I have lived in Unalaska for almost 22 years, since 1992. It has been a long and fulfilling time packed with new experiences and opportunities, challenges, wonderful friends and lots of good people just crossing my path. During these years, I tried myself in many new roles and areas, learning about myself, people around me, the place, and confirming my initial feeling about Unalaska – this is home. My decision in 2007 to try myself in yet another area, as a City Council Member, was my way of giving back to the community that has been so generous to me and my family.

Over the past three years I was a part of the team, as the City tackled a large scale of expensive infrastructure and utility improvements projects. The powerhouse, the road paving, the wastewater treatment plant, the leachate water tank, the new cells out at the landfill. There is a tremendous amount that has been accomplished. And I am very proud of the fact, that in spite of all predictions, we as the City Council, did not transfer the cost of all these improvements onto the residents of Unalaska.

As a council member, I hope to spend my next term helping to improve the quality of life for all of us. To me that means paving our roads, finding a way to spread the rising costs of utilities across the community, tackling the housing shortage, creating incentives for private landowners to build houses and apartments, making sure cost of living for Unalaska’s City employees is comparable to other communities. I am extremely interested in alternative energy sources that could keep power costs down in the future, and will be supporting and promoting the pilot project, launched by the City, to research the potential of the LNG for our community’s use.

With the increasing likelihood of the Arctic development to affect our community, and increased presence of oil companies in Unalaska, one thing I am sure of is that the community should be heavily involved in determining how we prepare ourselves when that future development occurs.We have to stay involved in every aspect of the growth: from the planning and zoning to port development, to roads development, public works, public safety, our schools, the clinic; these are but a few examples of the decisions we will be making, that will determine whether the community will benefit from the potential growth.

But whatever decisions we make in preparation for these opportunities, we need to be responsible and make sure our projects are sustainable and we approach the future growth very cautiously.

All of this is not going to be easy, but I am very proud to be a part of a dedicated team of the fellow council members and the City staff, who take their commitment to make our City the best it can be very seriously.