Liz Reeves-Ramos and Tammie Wilson run for Borough Assembly Seat D

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) - Candidate Liz Reeves Ramos and Incumbent Tammie Wilson are running for seat D on the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly.

Reeves-Ramos said she is running to be a positive voice for borough residents. “I have devoted my career to human services, which is helping people. I currently work for Adult Protective Services with the State of Alaska. I investigate reports of concern on vulnerable adults who might be experiencing abuse, neglect and exploitation. I’m used to asking hard questions and making tough decisions, and I care about people and I care about the community. I’m concerned about the direction that it’s taking.”

She’s concerned about a lack of funding for the school district coming from the borough. According to Reeves-Ramos, “If I’m elected to the assembly, I would hope to be able to fund our school district more. With the state cutting and not providing as much funding, it’s important for the borough to step up and fund our school district.”

On the campaign trail, Reeves-Ramos said she has heard concerns from the community about the safety of the Manh Choh ore haul plan. “280 times a day a school bus is going to stop on the highway between Tetlin and Fairbanks, and there’s just a lot of residents who are really, really concerned about the safety from that ore haul plan, and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of listening to the public and the concerns that they’re voicing.”

Meanwhile, Wilson is running to continue serving in seat D. Her motivation is to represent the people and protect property rights. According to Wilson, “We had one of the lowest budgets ever this last year, even with a six and a half percent increase in wages but by doing efficiencies. You can’t just cut the budget without making things more efficient, and making it so that everybody can get their job done and not feel like they’re being overworked.”

Wilson said sometimes borough leaders forget this is a second class borough and try to get involved with things they shouldn’t. She said, “I really care about our community. This is a way for me to give back to others, be able to help those who are busy raising their families, just living life, and trying to help them maneuver whatever they’re trying to do on their piece of property, and the biggest thing is that government just stays out of our lives as much as possible. Sadly, we don’t know what they’ve done to us until we want to do something and find out we can’t, and that’s not how things should work.”

She encourages residents to vote in this year’s election, citing traditionally low voter turnout in municipal races. “If you don’t get involved and you don’t like what happens, either side, it’s your fault. At this point, all of us have done what we can to help everybody understand what we stand for, what kind of representative we would be. But at the end of the day the lowest turnout is actually municipal. So wouldn’t it be great that we actually would break the records for a state election instead, but it only happens if people get out and vote,” Wilson explained.

Reeves-Ramos and Wilson will appear on the ballot in the Municipal Elections on October 3.

Copyright 2023 KTVF. All rights reserved.