within the community, maintaining control of the waterfront, but definitely opening it up to allow for a larger footprint, especially heads in beds.
And then I think it’s really important to remember the bringing in of new industry, that one’s a difficult one for a lot of people within the community, because we are Wrangell, and we have what I call the Wrangell mentality. “Oh, it’s Wrangell, and we want it to stay the same.” And unfortunately, we can’t 100% stay the same. The world is evolving around us, and we have to evolve a little bit with it, too. So I think a priority would just be getting more of the public on board with introducing new industry to the community and what that could bring to us.
What do you see is the most pressing issue our borough is facing in the next two years, and how would you address it? (Wrangell Sentinel)
Wilson
That’s a tough one. I think there’s quite a few different pressing issues. Certainly we’ve already mentioned several. You know, what are we going to do at six mile property? What are we going to do to grow? I honestly think right now that one of the biggest things that we need to stand behind, and for me, is education, developing our education and to higher levels than what we have right now. We’ve been dropping down. We’ve been failing, and it’s getting less and less emphasis. And I think we need to put more emphasis there, because that will help grow our community. It will bring people in if they’ve got something to come here for.
Mach
I think the topic there would be, for me, housing. I think that’s really kind of a center point for a lot of what’s happening. If we want to grow the economy, you have to have a place for people to live. You want to grow our schools and bring in more state funding, we need to have a place for these people, these families, to live. If we want to encourage the current business owners to grow, they need people who can work for them.
And I hear that a lot from local business owners, that they just can’t find the people they need. And so housing, like I said, Alder Top has been a great opportunity, but I think there’s a lot more. One of the ways I think we’re addressing it, is with SEARHC. They’ve been a great partner with the borough, making their planned unit development not far out of town. So housing is definitely one of the higher topics.
Robbins
I would have to agree with Assembly Member Mach and I think that’s been a pressing issue for quite some time, and something we’ve talked about ad nauseam, truly, as a community, not even just as the borough, but just in Wrangell, is housing. There’s a housing crisis. It’s not unique to Wrangell, but it is still a problem. People can’t move here if they don’t have somewhere to live. So if we want to grow, we need somewhere for people to live, as Assembly Member Mach said as well. So I think housing.
When you talk about the biggest problem, of course, finances. We don’t have a ton of money coming in, but we can’t bring in more money if we don’t have people to spend that money. And we can’t have people spending that money if they can’t move here and live here.
What’s your take on Wrangell’s housing shortage, and how would you tackle it? (KSTK)
Wilson
We definitely have a housing shortage here, and how to tackle it is, it’s not just having property available, it’s also being able to have the industry to do something with the property. And right now, we’re short of contractors and people to build housing, and so we have to do something to attract not just people to buy property. We need to attract businesses to build it, contractors. We’re in desperate need for it. My wife and I have just been putting an addition on our house, and it’s murder to try and get somebody coming to help do work. So I think we need to somehow attract the housing industry, the people that actually build into the community as a real place to come and work.
Robbins
It’s an issue. It’s a pretty big issue. It’s an issue that I think, should we find a way to come up with solutions, would help us really expand our economic development. We have seen the great partnership with SEARHC as Assembly Member Mach brought up in the last question. They’re building housing for their staff. That’s going to open up a lot of rentals, because they do have so many traveling staff that work at the hospital that take up a lot of the rental units. So that’s going to open up a lot of currently utilized housing. That’s going to make a big difference, I think
Additionally, it’s coming back to us again as an assembly. But there’s going to be some six plexes being potentially built over by the old hospital and across from the elementary school. That’s helpful. So things where we can not just sell land but have the development preplanned out are really effective.
Mach
We all agree there’s definitely housing shortage. I agree with Mr. Wilson that it’s not just the inability of land, but also the ability to to have something built on it.
