Wrangell’s Borough Assembly is looking to fill two, three-year seats during next month’s municipal election. Two incumbents are running unopposed – Bob Dalrymple and Jim DeBord.
Dalrymple said his passion for economic growth is necessary to diversify Wrangell’s economy.
DeBord said Wrangell’s Borough Assembly continues to make strides with infrastructure projects and he wants to see these projects through.
The interviews have been edited lightly for brevity and clarity.
Will you give us a brief synopsis of you as a person and community member in Wrangell?
Dalrymple: I moved here in 2010. I lived in the communities around Wrangell since 1982 and I’ve always liked Wrangell. It’s one of my favorite towns. Got the opportunity to work with the Forest Service here in Wrangell, was a district ranger, so that really immersed me in the community and the goings on of the town and the national forest that surrounds it. I enjoy the town of Wrangell and its people. It’s very comfortable me to live in a town like this. It’s very supportive. Gets through hard times and it has a lot of opportunities that isn’t fully fulfilled yet, but it’s all there. Wrangell keeps making strides.
DeBord: I moved here almost 10 years ago with my wife to work at the hospital. I’m an occupational therapist up there, and just enjoy the environment of what Alaska offers and the community of Wrangell.
How long have you been on the Borough Assembly?
Dalrymple: My current tour has been for three years. Had the honor to serve citizens of Wrangell since that time. I was also an appointed member a few times before that, but as a full on elected person, it’s been three years.
DeBord: I was appointed to the assembly once back in 2018 for a one year term. This was a three year term, plus the previous year I took a break during the COVID air.
How has your time been serving on the Borough Assembly?
Dalrymple: The time has gone by amazingly fast. Three years is a long time. It seemed like it just flashed by. It’s been really encouraging and fulfilling to me to have had that opportunity. And I guess in that time, I’ve seen just monthly improvements in borough functions and getting funding for projects, getting those projects going. One of my main interests is economic development and really setting up Wrangell to better engage into some future economic opportunities. Also got to say that it’s been wonderful working with the current assembly and the mayor. They’re a really good group of folks and they really unanimously have Wrangell in their best interest in everything they do, and that’s been very satisfying to work in that environment.
DeBord: I really enjoy it. I think we’ve had a lot of progress in the last three years. We have a great team. We have a lot of momentum moving forward. I really enjoy being able to be involved in the community and keep us moving forward.
Why do you want to run for reelection?
Dalrymple: I would like to continue with the work that we’ve got, the work will never be done. But over the last three years, the assembly and the administration has got a lot of initiatives going, and I’d like to see some of those through. We’ve got a lot of momentum right now, and I think whatever I can do to encourage that momentum and keep successfully completing some of our bigger projects is a great interest to me.
DeBord: To make sure we continue with the progress that we’ve had so far.
What important issues do you see Wrangell facing in the near future that align with your goals as an assembly member?
Dalrymple: I think it’s somewhat unknown what they’ll be. I think that’s kind of the interesting part is what Wrangell will evolve into. And since I’ve been here, I’ve watched basically a town go from a mill town with one dominant industry into something else. It’s pretty obvious that we need to diversify our economies and we’ve made steps towards that, but there’s still work to do on that. I think the visitor industry is a growing opportunity, as long as we keep control of it. But again, it can bring a lot of income into the town. The shipyard is an amazing facility, and it provides a lot of jobs and maintenance, that kind of thing, for a necessary need for the maritime fleet. Wrangell is pretty well situated in the center of all that. And of course there’s the government industries of SEARHC now and the Forest Service, and I’d like to make sure we do whatever we can to keep those outfits healthy here. And then there’s the unknown of what else we could be doing. I’m also on the Economic Development Committee, and that’s kind of our job, I guess, is to brainstorm and try to work towards getting more economic activity here.
DeBord: The big one is continuing our infrastructure and maintenance development. I think a lot of our projects were put on hold for decades, and now, unfortunately, they’re all due at the same time, when prices to replace things like phone poles and infrastructure have doubled or tripled in the last few years. That’s a big issue we face.
Another big issue we face is unfunded mandates, such as the potential sewer plant replacement and upgrades that we’d have to do there; not having the 10s of millions of dollars to do that. Then grant funding opportunities could potentially dry up, because we rely pretty heavily on grant funding. Eighty to ninety percent overall investments and in their infrastructure come from that, such as the water plant that we’re currently replacing.
What accomplishments are you proud of that the assembly achieved during your time so far?
Dalrymple: When I first got on the assembly, and this might not be too exciting to a lot of folks, except for their pocketbook, the borough’s finances were a mess, basically. To help guide the borough into getting those finances in order, and through Mason’s good work, we’ve got our accounting, some real, modernized accounting systems, and we have the checks and balances. We weren’t able to pass an audit when I first came on the assembly, and now we’re doing quite well. We’re bruising through those audits.
Some other things on that are investment portfolios. Mason has got those refocused where they actually generated some safe, good returns for us. I’m pretty happy about that.
And then I guess the other ones the borough has. They don’t have a lot of cash wealth, but they have land wealth. And working towards putting the borough lands back into good use for the community and getting a few of those properties onto the tax rolls, I’m happy about that. I think Alder Top is coming up. I’m looking forward to the results in the upcoming lotteries for that.
