Wrangell’s municipal elections are approaching early next month, on Oct. 7 and there’s two, three-year term seats on the borough assembly. Two candidates, Borough Assembly Vice Mayor David Powell and school board member Dan Powers, signed up to run and are uncontested.
Powell said one reason he’s running is because he wants to see the completion of current projects he’s been working on with other assembly members.
Powers said although he sits on the school board, this opportunity to take a seat with the borough assembly is a great opportunity to serve the Wrangell community even more.
They chat with News Director Colette Czarnecki about what they bring to the table for the next few years.
The municipal election is Oct. 7 at the Nolan Center, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Vice Mayor David Powell
Dan Powers
These interviews have been edited lightly for brevity and clarity.
Will you introduce yourself?
Powell: My name is David Powell. I lived here basically all my life. My wife is Kimberly Powell, she works at the school system. I work at the Bay Company, and I’ve been on the assembly for about 10 years now. I have four children.
Powers: My name is Dan. I have eight children. I have a beautiful wife. I love my community, I play music, I drive a school bus and all sorts of buses for that matter, and I figure it’s time to do more.
What motivates you to run for the borough assembly?
Powell: There’s a lot of things that we’re in the works of completing, and I’d like to see those to completion. I might be able to get them completed in the next three years.
We have Alder Top land for sale. We have the American Cruise Line tourist thing going on. We have the six mile mill property that we got a lot of stuff working on.
Powers: I think there’s been a lot of recent topics that I seem to kind of be involved in in some way, and have had lots of different meetings with our borough manager and other assembly members and community members who have just recommended, “You should try this, you should try this.”
Happened to be a seat available, and I put my name in the hat.
What’s your vision of the Wrangell community five or 10 years down the road?
Powell: I hope that other things that we are doing right now five, 10 years down the road will bring in a lot more commerce and bring in more people.
Powers: I would love to see young families, working age people moving to town. Jobs created. I would love to see our school system grow. I feel like if a new family was to move to town, or consider moving to town, they’re going to look at the school system.
How do you balance immediate needs with long-term planning?
Powell: We are always on a tight budget. So immediate needs, I would say that we just have to look at them as they come along and see what we could do with them, while we’re planning everything else. I know it’s going to take a lot. We got a great crew at the city, great leadership. And it amazes me how they find money, but they do.
Powers: Immediate needs, obviously there’s things that you have to figure out right away. As a landlord, I’m looking at, how do I invest in properties to make this more sustainable, more long term.
(I) think about my family, what’s going to impact my kids and what’s going to impact the people around me.
So long term is always my goal. I think that kind of viewpoint of strategizing, planning ahead, dreaming, it’s going to roll over from what I do personally, hopefully into the city council.
For people who don’t often engage with local governments, what would you say to them on why their participation matters?
Powell: I’ve always been really an advocate of coming to meetings, being informed. It’s really nice that our clerk got in where we can actually watch a video of our meetings and stuff. I know KSTK broadcasts them. And you can participate that way.
It’s really hard not to be at the meeting though, if you want to be heard, you need to go to meetings and you need to be informed of what’s going on. I would just say that we’ve had some multiple meetings in the last year or so where people have come and they’re not informed and things get a little bit out of hand sometimes, because they are pretty passionate. Then I try to inform people as much as I can, but they need to watch some social media. They have posts on there, KSTK, any way that they can look at the city website. But be informed of the issues of what’s coming up and what meetings have been taking place too.
Powers: I was guilty of this, especially when I was younger, I kind of maybe lived in that apathetic kind of mindset of like, well, it doesn’t really matter anyway. My opinion doesn’t matter. So the more I grew up, the more I aged, began having children, began starting companies, all those sorts of things, I realized that’s wrong. I’m limiting the capacity to see things grow, especially if you have an opinion about it, show up. Let’s have a conversation, rather than wait till the last minute and then show up and bring your boxing gloves. Let’s leave the boxing gloves at home. Let’s talk.
So come early, show up often. If you know of people that could have some sort of an interest. For instance, there’s a topic that comes up and maybe I’m not interested, but I know someone else is. Why wouldn’t I call them? At least get them involved and jump over. Get your voice out there. Every little bit helps.