And I think the biggest thing that the borough can do is, Mayor Gilbert says it every time, there’s land for sale, if you’re interested, reach out to the borough. But I think the biggest thing the borough itself can do after that is to make the process simpler. If you’re a builder, if you have property and you want to build, a lot of these processes can be very complicated. And, you know, permits, and getting financing, Army Corps, permits, planning and zoning. If we can streamline that and assist these people coming forward and being excited to build, that’s where the borough can really step forward.
Do you support the effort for a joint borough cruise line project to build a new dock on the downtown waterfront to accomodate smaller ships for overnight stays? Why or why not? (Wrangell Sentinel)
Wilson
Yes, I do support. I think we have to put something forward. We have to make it easier for these cruise lines and more accommodating for the cruise lines to come in, especially smaller cruise lines. I don’t know all the information about it. I got to admit, the two incumbents here probably know a lot more about what’s being discussed than I do.
But I think if you’re going to move forward, you have to put something into it yourself, and I think that’s something for our community, that they went ahead and they put something into our marine industry, when they started up the boatyard, and it has blossomed. I think the same thing is the potential there is for making it easier for the small cruise lines to come in.
Robbins
I very much support it. I will say that I have feelings about tourism, but when we’re talking about this particular project, the keyword that you said was joint, the borough intends, to my knowledge, and it’s in the MOU, that is very public, that we would maintain control. It’s a partnership. It’s not selling the waterfront. We’re not selling the waterfront. The dock can be used by other patrons that the borough’s choosing. So, yeah, I absolutely support it. We need more people in town overnight, you know, feet on the ground, heads in beds, and the more of that we have, then we can bolster our summer season, as Wrangell has really two economic seasons – summer and winter. So if we can bolster summer, it can help us get through winter.
Mach
The topic that you’re bringing up is American Cruise Lines, and I think it’s a great opportunity. I do support it. American Cruise Lines is not your typical cruise ship company. It’s not your 2000, 4000 person boat. It’s a 170-person vessel. It’s a great fit to the community. They plan to stay overnight, more time in town, more time to go eat out, spend some time in our shops and truly boost our economy. It’s not a 2000-person ship that stays for five, six hours and off it goes. So it’s a great fit, and I think being kind of a joint partnership in that is very much a positive part for me. Like Brittany said, kind of blooming together and trying to see where it all fits in.
If tough budget cuts are needed in the future, what areas would you prioritize protection? (KSTK)
Robbins
That’s a really difficult one. We’ve had to make some tough budgeting decisions in the past. I think one – water and sewer. Obviously, we need people in those positions. We’re already short handed in those positions.
You could say the same about our police department. We’re okay.
I would need to look and see if we were in that position, who are we talking about? Where are we talking about it? Because I can’t say in any one position that I think is necessarily more important than another. They all are extremely important. They all make the borough work. They are all part of this well-oiled machine that we have built and done so difficulty, because it already is pretty stretched in every department, I would say. I would just sort of prioritize the issue when it came to hand.
Wilson
If I’m understanding correctly, you’re saying, what areas would we want to protect the most? Well, of course, near to my heart is going to be education. I think education needs to be protected. I agree with what Brittany is saying, that everything is important. We need to have it all working together, but I think that if we don’t protect and continue to educate our children, then we’re going to be losing the future. It’s not going to matter how well we oil right now, but it’s going to be less in the future, and the engine is going to seize up. So I think that’s what my priority would be, is protection.
Then also the development. Our marine industry needs more growth, and that’s going to be a lot of what’s going to help our community to keep going.
Mach
I think that you know, over probably the last six months when we were going through the budget, it was a very similar process that we would have to do is literally go line by line through the budget and see where we could cut some fat.
But to me, the thing I would prioritize is the safety and the life support of this town, which is water, sewer, electrical, the police, the fire department. Keeping them fully funded is very important to me. If anyone’s ever had any interactions with our police department or our fire and EMS group, they are fantastic. That is a core part of a community and definitely ours.
