My family came to the Kenai Peninsula Borough in 1952; I was born in 1963 when my parents were attending college in Fairbanks. I graduated from Soldotna High School in 1982 and attended the Forestry Program at AVTEC in Seward. After AVTEC I joined the US Marine Corps and served 4 years and finished with an honorable discharge. I attended UAF & UAA and worked at Alyeska Resort and the Alyeska Pipeline as a contractor. I became a Realtor in 1994 and also was elected to the Soldotna City Council that same year. In 1999 I was elected to two terms as Borough Mayor and as that was winding down my wife, Debbie, and I started Redoubt Realty. I served 5 years on the Soldotna City Council, 7 years on the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly and 6 year as Borough Mayor.
I think it is important to have goals and things that you want to accomplish as Mayor but I also think it is important to look back at things that were accomplished during my time as Mayor. I had mayor brown bag lunches, I had information booths at many area events, and we started a Borough employee cleanup day. One important project was a junk vehicle removal program that got many of the old and abandoned vehicles out of the road right-of-ways and off of private property. We reduced the mill rate, increased funding to Borough roads, started the new lined cells at the landfill, expanded Central Emergency Services to Kasilof/Cohoe & Funny River and started the large hospital expansion at the Central Peninsula Hospital & South Peninsula Hospital. The thing that took the most time and energy was the 2006 Arctic Winter Games. That project started in March of 2000 and finally concluded with the help of 2700 volunteers in March of 2006 when we hosted the best Arctic Winter Games ever. Besides bringing the community together it also left many lasting legacy capital projects.
The budget deficit will be the number one priority of my administration, finding efficiency and cuts that we can make as well as possibly looking at an additional revenue source. Some of the other goals would be to continue to improve our Borough roads, sell Borough land, and making sure we run our Borough and school buildings as efficient and accountable as we can.
I believe we have the best school district in the state, the best hospitals and a quality of life that is second to none. I have the experience, knowledge and desire to be the next Borough Mayor and on October 3rd I would appreciated your vote.
