Bob Dalrymple likes what the borough has managed to get done the past few years, particularly its focus on maintenance of public facilities and developing new capital projects, such as winning a federal grant to rebuild the downtown harbor floats.
"I'd like to keep up with that momentum," said Dalrymple, who is running unopposed for a second three-year term on the assembly. "There are some real challenges coming up."
He lists among the challenges finding a way to dispose of the former hospital property, which the borough has been trying to sell for more than two years, and also attracting a buyer or long-term tenant for the borough-owned former sawmill property near 6-Mile.
The planned sale of 20 borough-owned lots at the Alder Top Village (Keishangita.'aan) residential subdivision, tentatively set for next spring, is another item he wants to see through to completion.
Finding a way to increase local funding for the school district is on the list of challenges, too, he said.
The district is drawing down its reserves as state funding has been essentially flat for seven years and the assembly has its own concerns about maintaining adequate financial reserves for the borough, constraining how much it can appropriate for schools.
Many of the challenges focus on "broadening out the economy as much as we can," Dalrymple said.
That includes "figuring out how tourism, especially cruise ship tourism, is going to fit in." The task will be gaining the benefits of increased tourism - jobs, sales tax revenues and passenger fees - without changing the character of the community, he said.
Promoting more housing construction, particularly homes that are affordable in the community, is on his work list too.
The borough owns buildable land but lacks enough money to develop the utilities and roads needed to create residential lots. Maybe the government could partner with private developers to open up land for new construction, he said.
"I don't see us becoming a housing authority," taking on alone the responsibility of financing and building new housing.
He hopes the former hospital property, which has been unused since SEARHC moved to its new facilities in 2021, can somehow be turned into housing, whether for residents or out-of-staters looking to cool off. "The idea of heat refugees is going to come into play," Dalrymple said, referring to people living in the Lower 48 who want a summer home to escape rising temperatures.
"There are people out there with ideas" for the property, and it will be up to borough officials and the assembly to find and strike a deal for the best idea.
Another piece of borough land, the former 6-Mile mill site, is "an amazing property with potential," he said, but it needs a private developer with the financial wherewithal to rebuild the dock and invest in the new construction that will be needed for whatever could be built at the site.
The borough bought the property for $2.5 million in 2022 to keep the 40 acres intact in hopes of attracting a new user.
Dalrymple retired from the U.S. Forest Service in 2019, after 43 years with the agency, working his last 10 years as district ranger in Wrangell.
He served a couple of short stints to fill temporary vacancies on the assembly, later winning a three-year term in 2021. He also serves on the borough's Economic Development Board.
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