Micah Shields is running for Seat C on the Soldotna City Council. Shields is a lifelong Alaskan who owns Small Town Coffee Roasters, Inc. and Narrow Road Productions, and has traveled extensively. He formerly worked at an orphanage for disabled children in Peru in South America, but returned to Alaska to start a family. If elected to the city council, Shields said he’d bring the perspective of a dad of young children and a small business owner.

Shields said in an interview at the Clarion offices on Sept. 6 that he was partially motivated to run for a seat on the council because of what he called “partisan bickering” and a desire to do something about it.

“I think that it’s sort of becoming more apparent to a lot of people that the status quo of allowing government to sort of run on autopilot, and then just throwing a hissy fit when things don’t go your way is probably not the best way to go about things,” Shields said.

Shields said that he’s been able to watch Kenai and Soldotna grow over the course of his life and that his run for city council is less about having an agenda and more about making residents’ voices heard. He praised Soldotna’s fiscal resourcefulness, but said the city hasn’t developed the same way other peninsula cities have.

“I drive to Homer and I walk out on the spit and I enjoy it, but I don’t walk around Soldotna in the same way, because it just hasn’t developed the same way,” Shields said.

Something like that, Shields said, “isn’t the end of the world,” but it is something he’s noticed and wondered about.

Shields said it is difficult to say how he thinks the City of Soldotna has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic because the virus has been such a divisive topic in the community. He put emphasis on the businesses that were negatively impacted by the loss of tourism and the toll taken on the mental health residents.

“I don’t know if there’s a way to address that from a government point of view without just making it worse,” Shields said. “I’m really hesitant to sort of point fingers at anything that was done, because I feel like, you know, everybody tried their best.”

A focus on mental wellness, Shields said, will help bring the community together and keep people healthy. He said he thinks the pandemic has put more stress on people that they are used to handling, and that in part is driving “crankiness” in the community.

“(People) just want to move on,” Shields said. “I don’t know that there’s a whole lot the government can do without just, like flogging a dead horse.”

Shields said that, in considering his opponent, he would bring a different perspective to the council, but that he would ultimately not join the body with a list of things he’d like to accomplish.

“You’re just a voice really, and often a conduit,” Shields said. “That’s kind of what I’m looking at. I’m not looking to change the world.”

Shields is running against Jordan Chilson for Seat C on the council. Chilson currently holds the seat, to which he was elected in 2018.

The municipal election is on Oct. 5.

Reach reporter Ashlyn O’Hara at ashlyn.ohara@peninsulaclarion.com.