What challenges does the assembly face?
Powell: People not being informed at all. That’s the biggest challenge that I have, is that people will come after a meeting, and (they say), “I can’t believe you guys are doing that. ”
And I explained to them, “This is how many meetings we have had, and this has happened in the past quite a bit.”
They’re going like, “I didn’t know that.”
That’s why, before your other question, is be informed, nothing’s hidden. You can go talk to the city clerk any time you want, and she will let you know everything.
Those are our biggest challenges, is people not knowing what’s going on in their city government.
And I will admit that before I even got on the assembly, I was probably that way.
I mean, you got to understand rumors are all over the place all the time. But if you want to know the facts, go to the city and you’ll know them. And that’s our biggest challenge.
I talked to a lot of assembly members and (another one of) our biggest challenges is not having enough funds to do the things you want to get done.
Powers: I don’t have a solid answer to that yet. I am not even in.
I’d like to see a challenge of there being so many things going on that we simply just need more help.
For instance, there’s talk about moving the barge lines. There’s talk about new docks being built. It’d be amazing to see so many new projects happening, that we need more help and that community engagement is coming in.
How could the assembly improve?
Powell: I don’t know that, to be honest with you, and I’ll tell you why I say that. It’s because, you look at the last two to three elections, last two honestly, is nobody’s running, and I’m hoping that means that we’re doing the right things, and we’re giving people the right answers, and we’re moving forward, like people want.
I would really think that if they want us to improve, they need to come and say, “Hey, we don’t agree with what you’re doing,” or run for a seat and say, “Okay, I want to move in this direction, and you’re moving in the wrong direction.”
So when it comes to improving, I will be honest with you, in the 10 years I’ve been there, I think we’ve made leaps and bounds on the assembly being very informed of what the whole crew is doing. So improvement is hard for me right now, because I think we’re doing the right thing. I think we’re moving forward the way the town wants us to move forward.
Powers: Continued communication, continued community engagement.
I think personal invitations from assembly members and city workers to community members saying, “Hey, we would like to see you there.” That’s happened. I’ve had several city workers call me and say, or text, “I’d love to see you at this meeting. Can you please show up?” And those are the ones I usually show up to. So maybe just a little bit more reach in the community.
What has been the most important task as an assembly member for you?
Powell: I am very avid with our budget. I look at it very hard. When we go to a budget meeting, everybody kind of goes like, “Okay, what’s Dave going to take away from us now?”
I don’t do that all the time. I mean, this year I fully suggested to fully fund the library, and they had cuts taken. And in the past, I’ve seen a lot of waste.
Right now, I think we got a very good, tight system going on. I’m on just about every negotiation team there is, and I enjoy it. And I think we do a really good job on that, I’m a very active assembly member.
Powers: To slow down and help make wise decisions. Not to be the loudest voice in the room by any means, but to just help kind of balance out, if this is logical and if we getting emotional. Let’s make sure we’re taking care of people, and we’re not going to win every time.
What do you bring to the assembly that’s unique or especially valuable?
Powell: I run one business. I own a business. I’ve always said that I believe that the city is a business, although it’s not, but I think it should be ran like a business. We collect money and we give service just like a business. So I bring a good business sense to the assembly.
Powers: I think there’s a kind of a steadiness, I don’t typically get riled up very easily.
So I’m hoping that my reach into the community…like I said, I drive a school bus and I’m doing events constantly. I’m meeting new people in the tour industry. There’s a constant influx of me and my face being present often. So I hope that brings some sort of a community trust to the assembly.
Is there anything else you’d like to add to this?
Powell: I said it earlier, get informed. Get involved. If you don’t like the way things are going, come and talk to one of us. I’m really accessible. I have a lot of people talk to me when it’s a really contentious item. But also come to the meeting, because a voice and a person seen at our meetings has a lot more weight than just talking on the street.
Powers: I am really proud of what our assembly and our city management is doing these days. They seem very proactive. They seem like they’re charged and empowered. And I really want to support that. It’s going to be a new season and I’m not scared of it.
