A familiar face and a familiar voice will vie for seats on the Haines Borough Assembly this October, but if no one else files for candidacy soon, it won’t be much of a race.
Former Mayor and assembly member Jerry Lapp and former KHNS news director Margaret Friedenauer have filed for office, though with two seats being vacated by assembly members Joanne Waterman and Dave Berry, October’s election could become just a formality.
The candidate filing period closes at 5 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 20.
Friedenauer, 38, worked as KHNS news director for three years and recently was hired as online organizer for the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council. She has also worked for the Chilkat Valley News and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, and holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology and an associate certificate of paralegal studies.
Every election season, Friedenauer said, she is surprised more people don’t run for office. “I feel like this community is very involved. I feel there is a lot of passion that comes out in meetings and public decisions, but when the time comes where people can have a more direct role, for some reason they don’t do it,” she said.
Friedenauer said she filed early – and was glad to see Lapp filed early – because she didn’t want to be someone who waited until the last minute to file for reactionary reasons.
“I thought if I was going to do it and try to do this, that it was important to do it not because of who else was or wasn’t running, but because I wanted to give it a shot,” Friedenauer said.
As a news reporter, Friedenauer said, she became familiar with local issues and how government works. For that reason, several people have approached her to suggest she run.
“I do consider it a public service and a civic duty. That’s what I felt like journalism was, too. I know they are two completely different things, but they are still a sense of public service that fulfills a part I want to play in the community,” Friedenauer said.
Friedenauer said there isn’t a specific issue that has driven her to run, though as she was finishing up her tenure at KHNS, she started finding it harder to separate her roles as an objective reporter and citizen.
“While I loved being a reporter in a small town, it becomes harder to do that and not become personally invested in things,” she said.
Friedenauer said she is interested in exploring how to obtain better Internet access and technological resources for businesses and residents. Access to public information is also an issue that concerns her.
“There were some votes and executive sessions surrounding the (Alaska Power and Telephone) power rate increase that I would have liked to see done a little differently,” she said.
Lapp, 66, served as Mayor of the third-class borough for six years and on the assembly for 13 years. He is retired, but works part-time for Constantine Metal Resources.
Lapp decided not to run when his seat came up last year. “I just wanted a year off to see how I felt about things. I kind of miss it a little bit,” he said.
A longtime proponent of economic development, Lapp said he wants to see the borough move forward on projects that would create jobs and stabilize the economy. “I want our kids to have a future here. That’s a no-brainer. A lot of peoples’ kids, they want to work here. They want to stay here in Haines, but right now the outlook isn’t so great. Maybe I can help a little bit with that,” he said.
Pursuing hydroelectric projects, improving the Lutak Dock and supporting development of the Palmer Project mine are some avenues for developing the economy of Haines, Lapp said.
“I would love to see a mine go through. I think it would be very beneficial for this community. It would provide 150-250 jobs. It would be steady year-round. It would give us a stable economy here. We had that when the (saw)mill was going. The town was really healthy. It was buzzing. It wasn’t like it is now in the wintertime,” he said.
Lapp would also like to see the Small Boat Harbor expansion project go forward as currently proposed.
“To now see it kind of at the last minute being held up, I guess kind of makes me wonder why,” Lapp said. “Because there were 44 meetings where this was discussed here in Haines. PND (Engineers) did a presentation to the assembly, and everyone was invited. And then the assembly decided, ‘Okay, this is the recommendation from the (Port and Harbor Advisory Committee), so this is the direction it will go.’”
The issue of solid waste management seems to have dropped by the wayside since he left the assembly, Lapp said. That’s something he would like to revisit.
“(Former assembly member Debra Schnabel) was working on it, and I was on the committee to try to come up with a plan to get a better garbage system going here that is cheaper for everybody and so people aren’t dumping their garbage all over the place like out in the woods. It’s in the works, but I haven’t seen it moving forward in this last year at all,” he said.
Assembly member Berry recently said he won’t seek re-election. This week, assembly member Joanne Waterman said she would not run to keep her seat.
Waterman said she wants more time to work on projects with her wife. Balancing projects like the recent restoration of the Port Chilkoot Fire Hall, her job at the ferry terminal and running a bed and breakfast business makes it difficult to devote as much time to assembly member duties as she would like, Waterman said.
Waterman said she isn’t ruling out running again in the future. She has served on the assembly six years.
Clerk Julie Cozzi said school board member Mike Wilson has filed his paperwork for a school board seat. Three school board seats are up for election this October.