Mechel Meek, who lives aboard a 48-foot motor yacht at Wrangell’s Heritage Harbor, has met boaters of all kinds. She says she believes those connections make her well suited to serve on the local port commission.

Meek is running for a three-year term against incumbent Antonio Silva in the Oct. 6 municipal election.

Here’s Meek on her prior political experience.

I’ve never done any public office. I’ve never even thought of it before. But this is such a small community, and I love it here, and I wanted to be more invested in this community.

The nearly 51-year-old moved to Wrangell in the summer of 2024, when her husband Gene Meek took a job as the Wrangell Police Chief.

They had been living in Soldotna, on the Kenai Peninsula, before moving here. Having lived in an RV there, Meek says her family had no issues transitioning to boat life. They found a boat in Douglas, then motored it to Wrangell to set up their new liveaboard home.

In Soldotna, they owned land where she had a small Japanese quail farm.

She continues to keep quail in Wrangell out on her son’s property and sells the eggs at the monthly community markets.

Meek says that community participation and listening are important for public officials.

She says that there are some small projects that could easily be tackled at Wrangell’s harbors. For example, she says the parking lot at Shoemaker Harbor is just a giant mud pit. Her opinion is that scraping it up a bit to flatten things out would be the easiest way to fix it.

We can make our harbors better without throwing a ton of money at them. I think that we can be fiscally responsible and make them better at the same time.

She also says that one of the handicap parking spots at Shoemaker is directly in front of the oil disposal container, making it unusable.

Little things can make big changes for the people who use the harbors. I know I’m not the only disabled person who uses the harbors. There are quite a few.

Meek says the community is what she loves most about Wrangell and that she’d like to see the community take care of the harbor together.

Adapted from original article by Larry Persily for the Wrangell Sentinel