How do you plan to schedule out your time to serve on this seat? (Wrangell Sentinel)
Mach
It’s a good question. I have a unique career, I guess, that gives me some time, especially in the winter months, to spend some time really look through agendas and pick the minds of our city management. Definitely summers are busy for most of us, but I think the time and effort, and there’s definitely times when you stay up late looking through the whole agenda, but being in that position as an assembly member, I take it seriously. I think that it plays a big role in the movement forward of the community. And there’s going to be a late night or two, it’s definitely something I would prioritize.
Wilson
I’m retired, so I’ve got lots of time to study and to read. I’m good at researching things out. I’m good at learning as much as I can. I would be putting time in every day. I’d be scheduling, I’m very good if I structure my time. So I would have structured time every day to be putting forth to studying out the issues, learning what I can do, and to giving what I can and I don’t mind going and bending other people’s ears. So I would be putting forth some pavement time where I’d be going out and asking.
Robbins
I’ve been doing it for three years. Two of those three years I served as the school board vice-president. So that was another dance around that I had. I’m incredibly committed and take this position that I have currently very seriously, much like Assembly Member Mach. I don’t get a whole lot of sleep. I have two kids. I have a full time plus job – 60 hours plus a week – travel a lot for both that and medical. I’ve been known to jump on via Zoom from an airplane for meetings that I felt very passionate about being part of. I’d have missed many in my time, which is actually pretty remarkable considering all of the things I just noted. I have a digital calendar again, I don’t sleep a whole lot, but it’s a very important thing to me to be a part of it, and I do whatever I need to do to make sure I’m there and prepared.
What role should the borough play in balancing development with environmental and cultural preservation? (KSTK)
Wilson
I think that, if I’m not mistaken, the assembly has been working very hard to continue to build a partnership with the local culture. I see culture as many different things. People think of culture, they think right away of just some kind of race or language or something. But I see culture as all encompassing. We have a fishing culture here. We have a boat building culture here. We have an educational culture, a forestry culture, and, of course, we have the Tlingit and Haida culture. And they all have to work together, and they’re all a partnership. So working with the WCA (Wrangell Cooperative Association) is very important. I think we’re even showing it with what’s been developed.
Mach
I think it’s a key role in the borough’s plans of moving forward. I think the borough has a great relationship with the WCA, that are working together on many items, kind of working with each other in many aspects.
But I also think that when it comes to the environment and environmental preservation, I think the borough is very keen on that, and they make sure that they dig deep before they move.
But it also comes to the culture and the atmosphere of town. A lot of people have concerns about tourism could be becoming too big, or other items that don’t click with the town. I think that the biggest part is just maintaining the atmosphere and the culture of Wrangell and making sure that the borough can work together with that.
Robbins
As both Assembly Member Mach and Mr. Wilson said, we do as a borough have a great working relationship with WCA and with the Forest Service for the most part. And I think it’s taken very seriously at the borough that we make sure to do our due diligence before even really bringing things forward to an open meeting with the assembly. It’s important, and we know that it’s important to understand culture, whether it’s our local culture, Indigenous culture, our migrant culture, which would be the fishing industry and the forestry and I think environmentally as well. And as somebody who works in environmental preservation, I would note that Wrangell is quite clean and very environmentally friendly, comparatively speaking, and so I take actually, a lot of pride in that.
What mistakes or missteps, if any, has the borough assembly made recently? (Wrangell Sentinel)
Mach
It’s a tough one. You know, I can’t look back as far as some of the others here. But I think what we can really work on is acting, doing our due diligence, doing our research, finding the best path. And we need to stop waiting for the perfect item. When opportunities arise, it’s time to move Wrangell forward and to take advantage of opportunities that come forward. Some of them are good, some of them aren’t, and it’s part of the borough’s management and the assembly to find those and make right decisions. But overall, I think it’s time to act and move the community forward.
Wilson
I would echo some of what Mr. Mach just said, that, you know, we in the community, we tend to think that we’ve got to wait for the perfect day. We’re the perfect thing, perfect mix. And I don’t think that’s going to happen right off. I think that’s something that grows. You know, if I wanted to take my family on a picnic and I was going to wait for the perfect sunshine day. I could be (for) months. And so you got to take action, and you got to see what’s there now. What can we do to grow now with what we have and then greater opportunities are going to come forward, and we’re going to be able to make bigger steps in the future. But we have to go with what we have right now, baby steps, if it is or small steps, we got to do what we can.
