Dust clears on MEA election

PALMER — Marvin L. Yoder was elected to serve as a board of director for the Matanuska District at Matanuska Electric Association’s annual meeting on Tuesday.

According to unofficial vote totals released during the meeting Tuesday, Yoder bested opponent Jamey Duhamel for the seat by 75 votes. Results won’t be official until the board of directors votes on whether to certify the election when it meets next at 4 p.m., April 29.

Larry DeVilbiss had held the Matanuska seat Yoder fills, but withdrew from the election and said he’d throw his support behind Yoder instead.

Re-elected to the MEA board during the 72nd annual membership meeting at Raven Hall on the Alaska State Fairgrounds were David Glines, representing the Eagle River District, and Robert “Bob” Doyle, representing the Susitna District. Both ran unopposed.

Total ballots counted this year, according to results certified by Fosselman and Associates CPAs, were 6,681. Of those, 2,285 — about one-third — were cast using the new online voting system deployed for the first time this year.

Specifically, Yoder received 1,266 votes; Duhamel 1,191 votes; Glines 1,300; and Doyle received 1,973 votes. Total, more than 14 percent of MEA’s total membership voted.

Winning candidates will be sworn in to serve three-year terms at the board’s May 13 meeting.

Members also considered nine bylaws changes recommended by the association’s bylaws committee. Only Proposition 8, which would have eliminated rules for campaign disclosure and group registration, failed. It went down by a wide margin, with 4,177 votes opposed and 2,288 in favor.

At the meeting, the MEA Charitable Foundation’s Operation RoundUp program also gave members an update on the $121,000 in individual and organizational grants dispersed this year.

Charitable Foundation board member David Dahms said the program aims to give grants where other funding is not available.

“The goal is a hand up, not a hand out,” he said.

MEA also awarded $20,000 in scholarships during the annual meeting. Scholarships winners announced at the meeting were:

• $250 — Katya Jenkins, Colony; Julia Maxwell, Colony; Kyler Perry, Wasilla; Alyscia Sanderson, Colony; and Hope Spargo, Wasilla.

• $500 — Ben Kind, Grove City.

• $750 — Jesse Dahms, Union University; Brooke Deans, Colony; Shane LaRue, Palmer; Makenzie Thompson, Colony; Jamie VanHoomisen, Palmer; Cassidy Williams, Colony; and Maryann Zmuda, Colony.

• $1,500 — Jennifer Lee, Glacier View; Helen Michaelson, Colony; Mitchell Wilder, Chugiak; and Christian Winter, Union University.

• $2,000 — Rachel Hammond, Ashford University and Miracle Burton, Palmer.

Contact managing editor Heather A. Resz at 352-2268 or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.