I guess we did bring in a phenomenal amount of funding recently. Over the last couple of years I think it’s $52 million and I’m pretty happy with that. I’m still kind of amazed that we were that successful, but I think that shows the quality of the work that we put into it and that we have a need too. So I’m looking forward to those projects getting done on the ground.
DeBord: The water treatment plant would be one. I’m really working on prioritizing our list, really taking the time to prioritize the important things in town: the water plant, the sewer, our infrastructure, our advances with the electrical department, the new transformer upgrades. Just really back to maintenance and infrastructure.
Have there been any challenges while in the assembly?
Dalrymple: There’s always contentious issues and that’s good because people are passionate about it, especially around the appraisal system, how that system works and went through the protest process on that. So those have been contentious. In workforce development, when you’re talking about jobs and create a new job or refocusing on existing jobs. Especially the people affected, that that’s been contentious. But overall, I could think we’ve worked quite smoothly through all that. Especially the school board with their funding and with the tribe working on better relations with them, and then the union developments in the workforce there.
DeBord: The biggest issue is cost. Costs have doubled, tripled for everything in the last three, four years. It’s amazing. I don’t think the general public quite understands how expensive things have gotten in the last few years compared to what they were previously, three, four or five years ago.
One example was a Vac truck or garbage truck. Can’t remember which one it was, but we got a quote on it and before we could even get to the next meeting, the cost had gone up five or six thousand dollars from the quote, I think it was the previous week, to when we actually passed it, and it went up an additional five to six thousand dollars. I think a phone pole, an average phone pole, has doubled or tripled. So just a lot of the things behind the scenes that people don’t see that are coming back, it costs a lot more than what they did a few years ago.
Is there a way you think the assembly could improve?
Dalrymple: There’s always room for improvement. I would like us to get more citizen involvement. Maybe we could think about things like that, and we’ve included the idea of getting youth involved every once in a while. Be really interesting to see if we could get student representation on there. Also to broaden out our folks on the assembly. Right now, we’re fairly diverse in our ages, but it would be good to have more young people on there as well.
DeBord: I think we’ve got a great team right now. Everybody’s really invested in the community. Everybody’s pretty much on board with maintenance and infrastructure, being our two biggest priorities. It’s pretty rare that we don’t all agree. I don’t really know how we could improve. I think we have the best team we’ve had in the 10 years I’ve been here.
Are there any new issues that you’d like to bring forth?
Dalrymple: It’s a work in progress on how the cruise ship industry and Wrangell are going to work together. That’s one to keep an eye on. I think right now, the borough is doing a really good job at that. They haven’t let everybody in. It’s not the Wild West at all, and we’re slowly growing that, but under pretty conservative methods to do that. I think that’s going to continue to be something that we got to put a lot of time into.
And of course, we have the mill site. I guess maybe I would have said that’s something I’m really proud of that we did is we did use the borough funds to purchase that site, and I feel that site is going to be the economic driver for Wrangell way into the future, in whatever way it gets developed.
DeBord: Not really. I don’t think people understand how long it took us to get in the water plant from the day we started until the day we actually started breaking ground. I mean, how many years was that? So I won’t say there’s new issues, but making sure we continue the issues that we have; and making sure that we follow through with those, which I think we’ve done a really good job of prioritizing those and making sure that we fall through.
What would you say the most important task as an assembly member has been for you during your time on the assembly?
Dalrymple: I think it’s, to me, to take all the information that you get from the public and through reports and data analysis and then truly sit together as a group and decide what’s best for Wrangell. If we keep doing it that way, that’ll give us the best results that you can get from a group of seven people that are elected.
DeBord: I think personally, my involvement with the Investment Finance Committee has been my one most personal thing that I really have enjoyed. I know people hate taxes, and I hate them as well, but I want to make sure that we prioritize every dollar and make sure that we’re capturing every dollar that we can and it’s being spent appropriately before we ever talk about raising somebody’s property tax or sales tax. And I think there was some significant room for improvement when we started. It’s one of the reasons we started the Investment Finance Committee. We’ve done some pretty good things there.
What makes you a good candidate and why should someone vote for you?
Dalrymple: I have a good record. I’m really focused on the job. I’m kind of a detailed person, so I kind of get into the backgrounds with a lot of this information, because there’s so much information that goes out, especially the budgets. I have that aptitude, I guess, to bring that and listen to people. I think hearing the different views of the community is really important, not necessarily that any one of them should dominate, but kind of listen to them together. It really helps to make the best decisions.
DeBord: I’m invested in the community. We moved here 10 years ago to state two. My kids are here. I have four children and I want to see them grow up and have a happy, healthy life here. It’s an amazing community to raise my kids, and I think, honestly, it’s probably one of the reasons that I’m involved in the assembly. I want them to have a good life and good opportunities, and Wrangell really offers that and I want to make sure we continue that.
Is there anything else you’d like to add about rerunning for the assembly?
Dalrymple: No, I think that’s it. I just encourage people to vote. You know, it’s important. The assembly has a strong say in what happens in the town and with the taxes and the fees, these and everything else. I just ask people to vote.
DeBord: No, just hopefully I’ll be back for another three-year term.