Robbins
I’m just going to start with saying that mistakes happen all the time, everywhere, and there’s no way to completely get around having mistakes happen or missteps happen.
But I’m going to flip the narrative just a little bit and brag a little bit on this current borough assembly and administration. I think that a lot of great things have been happening, and I think we’re seeing a lot of action. Finally, as somebody who’s been in Wrangell for as long as I have, I can tell you that these decisions that have been made recently are decisions that could have been made many, many times before. And there has been in the past mismanagement or just hemming and hawing. Too many studies, too many, too many people worried about upsetting, you know, a certain demographic, or whatever it is. So I would actually switch that and brag that I think recently, we’ve had a lot of great steps, and that mistakes are still a possibility. Some of the decisions we made could end up being a mistake at some point. But right now, I’m still really happy with our assembly.
How should the borough support schools and school programs within the constraints of the budget? (KSTK)
Mach
Funding, of course, is something that’s not just a local issue, but it’s a statewide issue, and there are restrictions on what the borough can do in funding the schools. I’m happy to see that we are stepping forward, not just to what was kind of set aside in previous years, just funding via sales tax, but actually dipping into general funds to make sure that we fund the school as best we can. So it’s definitely a core part of our community. And funding is tough. We all feel it, whether it’s in the borough or if it’s at home. I think that it all comes back to that the borough needs to grow to be able to fund more and also to have more kids come to school and get that funding from the state.
Robbins
This one’s near and dear to my heart. It is. There are some constraints that go far beyond the borough, as Assembly Member Mach kind of pointed out. We have restrictions on how we can use funds for the school: what funds, where they come from, and how they can be used by the school. There’s a lot going on there. The biggest issue, being the fact that really, what the borough provides to the district gets absorbed by the state, and then the state takes credit for that. So whatever the state decides is the maximum a school can receive, the borough or municipal contribution, they call it the local required contribution, goes into that number and the state takes credit for it. So what this borough can do, like Mr. Mach said, is we can help Wrangell grow. We can try to get more people here, have them bring families here, get more kids in our district, and help out where we can with small things as much as possible, building programs out. We have internship programs as well.
Wilson
As they’ve mentioned, there’s a lot of dropping the ball on the state level and on the federal level, and with federal there’s a lot of uncertain things right now, but I think that the community needs to fund it at its maximum contribution it can give.
Then with bringing in families, we can get certainly more. Children build it back up. But if we don’t bolster what we have now and build it back up, there’s not going to be a reason for people to move here. And so I think we have to give it the maximum that we can, and then look for other ways that we can help the community, the partnerships, and certainly use what we have.
You know, we got a three and a half million dollar bond several years ago to do work on the schools, and it still hasn’t been done. We’ve got 10 million total. Nothing’s being done right now.
What has the assembly really gotten right in the last few years? (Wrangell Sentinel)
Wilson
I think, other than the fact that I’m running, the assembly right now is doing really well. I think that there’s a great environment there. I think there’s a lot of cooperation working together. I think what they’ve done right is that they are building, that there have been some personnel growth. I think we’ve got a management team that can go a long ways right now, I think what we need to do is just continue to help that, nurture it, but I think we also need to look at what is being done. As Brittany said, there are some great things happening, but we also need to catch up on some of the things in the past that have been put to the side, that need to be done.
Robbins
Little bit more bragging. I think this assembly has done incredible things. Made some really hard decisions we set out three years ago. When I was first elected to the assembly and Mayor Gilbert was in her first term, we said infrastructure, economic development, and I’ve seen both of those things come straight through.
You know, I’m excited about the, as everybody knows it, City Market hill. I know that the borough manager keeps using the actual name of the road, St Michael. So, City Market Hill, seeing that done, knowing that that underground infrastructure is being taken care of, as they are doing the roads is so important, and it’s another step in the right direction of something that was put off. Front Street was done many years ago, when my daughter was an infant. They didn’t do anything underground. We’re going to have to rip it up again.
