Borough, city seats up for grabs in upcoming election

PALMER — The Mat-Su Borough and city of Palmer are accepting applications for candidates to run for city council, city mayor, borough assembly and school board.

Assembly

Assembly districts up for grabs in October’s election are:

District 1: The district includes Sutton, Chickaloon and other borough communities north and east of Palmer. The seat is currently held by Warren Keogh, a former firefighter and Vietnam veteran. Keogh is quite possibly the assemblyman that votes most often in the minority.

District 2: The district includes mostly Palmer and its environs. The current assemblyman representing District 2 is Noel Woods, a landowner and businessman whose votes are more often in the majority.

School board

The school board — which is elected at-large rather than by districts — has three seats opening up. They are:

Seat C: The seat currently belongs to Susan Pougher, a longtime board member who is currently leading that body as school board president.

Seat F: The seat is currently held by Neal Lacy, who beat the incumbent and board president when he was elected in 2010. He ran as a fiscal conservative.

Seat G: Currently, David Cheezem sits in this one. He’s a Palmer bookstore owner chosen to fill the unexpired term of Lynn Gattis when she left to join the Alaska Legislature representing an area east of Wasilla.

City of Palmer

Two Palmer City Council seats are up for election:

One is the seat held by council member Edna DeVries, who has been everything from a council member to borough assemblywoman to borough mayor to state senator in her career in politics.

The other seat is held by Kathrine Vanover. She’s been on that body since 2001. She’s a retired school district business manager very active in her church.

The mayoralty is also up for grabs this go-round. Palmer has a strong manager form of government, meaning that the manager runs day-to-day city operations. The mayor runs council meetings and acts as an ambassador for the city.

Currently the mayor is DeLena Johnson, a lifetime Valley resident and former director of the Palmer Museum and Visitor’s Center.

How to run

Packets for city candidates are available at Palmer City Hall or at the city’s website at cityofpalmer.org. They have to be dropped off by July 26.

Borough packets can be picked up at the borough building or delivered electronically by emailing lonnie.mckechnie@matsugov.us or jamie.newman@matsugov.us.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or

andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.

*This story was changed from its original version to correct an error in stating the roles of mayor and manager in Palmer.