Assembly candidate list down to 4

PALMER — The Mat-Su Borough Assembly has narrowed to four the list of candidates to replace outgoing Assemblyman Jim Colver.

Six people applied to replace Colver who won election to the Alaska House of Representatives last fall and resigned his seat on the Assembly. The district he represented includes Hatcher Pass but dips south to encompass parts of the Bogard Road area.

Thursday, the Mat-Su Borough Assembly selected their top four picks. Not making the cut were Steve Menard — former Wasilla city councilman and son of the late Borough Mayor/state legislator Curt Menard — and Bob Doyle, a former chief administrator of the Mat-Su Borough School District and current member of the Matanuska Electric Association board of directors.

Assemblyman Jim Sykes said in a phone interview after the meeting that the plan moving forward is for the assembly members to take turns asking each of the remaining candidates questions at a Feb. 5 meeting.

Each interview will last a half hour. The assembly has gone so far into the details as to specify what to do in the case of a 3-3 tie — Mayor Larry DeVilbiss would cast a tie-breaking vote — and whether candidates can listen to the interviews before it’s their turn (they cannot).

The borough assembly received resumes from each of the candidates. Working from those, here are short bios of each:

Bob Williams

Williams grew up in Mat-Su, son of a logger and a nurse who had a homestead off of Pittman Road. Williams holds degrees in petroleum engineering, educational leadership and mathematics, and is working on another in public policy. He’s a math teacher at Colony High School and the 2009 Alaska Teacher of the Year. He was one of the first declared candidates for Lieutenant Governor this fall, running for the Democratic nomination. He finished second in that race to Hollis French, who got dropped from the ticket with the formation of the eventually successful Walker/Mallott fusion ticket.

Neal Lacy

One of the driving forces behind the creation of the small engine program at Colony High School — which repairs anything smaller than a car — Lacy served a term on the Mat-Su Borough School Board before losing re-election. He ran for the state house in the fall as a Democrat, eventually losing to Republican Wes Keller. Lacy has lived in Mat-Su his whole life.

Gregg Hanson

Before moving to Mat-Su, Hanson worked as public works director, volunteer fire chief, ambulance driver and reserve police officer for the city of Whittier. He said he arrived in Mat-Su in 2009 burned out from all that work and desiring a low profile. “It’s time to get re-involved,” he wrote in his application. In Mat-Su he owns and operates a home business — Hanson Hydraulic Repair LLC.

Barbara J. Doty

A medical doctor practicing in Mat-Su for 30 years, Doty also is owner of Steppers Construction, the North Fork Professional buildings, and the Wolf Lake Airport. She helped develop the Horseplay Acres equestrian-friendly subdivision and once owned Knik Sand and Gravel. Doty co-founded Matanuska Health Care in 1987, and Solstice Family Care in 2011. She says she has delivered 1,000 babies in Mat-Su. She said she wants to bring medical expertise to the assembly because the sector is expanding in multiple directions in the borough and the assembly has a hand in guiding that.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.