**Correction: The Lake and Peninsula Borough assembly is working to get a dock at Lake Iliamna, not a barge landing. The assembly already got a barge landing put it. Updated: 9/25/2025 **
Ahead of the Oct. 7 elections, KDLG is talking with candidates about why they are running and what they want to focus on if elected.
In the Lake and Peninsula Borough, four seats are on the ballot– two for the School Board and two for the Borough Assembly. The seats four incumbents are running uncontested on the ballot.
Michelle Ravenmoon is running for re-election for assembly seat C.
Ravenmoon is from Pope and Vannoy on the south side of Lake Iliamna, and as she tells KDLG, she has served several terms on the Lake and Peninsula Borough assembly.
Ravenmoon: I think I've served four terms already, and it's one of my most favorite boards that I'm on. Great group of people, I love to work with them, and I'm really passionate about what we work for. It's a lot of focusing on our region and our people and helping, helping in ways that we can, and I truly believe in that.
Sutherland: Within your four terms, what issues have you been focused on?
Ravenmoon: So a lot of our focus has been on energy and finding alternative energy ideas, projects for our communities. That's been a huge issue within our region, is fuel costs and energy costs. So that's one of the biggest ones. And another project that's been kind of a difficult one. When I first got on the assembly, we were looking at the Iliamna barge landing, and we had several things that just didn't work out over the years, and now it's back on the on the project list, and we're hoping that we can get that one accomplished, because that would really help our region in the Lake area, because Iliamna is a hub community.
Sutherland: And as far as the housing in the area, can you speak a little bit to the barriers with housing and what the goal of the assembly would be as far as housing goes.
Ravenmoon: So roughly every three years or so, we do a comprehensive plan. We go around to all of our communities. We ask each community what they're succeeding at. What are the challenges? What are their needs? And then every year that I have been on the assembly that we've done this comprehensive plan, housing is a huge need in all of our villages, whether it be land issues, whether it just be getting housing projects into the communities.
So this year, we are making it a priority to take a closer look. What are the things that are stopping us from having more housing? What are those challenges? How can we mitigate that and move forward and provide more housing for those who need it? Up and coming families, families that are moving back.
Sutherland: All of those questions that you outlined are big, big questions of, how do you make this happen? What are some of the ways that you see moving forward with that and making that a reality?
Ravenmoon: So we just put our borough manager on it. No, we've got a great borough manager, and he's taking a closer look at it, working with some of our consultants and some of the other major players in our region. One would be BBNA. It's not just a borough issue. It's a regional issue. We've got homelessness in our region. We know it's a state issue, and it's actually a national crisis. So it's a much bigger issue than just our little borough, but we're taking a closer look at it and seeing in what ways we can, we can change.
Sutherland: For this upcoming term, if re-elected, what are you most looking forward to? Is there anything that you're particularly excited about being on the assembly for moving forward?
Ravenmoon: Some of the issues that we've been looking at is getting better salmon counts. The state has been struggling with funding, and we've been looking at getting more accurate counts for the salmon coming up the Kvichak into Lake Iliamna, and have partnered with some programs looking more at using drones for counting salmon. I think that's a particularly exciting project because these are changing times and we're looking at things a little differently now. And how else can we accomplish a project without using a lot of big funding, partnering with smaller entities to make projects happen. I'm really excited about that.
Sutherland: Is there anything else you would like voters to know about you going into this election?
Ravenmoon: I'm very passionate about what I'm doing. I love being on the borough assembly. It's something I strongly believe in, is helping my own people and helping my own people succeed. It's one of my favorite, favorite boards that I'm on.
