Ellen Glab, Benny Williams, Jr. and Larry Terch III run for North Pole City Council

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) - Ellen Glab, Benny Williams, Jr. and Larry Terch III are running for two at-large open seats on the North Pole City Council, where the incumbents, Aino Welch and DeJohn Cromer are not running for reelection.

Glab said she resigned from her position with Human Resources for the City of North Pole to run. “I think that there needs to be more transparency and more activity within the community to help some of the lower income people in the area and to make some improvements that I think are lacking,” she said.

Glab sees people in the North Pole community who could be in need of help, including senior citizens. “Whether it need be assistance in housing or just basic assistance for our elderly with everyday upkeep, things that we could easily do as a city, especially a city of this size, and it’s kind of got that small town feeling to it and that mentality, and I don’t see a lot of that reach-out going on.”

Glab would like to see more open discussions between city government and the population. “Everybody tries to keep things so shut up. They don’t always, it’s not always to the benefit, and I think that it would improve with more open discussion,” she said, “and with the environment, lately, changing as far as how things are done, technologies, there’s so many different ways to improve on that and that in itself is going to be growing pains for a lot of different residents in the area.”

Benny Williams, Jr. is also running for the council. He would like to advance North Pole forward and have it become the model for other cities. “In other words, don’t reinvent the wheel. If it’s out there, you take that wheel, and you refine it, and you make it better. That’s the only way to do it. Reinventing the wheel costs what? Money. So you gotta be smart enough to do it, and a lot of people don’t see it that way. They want it done their way.”

Williams carries the attitude that the glass is always half-full. “When you come to a problem, bring a solution with you. If you got a problem, bring me a solution. You know why? Because you can take that solution and you can work off of it, and you can refine and better that solution, because they might have come up with something that you never thought about, and a lot of us people that’s in politics right now, they don’t view it that way. It’s always their way. Hey, you gotta give and take.”

He discussed a variety of jobs he’s worked during his time in the air force, including clerk, electrician, and bio-and chemical warfare specialist. “All those jobs always played on the next one. Those jobs give you a basic information, basic skills, but where you get your real training is when you’re out there in the field, and you’re working, and you take what you learn and you expound on it, and you do better.”

Glab, Williams and Terch appear on the municipal ballot for North Pole residents.

NewsCenter Fairbanks reached out to Terch, but as of news time, could not schedule an interview.

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