Election Day in the Mat-Su is Tuesday, November 2nd. There are three assembly seats, two school board seats, and the borough mayor on the ballot.
One of those assembly seats is District 7, which includes the Northern Susitna Valley. Incumbent Tam Boeve is running for re-election against challenger Ron Bernier. Assembly Member Boeve appeared on KTNA’s Su Valley Voice on October 7th. The recording of that show is available on our website. Ron Bernier did not respond to multiple invitations to appear on the show.
The race for borough mayor has changed multiple times in the last few weeks, but there are once again three candidates running to take the office currently held by Vern Halter. Halter has served two terms as mayor, and is not eligible for re-election.
The candidates for borough mayor are current Palmer Mayor Edna DeVries, former Mat-Su Borough Assembly Member Matthew Beck, and former Wasilla Mayor Bert Cottle. Cottle announced that he was dropping out of the race in late September on his campaign’s Facebook page. In October, Cottle said he was re-entering the race after responding well to chemotherapy. Whether he had continued actively campaigning or not, Cottle’s name would have appeared on the November 2nd ballot. Matthew Beck appeared on Su Valley Voice on October 28th. Edna DeVries was scheduled to be on Su Valley Voice on the 21st but had to cancel due to a schedule conflict. Bert Cottle was initially scheduled during the period in which his campaign was suspended.
In addition to voting for the District 7 assembly representative and borough mayor on November 2nd, a sixty-million dollar road bond package is on the ballot.
The majority of projects in the package fall outside of the Northern Valley, but two involve upgrades to roads in the Caswell area. One is a three-point-six million dollar project to reconstruct Hidden Hills Road and Passthebait Avenue. In total, just over three-hand-a-half miles of road would be reconstructed to make it more suitable to the increased traffic the roads have seen since they were originally built. Another eight-hundred thousand dollars would be spent on paving some of the roads in Caswell, including parts of Hidden Hills, Passthebait, Caswell Lakes, and Bendapole.
The approval of the road bonds by voters would not necessarily mean the bonds must be issued. There is a possibility that funding for the projects could be covered in the federal infrastructure bill.
