The state’s transportation department and a Southeast Alaska nonprofit are partnering in a new way to help the region plan for its future. The state designated Southeast Conference in February as a new regional planning organization or RPO.
Southeast Conference is a nonprofit organization that works to develop the region’s economy through grants and programs for 33 communities. Long-time Executive Director Robert Venables said Southeast’s regional needs will receive more statewide recognition through the RPO.
“There are metropolitan planning organizations in the big communities like Anchorage and Fairbanks and now Mat-Su and there’s really not a formal seat at the table for regional communities such as we have in Southeast Alaska,” Venables said. “So, this is kind of a little bit of a new thing, and this RPO will allow the communities to have a formal seat at the table.”
Venables said the new label won’t bring any dramatic changes to the nonprofit’s work, but being a so-called regional planning organization mostly formalizes what Southeast Conference already does. They won’t hire extra staff, but they will get some new funding: about $50,000 to $75,000 from the state every year.
Going forward, Venables said there will be more community engagement. Southeast Conference holds two big regional meetings a year, and Venables said the public should see more engagement beyond those events.
“What this does is puts responsibility for Southeast Conference to do what they do really well, which is facilitating conversations, bringing stakeholders together, and, you know, getting as much regional consensus as possible,” he said.
The new RPO comes at a time when the state’s marine highway system is struggling with funding and staffing shortages, and the state’s aging ferry fleet is requiring more and more repair work.
Shannon McCarthy, spokesperson for the state Department of Transportation, said that Southeast Conference’s new RPO designation could help with planning the marine highway system’s future.
“It does provide that organization, that structure for us to talk about what the needs are of the region,” she said, “and ensure that they’re integrated into our planning structures in a very formal way, and then ensure that we’re checking in periodically.”
Southeast Conference is creating an advisory board for the RPO to oversee policies and is seeking new board members to fill seats. More information about those seats is available on the nonprofit’s website.
