Wrangell’s Borough Assembly welcomed Phillip Mach to a seat on the governing body February 11. He’ll finish out the term for Assembly member Anne Morrison, after she moved out of town. He submitted a letter of interest, along with three other candidates, who were Scott McAuliffe, Steve Murphy and Nicholas Cage. Assembly members voted on who to fill the seat until the term is up in October.
The author lightly edited the interviews for brevity and clarity.
I’m Phillip Mach I’ve been in Wrangell for almost two years now. I moved here after I got the position of plant manager at Trident. It was an exciting time because the plant had been closed for a few years, and (it was) a great opportunity to start it back up and bring that aspect of the community back.
I started in the industry as a fisherman in Bristol Bay when I was a kid, I think I was 12, and fished throughout college, and then kind of moved after college into the processing side. Started with Trident, and I started out west, just outside of Dutch Harbor in Akutan. I spent almost 10 years there, ended up being a co-plant manager, essentially operations manager there.
Why did you want to be in the borough assembly?
So when I moved to Wrangell, I fell in love with the place, as a lot of people do. It’s a great community. People are very welcoming. My background in college was business, so just seeing the economy and the potential it had and what it could potentially be.
It was kind of exciting kind of being part of going to some of those coffee talks that (Economic Development Director) Kate Thomas has put together. And I think everybody going to those at least realized that we had some things to get through. We realize our issues, and now it’s kind of time to act.
Being open to bringing in new economy. We have to continue. We have to grow eventually. That’s where we need to be if we’re gonna stay alive as a community.
And how do you see that happening? Do you have any ideas?
So I think that a lot of people have different opinions on various things that have been kind of brought forward. There was the developer that wanted to come in and build condos. I think people had different opinions on that. There’s data centers, there’s tourism, which I think some people are pro con. There’s definitely its positives and negatives.
What is it about Wrangell that you appreciate?
There’s many things I appreciate. I think that it’s a well rounded community. The first thing when I first got here is that I realized people are so kind, they’re very open, they’re willing to kind of help where they can. And I think that’s pretty special. You don’t go to very many places where people are so open, they want to help where they can. That’s the special thing about Wrangell that was the first thing that stood out. But there’s a lot of opportunities. Right? We all get to go fishing and hunting and enjoy the beautiful place that we live.
What are your primary objectives?
As a borough assembly member, I wouldn’t necessarily call them objectives, but I think that I wanted to see things move forward like I mentioned before. We understand what our challenges are, but we need to act. It’s the time to do something about it. Else we can be in the same place four, five, 10 years from now, considering the issues we have. If we don’t start, then we will just keep sitting. Just like a business you have to continue growing, else you don’t go anywhere.
Is there anything else you would like to say about you as an assembly member?
I’m very thankful for the opportunity to be part of the assembly and do what I can to help the community grow.
