This week, KUCB is profiling candidates running in the October 1 municipal election. Today, we hear from Shirley Marquardt, who is running for mayor (city council seat A).

Shirley Marquardt got her start on Unalaska’s city council in 1994. Almost a decade later, she was appointed to replace outgoing mayor Pam Fitch, and she’s held onto the seat ever since.

This year, Marquardt’s running unopposed for another term as mayor -- supported by what she says is a strong group of councilors and staff.

"I think we have great administration," Marquardt says. "We have a great city team."

Over Marquardt’s last term, the city tackled a full slate of expensive infrastructure and utility upgrades. Some of them had been on the council's to-do list for years, and others had to be finished as soon as possible to comply with legal settlements made with the federal government.

"The powerhouse, the road paving, the wastewater treatment plant, the leachate water tank, the new cells out at the landfill," Marquardt says. "There’s a tremendous amount that’s been accomplished. You have to have these things for new industry to come in. We have to have them for what we have now."

The new industry that Marquardt’s talking about is oil and gas. She’s devoted a significant amount of time and travel over the past few years to figuring out how the city should be preparing.

Marquardt traveled to two port communities in Louisiana last year to find out. She went with three councilors, the city manager, and Unalaska’s planning director.

"We went to Lafayette and talked to the city planners and council members down there," she says. "They just said you’ve to stay involved in every aspect of the growth. Whether it’s from the planning and zoning side, port development, roads development, public works, public safety, your schools -- whatever it is. You stay on top of how you want things to happen in the community."

That’s not going to be easy, given the speed and size of the investments that oil companies may want to make in the community.

Marquardt says the city got a little bit more time to plan for that when Shell was forced to suspend its drilling program going into 2013. Staff spent the year revisiting zoning codes and other regulations that will affect development.

"You know, we’re all in the hurry up and wait game," Marquardt says. "And that is, 'Is Shell going to come back for sure next summer?' I believe that they are."

One thing Marquardt’s sure of is that the community should be heavily involved in determining how development occurs.

But recently, Marquardt says she hasn’t seen a lot of public participation. For the most part, turnout at city council meetings has been low -- a point that Marquardt says she’s brought up with other mayors around the state.

"They realize that things are really percolating in the wrong direction when they have consistently full council meetings," Marquardt says. "Members of the community come and want to know, 'Why are you doing this? Why are you doing that? Why aren’t you doing it this way?' We don’t have that."

Unalaska also doesn't have a lot of competition in this year's municipal elections. There are four city council seats up for election, including Marquardt’s, and just one incumbent is running opposed. This is the first time in over 20 years that the mayoral race has been uncontested.

"I personally think that most people think that things are going pretty well here -– that they don’t feel the need to throw folks out who have been doing the work and doing the job for several years," Marquardt says. "If that weren't the case, I just know we would be seeing them at council meetings."

But Marquardt hopes to see them at the polls on Tuesday, with the rest of Unalaska's registered voters. 

City Hall will be open for voting between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. on October 1.