The Matanuska Susitna Borough ‘s new mayor was sworn in on Tuesday.
Despite a contest filed against the outcome of the Borough’s District 7 race, all other winners in the Borough’s October election were certified and sworn in before Tuesday night’s Borough Assembly meeting. New mayor Vern Halter will take the reins at the next Assembly meeting. He thanked his wife, Susan, and his supporters for his election win.
“I thought we ran a very positive, very good campaign. We just tried to let people know who I was and why I was running and things like that. And sometimes the outcome comes out the way you want it, and sometimes it doesn’t. I’ve been both directions, by the way.”
Outgoing mayor Larry DeVilbiss presided over his last Assembly meeting Tuesday night.. He says he’ll use his old campaign signs to patch his barn roof, to keep the raven’s out of the rafters. What’s next for him? He said he’s heading to Siberia.
“I’ve been invited over there. And I have been there many times before. I’m linking people groups that share animistic world view values and concepts, and they are much better at communicating, especially on spiritual levels because they are animus. And it is very valuable making those links.”
DeVilbiss also spent time in South America as a linguist and translator.
APTI Reporter-Producer Ellen Lockyer started her radio career in the late 1980s, after a stint at bush Alaska weekly newspapers, the Copper Valley Views and the Cordova Times. When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Valdez Public Radio station KCHU needed a reporter, and Ellen picked up the microphone.
Since then, she has literally traveled the length of the state, from Attu to Eagle and from Barrow to Juneau, covering Alaska stories on the ground for the AK show, Alaska News Nightly, the Alaska Morning News and for Anchorage public radio station, KSKA
elockyer (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8446 | About Ellen
