Colver runs for school board

July 30, 2006

By JOEL DAVIDSON

Frontiersman

MAT-SU - Citing a desire to spend more time with his wife and three kids, Mat-Su Borough Deputy Mayor Jim Colver pulled his hat from the borough mayoral race and threw it into the school board contest.

Friday afternoon, as the deadline closed in to declare candidacy for borough office, Colver officially switched gears to the school board race.

&#8220Partly, I have made this decision in order to spend some more time with my family,” Colver said in a news release Friday. &#8220As a public official, your family makes a huge sacrifice.”

More importantly, though, Colver said he thinks he can bridge the &#8220communication gap” between the school board and the assembly.

After serving six years on the assembly, and most recently as deputy mayor, Colver was a prominent candidate for the mayor's race.

Recently, however, his election bid hit a road bump when allegations arose that he might have used his assembly position to gain an unfair advantage in bidding to survey property for a new career center high school.

Colver, who runs a small surveying business, maintains he did nothing wrong.

His election bid, though, has been hampered with an ongoing investigation by the Palmer Police Department into possible official misconduct and misuse of confidential information.

Colver is running against three other candidates for school board Seat A.

Fellow Palmer residents James Milne and Donald Zoerb also are vying for the spot, along with Willow resident Christian Hartley.

On Friday afternoon, Mary Anderson (wife of borough mayor Tim Anderson) withdrew her name from the race for school board Seat A.

Sitting school board president Sarah Welton is running unopposed for Seat B.

Contact Joel Davidson at

352-2266 or joel.davidson@

frontiersman.com.