Five candidates are running for four seats on Bethel City Council. This week, KYUK is airing interviews with each of the candidates.
Candidate WG Anaruk is new to the city council race. He’s an entrepreneur and the aquatics manager for the Yukon-Kuskokwim Fitness Center.
Anaruk spoke with KYUK’s Evan Erickson about his candidacy on KYUK’s morning show, "Coffee at KYUK," on Sept. 23.
Find a transcript of the conversation below. It has been lightly edited for clarity, but may contain transcription errors.
KYUK (Evan Erickson): Thanks for joining us for 'Coffee [at KYUK'] today. So you're one of one of five candidates vying for four seats, and three of those seats will be two year seats on the council, and one is going to be for one year. There isn't as much out on KYUK about your background and what you hope to accomplish. You weren’t able to make the candidate forum, so can you just start by telling us a little bit about yourself.
WG Anaruk: Well, yes, my name is WG Anaruk. I was born in Anchorage. However, I'd grown up and graduated high school here in Bethel, and I had lived here in Bethel for a total of 19 years. And one of the main reasons I'm running for Bethel City Council, it would go concurrent with the same reason as to why I chose to live here, which is the fact that I personally considered Bethel as one of my biggest assets. Bethel is home, and I genuinely care for the city. I've seen more than a few both positive and negative damages and changes to our community that could be brought to discussion and possibly resolved with future development of strategic plans with the city council.
KYUK: So yeah, what are those main issues that you most want to focus on?
Anaruk: One of them would be the drug and alcohol trafficking, or the drug and alcohol problem within our community. Bethel is one of the main points of departure for most to all alcohol and drugs that are brought into our surrounding communities, and it is affecting our future generations. Another topic would be our Bethel housing crisis. The local community and economy, it is growing at a tremendous rate, and you do need to take various forms of action to participate in resolving the housing topic here in town, as well as Bethel's infrastructure. We definitely need to provide more annual road maintenance here in town, as well as adding more street and stop signs throughout some various locations in the city. An extension of the boardwalk would be outstanding, especially if the budget has any wiggle room to expand to Blueberry or Tundra Ridge.
KYUK: Yeah, with the road issue, what do you see the the main focus that that needs to be done with roads and with signage and all that?
Anaruk: The city is lacking some yield and stop signs around towns. More stop signs may be placed around Tundra Ridge, I would like, as well as around Larson and Kassayuli subdivision. But the roads themselves, as always, after it rains, there are millions of potholes out there. Before we had used, I believe it was like EK40 [EK35] or something like that, to keep the dust down on the road during the during summer time, the dust gets terrible. It is very dry out here, and there's plenty of community members that go walking and breathing that dust. It's not so great for them and their health.
KYUK: Yeah, and they applied a lot of that on Ptarmigan [Rd.] last year, I believe, or Tundra Ridge Rd. Or did you think that was effective? Are you trying to see more of that being done, that sealant stuff?
Anaruk: Yes, that was, that was an excellent solution. And I'd like to see more of that around more more spots of town.
KYUK: And as far as what you mentioned about drugs and alcohol problem? Is that something that you think has gotten worse recently, or is that something you've been watching more long-term?
Anaruk: Um, been watching it more long-term, and it has. It has just grown. The problem has just gotten out of hand. Um, methamphetamines and opioids are getting in the hands of our youth, and it's wrecking their families and causing multiple problems and issues. But the drug and alcohol issue has been – it grew since I was a child, and drugs that weren't even in town are now here, and it's gotten to the point where it's, I may have a couple solutions, but I need to speak with the other members as well.
KYUK: Yeah, I'm sorry I didn't ask. How old are you? Can I ask?
Anaruk: I'm 27 years old.
KYUK: Twenty-seven. So you graduated back nine years ago?
Anaruk: Yes.
KYUK: [Bethel Regional High School]?
Anaruk: Yeah.
KYUK: So and as far as if you're elected to city council. I mean, whether it's roads, housing, or drugs and alcohol, what do you think? What do you think kind of a role the city can play in addressing those problems?
Anaruk: We could come up with some, possibly some strategic plans and work with various departments as the police department. Or we could cooperate with some state divisions, but we'd have to come through with some sort of strategic plan to execute, but I believe communication with other departments and divisions would be outstanding.
KYUK: Yeah, and do you have any plans for how to gather community feedback, and if you're elected, how to like, really understand the needs of the community when you're, you know, whether it's trying to introduce some initiative, or vote a certain way, or allocate part of the budget toward a problem? Is there a way that you think you can gather feedback from people?
Anaruk: My main intent would be some sort of marketing or some sort of public surveys. Really just public surveys, or asking the public on media or local broadcast shows such as KYUK.
KYUK: and I don't know if you had, I know you had a work scheduling issue that you weren't weren't able to make the candidate forum, did you? Were you able to listen to that at all?
Anaruk: Yes, I did listen to the candidate forum. And I am, I am pretty bummed out that I had missed it, but I appreciate this opportunity to get some words out.
KYUK: Yeah, was there anything in there that came up that you were like, 'Oh, I got an answer for that,' and you'd like to chime in on? I mean, we covered a lot of different pretty much.
Anaruk: Yeah, you guys did cover quite a bit. One of the things that brought or gave my ear a little ring was the price gouging. Price gouging here in town, it happens quite a bit. And the prices out here are, it's, it's, it's getting nearly impossible for a family with one child or even just two, two partners to live together in house and afford, afford the living.It's the, I might have a possible solution to the price gouging, but it's to be spoken later.
KYUK: Yeah, I'm sure you also heard the issue of uncollected taxes come up in that discussion quite a bit.
Anaruk: Yes.
KYUK: Was that something you were aware of before? I personally don't really understand the scope of that.
