The borough’s Economic Development Board needs a new member to fill an open seat, and Kate Thomas, economic development director, hopes for “a creative, innovative type.”
The board’s job is to come up with and review ideas to improve the town’s economy, forwarding its recommendations to the assembly. Thomas describes it as “mining the ideas and opportunities we don’t already know.”
Letters of interest to fill the open seat on the five-member board will be accepted until filled. The mayor appoints the members. The board generally meets monthly.
“Ideally, it’s somebody who has a pulse on different aspects of industries connected to Wrangell,” such as seafood, tourism and health care, Thomas said last week.
“I need them to be a sounding board” for ideas and grant strategies, particularly what the borough could or should do with the former 6-Mile property it purchased last summer for $2.5 million. The borough is running an online community survey to solicit ideas and preferences for the waterfront property.
Wrangell had an ad hoc economic development committee “for the better part of 20 years” after the Alaska Pulp Corp. closed the 6-mile mill in the 1990s, Thomas explained. The intent was to look for how the community could “bounce back” from the sawmill closure.
The assembly in May decided to put the Economic Development Board into borough code, to formalize its mission.
Assembly Member Bob Dalrymple is chair.
For more information about the board, contact Thomas at kthomas@wrangell.com, or call City Hall at 907-874-2381. To submit a letter of interest to serve on the board, contact Borough Clerk Kim Lane at clerk@wrangell.com.
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