Harvey, 26, tapped for open Wasilla City Council seat

WASILLA — The Wasilla City Council on Tuesday night interviewed five candidates to fill the open seat vacated by Brandon Wall, who resigned due to work commitments in the lower 48.

After asking the candidates the same six questions asked of each by council members, the council elected to give the open seat to 26-year-old James Harvey, a corrections officer at Goose Creek Correctional Center, who is also a reserve officer for the Palmer Police Department.

“I’ve lived in Wasilla pretty much my entire life,” Harvey said in his three-minute opening address to the council. “I lived some places in the lower 48 for a time, but my heart belongs here. I believe Wasilla is an amazing city, so I came back.”

Harvey described his time in high school as being extremely public-service oriented with volunteer work in the Valley Performing Arts Center, the Mat-Su Valley Medical Center and the Explorer program at Mat-Su Central and Wasilla High Schools. After high school, Harvey said, he enlisted in the Army before receiving a medical discharge due to a shoulder injury.

“I think I can be a great benefit to the council, even at a young age,” he told the council. “I’ve been quite a bit involved in community — I’ve made that my goal since middle school. I feel like I could do more to be involved and this is my attempt at doing that.”

Harvey will take his seat on the council at the next meeting Aug. 8, and may run for one of two open elected seats on the council to be decided in the Oct. 4 election.

In other business Tuesday, the council gave consent to move forward with Ordinance No. 16-20, which deals with “Encroachments, related to the unauthorized encroachment of signs in a public right-of-way within Wasilla city limits and establishing a procedure for the removal of signs within the right-of-way.

A 4-1 vote sends that matter will be open to public testimony at 6 p.m. at the next city council meeting on Aug. 8.

The other matter on the consent agenda came with some discussion.

Ordinance No. 16-12: “Establishing a temporary moratorium on the construction of single-family dwelling units under 1,000 square feet to expire not later than Feb. 28, 2017, and referring the matter to the Planning Commission seeking a recommendation back to the city council.”

The ordinance’s sponsor, Council Member Stuart Graham requested the public hearing on the ordinance be moved to Aug. 22 because he would not be present for the meeting on Aug. 8.

Council Member Colleen Sullivan-Leonard, questioned not the moving of the date, but the reasoning behind the proposal.

Graham said he had spoken with members of the Planning Commission and was looking for their guidance as to what to do about, what some believe, is an excessive number of small homes being built in Wasilla. Graham explained that pending the commission’s final opinion on the matter, a moratorium on building through February should be considered.

The matter was approved for the Aug. 22 agenda on a 4-1 vote with Sullivan-Leonard voting ‘no’.

Prior to addressing the consent agenda, the council recognized the 20-year anniversary of Mat-Su Youth Court and heard commission and agency reports.

The Parks and Recreation Commission reported that bocce ball courts in Iditarod Park are now open, and ice is on the floor at the Menard Center with a trio of hockey clinics coming in the next two weeks.

Public Works Director Archie Giddings said the new Wasilla Library could begin moving into the site as early as Aug. 15 and no later than Aug. 22. He said it is possible there could be a soft opening in mid-September with a possible ribbon-cutting date of Sept. 22.