After nearly a year and half without a permanent city manager, Lori Strickler has stepped up to officially take on the role of administering the day-to-day operations for the City of Bethel.
Strickler had previously served as acting city manager, a role she stepped into in June 2023 after spending more than a decade as Bethel's city clerk.
Strickler spoke to KYUK about the key issues she hopes to tackle as city manager, and why she’s happy to call Bethel home.
KYUK (Evan Erickson): How's it been being city manager thus far?
Strickler: It's been going really well. I've been having a lot of fun. I'm learning a lot still about how the organization’s set up, which I had a really good foundation of to start with. But there were certain areas as the clerk where I didn't get involved because I wasn't supposed to. So I'm learning a lot and starting to tackle some of my long-term goals for the organization. It's been going well.
KYUK: Can you tell us a little bit about your background and what originally brought you to working in city administration in Bethel? Was Bethel your first dip into that world?
Strickler: It was, yeah. So I moved to the community about 19 years ago, and I started working for the police department as the admin assistant. And I worked there for about two years, and then I was encouraged to apply for the city clerk position, which I did with hesitation. But after many years in the position, I grew to love the clerk's office, but also municipal government and serving the public. I just found myself working with a lot of city managers over the years and seeing that there's significant opportunity that can be made in local government to improve the quality of life for the residents. And I have a list of priorities and goals for this community, and I'm now in a position where I can start tackling some of those short-term and long-term goals.
KYUK: In council meetings, you've described moving from city clerk to city manager as a move from a more neutral, supportive position to one that involves more opinion and advocacy. What are you advocating for?
Strickler: One of my primary goals is to improve the water and sewer bills for our residents. Some would argue that we have some of the highest rates of water utility bills in the nation, and I think some of us are facing a struggle paying our bills and getting adequate water into our homes. So I would like to learn as much as I can about our granting opportunities to help supplement some of those capital costs that we've seen over the years and will continue to see, but also to improve the efficiency of this utility, to make sure that the costs that we do have in managing the system are appropriate and being used efficiently and effectively. My goal is that over the next five or so years, we have a rate study that shows a reduction in operational cost for the utility, and then we can work on a rate study that can reduce the overall cost to the user, to the families that are using the water and sewer system.
KYUK: How long do you expect that process to play out for?
Strickler: I mean, it's hard to put a number on that. To be honest with you, we've started to apply for a number of grants and grant loan opportunities, again, taking that infrastructure investment out of the city's operating funds and relying more on grants. And other administrations have done that too. But I think you have to be strategic in the way that you're applying for these funds, and the words that you use to explain the need for those funds. So really leaning hard on our grant manager, John Sargent, who is a wealth of knowledge, but also reaching out to [the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation], who has developed a lot of support for the surrounding communities in water and sewer development, and then outside agencies as well.
So working with the state and figuring out why maybe we didn't score as high on an evaluation for a grant as we thought that we should have, and then using the grant funds to support each other, right? So reducing the city's overall financial contribution to these capital investments will then help reduce the operational costs, and then we see that value saved as the rate payers’ monthly bills.
KYUK: Among the priorities and things you're advocating for as city manager, is water and sewer at the top?
Strickler: It is at the top, yeah, it absolutely is. And there's a lot of information to digest with this, but … any individual should have access to water, and it shouldn't be a burden as far as cost to access that water, and we need to find a way that our residents have equitable access to the water. So now, our piped services [is] unlimited water for residential units, and they pay a flat rate where people on the hauled system pay a much higher rate for the water per gallon than the piped and may not be able to afford to receive as much water as they need for their household, so to find a balance there for our residents. It's probably always going to be a higher cost utility, just because of the way that our system is set up and the high cost of operation, but to find a way to make it more equitable and more financially feasible for our families and homes.
KYUK: Do you have any other priorities that come after that?