Mach
I think the one thing that the assembly has done really well is start the momentum. I think that the borough, not just the assembly, but management has started making connections, been reaching out, been really ambitious, and these connections are moving forward, and it’s pretty exciting. There’s a lot of movement. I feel like people are starting to see things done. You got St. Michael Street, you’ve got plans for McKinnon, and that’s just infrastructure itself, but we’ve seen it in the last few weeks. You have a fully staffed public works department that’s making huge steps in fixing the potholes and various other things. And so we’ve made really good steps. We have a new water treatment plant, $20 million, which is amazing for a town like ours. And so a lot of great steps. We have a great team at the city, and can’t say enough good things about them.
Closing Statements
Mach
I think I want to start out with saying thank you for having us here, and Jonathan as well, thank you for being here. You know, I think you touched on a lot of great points. There’s a lot of things coming forward, and being on the assembly and being able to see that in the last few months has been a great experience for me, and I want to continue that. It’s been great working with those on the assembly with the city, and there’s a lot of exciting opportunities coming our way. And it’s time to act. It’s time to take these opportunities and run with them. At the same time, making sure they’re the right opportunities to act upon for the city. So economic development, housing, all things that have opportunities in front of us, and making it something easier for those outside to come in, step in and say, “I want to invest in Wrangell” and making that process easier. In the big picture, we’ve got to move our great town forward. We can’t be stagnant. We need to move forward and grow.
Wilson
I’m proud to live here in Wrangell. You know, of all the places I’ve lived in my life, this is the longest I’ve ever lived anywhere. And so whether I was born in Alaska or not, or born in Wrangell or not, it doesn’t matter a whole lot to me. I belong to Wrangell, and so I think we are seeing some good things going forward. Right now. It’s taken a while, but I’m glad to see some of the projects that are happening. And I think if we can continue that, as Phillip said, the momentum is there. Now we just need to keep that momentum building. I don’t want it to come stagnant and just say, “Okay, we’ve done.” It’s got to keep on going.
And I want to see now the projects at the school get done, and see some momentum there, so that we can build all facets of our community. I think we’ve got a great assembly, and I respect the people that are on it. That’s why I’d like to be part of the team. I respect those people, and I respect the work that they’re doing, and I think that it’s a team effort, which isn’t just the members of the assembly, it’s everybody in the community. We need to get some of the people in the community more enthused about what’s going on and contributing more, because it can be done. You know, we’re a small town, but I was surprised when we moved here at how big Wrangell really is. Maybe small in numbers, but what we have here in this town to offer is far outreaching other communities I’ve been to that are twice the size. So I just like to see it grow.
Robbins
Wrangell is an incredible town. It does envelop people who come here. I don’t know how many people I’ve talked to that had zero intention of ever moving to Wrangell, but they came here, they visited, and they had to come back. There is something very special about Wrangell and who we are here. I would say that on borough assembly, I’m always going to make the decision that’s going to be best for Wrangell as a whole community. And I really am excited about the momentum that we have going. I want to continue being a part of that momentum. It’s been really valuable, and really exciting to to be a part of those decisions. And like I’ve said earlier, too, we’ve had to make some really hard decisions this year.
I think what I love the most about our assembly is that we’re willing to make those decisions. And it’s not always cut and dry. It’s not always a unanimous vote. And I think that’s amazing, because isn’t that what an elected governing board is supposed to be, varying opinions of different facets of the community? I think it’s amazing. And the forward motion that we’ve seen with our administration and with our assembly and outreach within the community and really trying to get more people involved. Phillip talking about going and chatting with people, and I try my best to do the same as well when I am in town again. I am a very, very busy mom of two who works full time plus. But, you know, it’s been really rewarding to be a part of the borough moving forward with such strong momentum and seeing big things happening and seeing the potential for what could happen in the future.
