**On election day, polls will be open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the King Salmon Village Council Building, Bristol Bay Borough Building Assembly Room in Naknek, and South Naknek Recreation Hall. Voters can vote absentee in person 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Borough Building in Naknek until Oct. 6th.**
On the Bristol Bay Borough Ballot, voters will decide two contested assembly seats and two contested school board seats.
Michael Peters is running for one of the two open Bristol Bay Borough Assembly seats. Peters is the tribal administrator for the Naknek Village Council, and he joined KDLG to discuss his candidacy for the borough assembly.
Peters: I am Michael Peters, and I am the tribal administrator for the Naknek Village Council.
Sutherland: Do you have any previous government experience or community involvement going back to high school?
Peters: Going back to high school. That's about it for the government side. On the leadership side, I'm the President and the Naknek Lieutenant for the Volunteer Firefighters Association. And I've been going to meetings for the last eight years, roughly, give or take. That's about the extent of my involvement.
Sutherland: And why are you running for borough assembly?
Peters: The biggest reason, it was actually said this last meeting, was it's good for change, getting some new perspectives, new angles to look at things from. And one assembly member said that he was not running, and I felt the urge to put my name in the ring for assembly.
Sutherland: What issues are you looking to address? Are there certain things on your docket that you would like to tackle this upcoming term?
Peters: Nothing specific. The biggest one that comes to me is it seems, remembering the space between June and August, some things seem to slip through the cracks just due to the nature of where we live. But the last two years, I've noticed some comments made during the meetings and no follow-up in August. That's about the only thing that I can say I'd like to bring to the table out of the gate.
Sutherland: What are some of the things in your community that you're passionate about that drive you to want to be a part of being on the assembly?
Peters: So, since I've moved back and now my kids, well, now they're of age, but I wanted to bring the community back to what it was when I grew up. Having all the different options, being that community-minded small town still. And that has driven me in my current role of getting us connected to our past culture, looking forward to economic development, to help bring opportunities to youth through my job, I have the ability to do some of that. And to help grow our next generation of leaders in our own town. That's what I'm probably most passionate about.
Sutherland: What are some of the things that you would do to build back up that community infrastructure?
Peters: So I am the former public works director for Bristol Bay, and knowing some of the underlying issues we have is to help push and find the funding to fix some of the issues that I know of within our borough. And those issues, which I think it's kind of a poor way of saying this is an issue, but let's go with deficiency, of fixing those that will help with economic growth in our town here. Just addressing things that were done 40-50 years ago that worked great then and now, just bringing them back around to fix them for today's times.
Sutherland: Are there specific examples you can give of things that were happening 40-50 years ago?
Peters: On this side, the two biggest things that I know from previous work is some surveys that were done and not officially recorded. That's probably one of the biggest ones, getting that corrected. And updating some of our systems. They're doing a great job currently, I just would like to be a part of the continued effort in updating all of our infrastructure.
Sutherland: Is there anything else that you would want the voters to know about you?
Peters: I think the only two things, if you're not currently in town, at the Village Council under my time here, we've been able to do a lot. I've learned more about the infrastructure development side from a funding standpoint than I did with the previous position I held, and I have a better understanding. And I think I can help bring that to the table with, you know, anybody and everybody that wants to listen to me talk. And you know, I'm born and raised, and I don't have any intentions of leaving and just really want to be a part of our growth going forward.