Strickler: I have a lot of priorities, yes, I sure do. One thing that we're starting to really focus on is pedestrian safety. The streets and roads team worked with [Alaska Village Electric Cooperative], and they got some street lights up along Ptarmigan [St.], so around where the kids are walking to school. That happened, I think, last month, and [Alaska Village Electric Cooperative] worked very quickly to get those lights up. We're really excited. And then we've also installed new lights in the cul-de-sacs around the Housing subdivision to improve pedestrian safety, but also the safety of the residents in that location. Now, [the streets and roads crew] is doing an audit of other areas in town where we could improve our lighting to also make the walkways for our pedestrians a little bit more safe.
And we've also applied and received just over a $50,000 grant to initiate Safe Streets for All. It's a pedestrian and ATVs, four-wheeler trail system improvement, but also street safety. How can we improve the way that our streets support pedestrians and bicyclists? So pedestrian safety is another one, streets and roads. We've got a great streets and roads crew, but everyone's consistently frustrated with the spring thaw and the potholes that come with that. Our roads crew is really focusing on making sure that the drainage along the streets are maintained, and they've been improving our drainage systems over the last couple of years. So high five to our streets and roads team. I think we'll see over the course of the next few years some significant improvements in our roads. We did make a significant investment through a state legislative appropriation for EK35, which was a solution that was put on I believe it's Akakeek [St.] and part of Ptarmigan [St.] last summer. So we've got a significant amount of that that we plan to roll out into the city's roadways this summer.
KYUK: What do you think the city has done right with administration in the past? And what has it done wrong in the past that you are excited to tackle?
Strickler: Oh, gosh. Okay, so what we have done right is we have a lot of money in the bank. I am thankful to say, after reviewing audits from other communities and looking at our audits, we have a good amount of money to support our operation and infrastructure improvement needs. So we've got about $26 million in the bank. A lot of that is dedicated to certain things, like the port and harbors, landfill. But we are comfortable. We have a healthy surplus. So good job with prior administrations for maintaining that surplus, that kind of rainy day emergency fund. We're very comfortable. I think that with any local government, the goal should be maintaining community communications, making sure that the residents and the visitors know what the government's doing with their money.
I think it's hard as an administration, it's easy to say that you're going to improve communication and outreach to the public, but it's hard to actually effectuate that because resources are limited. But I think with social media and other tools we can take some minor steps, some easy steps, to improve our interaction with the public, right? So letting the public know that we do have a lot of very cool projects happening, and that the city team is working really hard to serve our residents, and letting the public know what we've been up to. So using those social media platforms and engagement a little bit more so that the public knows what's going on.
KYUK: In interacting with other Alaska cities, are there one or two that stand out to you as places you think are run and administered really well that you're trying to maybe model or emulate, or is Bethel in its own class?
Strickler: I have to say, working with other communities through clerks and administration, it's apparent that every community has their challenges, right? So I'm not looking to model any other community. I think Bethel is unique and needs to be prepared, required to modify standards that might work for other communities to make sure that it's working for us. I think it's important to look to see what other communities are doing. For instance, I said I looked at the other audits, right? And the other audits, a lot of communities don't have a significant savings of their undesignated fund balance, but it's because maybe they're on the road system and they don't need to have that emergency fund because construction isn't as high, right? So I think looking to see what other communities are doing is something that I've done for very many years, but recognizing that we have unique challenges and needs here, and making sure that the policies that we're recommending to council and the funds that we have on hold and that we're using are what we need more so than what has become standard in other areas of the state or the nation.
KYUK: It sounds like you're here for the long run, and correct me if I'm wrong, [but] what are some of your favorite things about Bethel that keep you here?
Strickler: Yeah, I'm gonna be here forever. I love the people in Bethel. You know, I think there's so much love here, and people care, and it's like a true, compassionate, caring community. And nobody's going it alone, right? If you ever have a problem or an issue, people will come out of the woodwork to help you out. And I think that it's unique, you know? I think that is a unique part of Bethel that not everyone gets to see, unfortunately. So, yeah, I think I have a very strong love for this community and the people within it.