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Bethel City Council Candidate: Byron Maczynski

Byron Maczynski
Katie Basile
/
KYUK

This is our last profile in our series of interviews with the candidates running for Bethel City Council. KYUK's Anna Rose MacArthur spoke with Byron Maczynski, who is currently serving on City Council as Vice Mayor. 

To listen to the full interview, please scroll to the bottom of the page. 

Maczynski: My name is Byron Maczynski. I’m running for City Council this year so I can continue my work in Public Works, and to fight against opiates, and to get the city running right.

KYUK: What are the top three things you’d want to focus on?

Maczynski: Top three things I think we need to focus on is getting the sewer lagoon rehabilitation project through, which is going very well. Also fighting this opiate problem, which I haven’t done so much on council, but on other state boards. And I think we need to overhaul our finance department and the city's sales tax collection methods.

KYUK: How would you address the opioid epidemic in rural Alaska?

Maczynski: We are addressing it by, first of all, awareness. Second, we’re moving federal policies to try and get Medicare to pay for treatment, and also to look into drugs that are also highly addictive but not as schedule as heroin, but it is a synthetic opiate.

KYUK: Why does the finance department need to be overhauled?

Maczynski: The problem I have with the finance department is that we’re kinda, though no one's fault I think, is that we have set up a system, I believe, that is failing. We’re falling behind in paperwork that we need. The whole sales tax collection method is not working, and I believe everybody knows that. I believe we need a more monitored system, maybe with City of Bethel receipts and a system tracking sales tax through cash registers.

KYUK; What’s your job in town, and how else are you involved in the community?

Maczynski: I own a business with my Dad; it’s a collision repair shop. Other than that, I just work and do City Council stuff.

KYUK: In what ways are you qualified to serve on City Council?

Maczynski: I think the best thing that qualifies me for Council is the two years of experience I’ve had in my last term. Truthfully, in the beginning I was just running because I was mad at seeing my classmates addicted to heroin and being sick. I didn’t really think about anything else other than my own agenda. Something I would tell people that are running is that there is a lot more involved than personal agendas.

KYUK: Heroin is one of your focuses; it’s what you’ve talked about the most. What have you done as a council member to affect the heroin epidemic in Bethel?

Maczynski; Like I said earlier, to affect it as a council member... I didn’t do much as a council member. We tried a resolution to ask Ravn to do security checks, but that failed. After that, I was kinda disappointed and moved to outside sources of helping people in the ways I thought would better help, which is a federal plan. That’s where I think the money's going to have to come from.

KYUK: Why is heroin such a major focus, such a major focus of your time and attention?

Maczynski; It’s a major focus because it’s a drug that ensnares people that are affected by it. And most of the time they can’t do anything by themselves. They can’t quit by themselves, it’s extremely hard. I feel like if we don’t do anything now, we’re going to lose all my classmates that are addicted to it. I just can’t stand seeing it.   

KYUK: How has your previous term of two years prepared you to serve another two years?

Maczynski; My previous term prepared me, because now I can navigate though the city. I know who to go to, I know about the policies of Bethel. BMC [Bethel Municipal Code], I understand it a lot more. It makes it a lot easier for me to get a lot more things done, knowing the city. How to get around the city and how to further my agenda.

KYUK: Byron, thank you.

Maczynski: Thank you so much for the interview.  

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Katie Baldwin Basile is an independent photographer and multimedia storyteller from Bethel, Alaska.