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About North Pole Council Candidates

Five vie for two seats in North Pole
A field of five — four women and one man — are running for two North Pole City Council seats. The gender configuration will break the current all male council gender gap by at least one if not two females, come Election Day, Oct. 2.

The two highest vote getters will be filling seats being vacated by Jim Taylor and Thomas McGhee. Taylor's term limit is up and McGhee is stepping down for business reasons.

None of the candidates, male or female, say they entered the race because of gender issues, but to take an active part in city government.

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Sep 5, 2007

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* Linda Hilliard, 54, a 13-year North Pole resident, and mother of three grown children, said she is ready to be involved with city government.

"I am excited about the direction the North Pole City Council is going in and I want to be involved in the process," she said.

"People are recognizing that North Pole is growing, and North Pole needs to move forward by offering mores services and retail opportunities to those in North Pole and the surrounding area."

Hilliard said she is interested in making North Pole a place that people want to come to, to shop and live.

"We need to make sure we have adequate utilities and that we've got opportunities for the children who come with those (new) families."

Hilliard is active in her church, North Pole Worship Center, and previously volunteered with the Girl Scouts.

Hilliard has managed US Travel in Fairbanks for the past 10 years and is a member of Fairbanks Downtown Rotary and a board member of MAC Federal Credit Union.

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. * Sharron Hunter, 60, knows the many faces of North Pole and views her bid for a city council seat as "a way of doing community service on an expanded level."

The longtime resident (23 years) is an active volunteer at Santa's Seniors and St. Jude's Episcopal Church and participated in the North Pole Kiwanis when it was active.

She is a prevention/intervention specialist at North Pole High School working with students in small groups.

"When I was considering running for office, a number of people were very encouraging and I guess I was encouraged by their responses," said Hunter who is married to retired Episcopal minister Jim Hunter.

Hunter would like to involve local citizens in city government and planning.

"One way to generate that is to have community events to increase the communication between the city council and the citizens," she said.

Events celebrating accomplishments, she said, promote community identity and people feel they are part of the success and are willing to step forward to volunteer and make improvements.

Hunter would like to see the North Pole Police Department sponsor an open house like the fire department does, saying it would be a good opportunity to address public safety issues such as bicycle safety with the new local bike paths and underage drinking.

"Perhaps MADD could come and help educate," she said.

City cleanup and mini-beautification projects also are on Hunter's list, like wildflower handouts to beautify neighborhoods and "even drainage ditches."

If she wins a seat, Hunter said that she would ensure that anyone coming before the council would be treated with respect and not marginalized if their views are critical or different than the council's.

"Irregardless, it ought to be a respectful disagreement and accepted as valid and that person should be validated for coming to the meeting and speaking their mind," Hunter said.

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