Anaruk: I wasn't quite, quite aware of it, but tuning in on previous council meetings on the city website, I have heard about it, and it is a rising issue. If you go here to our local post office, you walk in, there's a bulletin up there. You could look up there, and you could see how much taxes are owed to the city of Bethel, and I believe it was in the hundred thousands. So yeah, the unpaid taxes and in town it can get pretty serious.
KYUK: Yeah, that's interesting. And so, have you traveled around the [Yukon-Kuskokwim] Delta region quite a bit? Or have you mostly spent your time around Bethel?
Anaruk: I've done some traveling around the [Yukon-Kuskokwim] region.
KYUK: And you so you kind of understand, like, I mean, a lot of the issues are, you know, people coming in and out of Bethel and kind of have a sense of that?
Anaruk: Yeah.
KYUK: So you described Bethel as an asset. I don't know if you said it was the biggest asset in your life. What do you think? I mean, obviously that means you want to imagine, you want to be in Bethel for the long term. What do you see is, like, what the city can do to create a better economic future, and can have kind of like a, you know, long term chance at maintaining a strong sense of community here?
Anaruk: I would believe allowing other people to, or allowing new organizations or businesses to would just welcome them into the town or persuade others to create new small businesses that will help assist and grow a local economy and provide some other jobs. But really cooperating with our public to allow them to pursue their dream, if they would like to own a small business or company or organization that this town desperately needs.
KYUK: Yeah, and have you been, have you been a regular follower of city council meetings and listening on the radio through KYUK, or any of that over the years?
Anaruk: Regular, I wouldn't say so much regular, but the past four or five months, I've been tuning in on some recent city council meetings on the city website.
KYUK: Yeah, it takes, there's a little bit of a barrier to entry, to understanding how all the quorum and yeah, all the different consent agenda and everything works and yeah. So are there any other issues besides what you mentioned that you'd like to work on if elected? I mean, is there? And also, do you see a way to get more people interested in following council and showing up at the meetings? It's often a bit of a ghost town in there during the actual council, and perhaps there's a lot of people around the community listening over the radio. But do you think you can get more people interested in getting engaged, because there is a chance for public comment and to really have your voice heard through the council? But I feel like that could, it could be a lot higher.
Anaruk: To answer your question, I do believe there's a way to get more community members involved in the council meetings. I would just mainly listen to what the public has to say and what they would like as a community, just really listen to them and try to figure out any forms of solution that you could or just generally listen to the public and get the hear what they have to say and follow up on their questions or concerns and see if you could provide any solutions to their needs or wants.
KYUK: Yeah. And as you probably heard in that forum, that a huge theme was retention, about people not coming in to, do you know, fulfill a short contract and then going back to Anchorage or the lower 48 and staying here. And I'm just wondering, how would you pitch Bethel to someone, if you wanted to have someone come in and find suitable housing and make this a long term place to live? How would you, yeah, promote that?
Anaruk: Goodness. Well, I would definitely market our surrounding visuals, the air, definitely the environment. I would market the environment towards the new staff member. I wouldn't hide a lot. I would be generally open and honest. Let them know how Bethel is and the prices here. But I would definitely sell the people, the community, the environment. Bethel is growing. As I said previously, there are things to do. It's not the most greatest place to raise a family, but it's good, because it's a good place to raise your family if you have one. There are a lot of activities out there to do. You can go out on the tundra or the river during the wintertime, you take little ice road trips on the river. It's beautiful. It's gorgeous.
KYUK: And how about things in town to do that for entertainment, to get out there and socialize. Do you think there's something lacking there?
Anaruk: Um, there it definitely is. I did hear about the extension at the Y-K Fitness Center, however, Bethel would definitely profit off of a some sort of community convention center, rather than having events always hosted at the high school. If the city built the pool, and understand it took years to build a pool, but if they could build a pool, I'm pretty sure that they could save some money for a convention center.
KYUK: Yeah, and they have some spaces that are unutilized. I mean, they're utilized here and there, like the bowling alley and things, but you think that maybe they should look into creating a new common space?
Anaruk: Absolutely, absolutely, they would be able to sell some events and venues and generate revenue and collect taxes off of that revenue. It would do the city well.
KYUK: Well, yeah, so we just have about three minutes left. Is there anything else you want to bring up about issues if you're elected that you want to address. And what would you tell people when they're going to vote on Oct. 1 for city council and school board candidates, how to make the most informed decision and why you would be an appropriate choice?
Anaruk: Oh, goodness. Well, I would let them know that I grew up here in town. I've seen a lot of things happen. Changes happen. I genuinely do care about our town. I've been back and forth from Anchorage and here for a while, but I always seem to come back here because it's the air here, and the environment and the people are excellent and outstanding. I am a highly ambitious entrepreneur and investor, and I do have some well-gathered thoughts and visions for the town that I'd like to fulfill and if not, then that another time will come around.
KYUK: And so can I ask, what? What business you are in, when you say you're an entrepreneur?
Anaruk: I currently serve as the president of Frostbite Investments, which is a parent company to two subsidiaries. One of our subsidiaries is in Anchorage. It's a management service company. And one of our second subsidiary is actually going to be opening its doors here in town in about a month.
KYUK: Okay, so you actually have a space in Bethel. You have a physical location here that you'll be at, yes, okay, so you're trying to build up your personal side and get involved through city council, and you are one of one of five candidates this year. And is there anything else you want to close out before we finish out this 'Coffee [at KYUK'] interview here?
Anaruk: Do anything you could to help your local economy grow!
KYUK: Yep, all right. Well, thank you so much for joining us for 'Coffee [at KYUK']. We have three more candidate profiles coming later this week. This has been WG Anaruk on 'Coffee at KYUK,' thank you for calling in this morning, WG.
Anaruk: I appreciate it, thank you for calling.
