In November, Alaskans will head to the polls to elect representatives and weigh in on ballot measures. Voters in House District 37, which includes Unalaska, the Aleutians East Borough and other parts of Southwestern Alaska, will choose a state representative.
Rep. Bryce Edgmon has represented District 37 for 18 years. This year, he’s up for reelection and running against nonpartisan challenger Darren Deacon.
On Sept. 6, Edgmon attended a community forum in Unalaska and fielded questions from locals about the Alaska Marine Highway System, renewable energy, state pension plans and more.
At the forum, Edgmon referred to air travel challenges in the Aleutians as the “conundrum of all conundrums” and said the state government tries to compensate for limited options by way of the ferry system.
He said officials are working to replace the M/V Tustumena and are looking into a second ocean-going vessel to serve alongside the state ferry.
After the forum, Edgmon talked to KUCB about the potential of geothermal energy in Alaska. He said geothermal is a promising potential renewable energy source for the state, even if it hasn’t come to fruition yet.
“Making it economic and making it actually work so we can get affordable energy to the end user, the customer, remains a work in progress,” Edgmon said. “I would add geothermal as one of those unexplored, lots of potential parts of the energy portfolio of the future in Alaska.”
Another topic on voters’ minds is the state of the Alaska fishing industry. Commercial fishermen in the region have been hit hard by sagging prices and ecological shifts that have dramatically shrunk harvests in certain fisheries, like Bering Sea snow crab. When the Peter Pan seafood processing facility in King Cove shuttered this spring, the town’s economic driver disappeared almost overnight. The seafood trade journal Intrafish first published on Sept. 18 that an auction on the company’s assets took place in mid-September, but a hearing to approve the sale won’t happen until early October.
Edgmon said as King Cove’s representative, he knows the town’s challenges well.
“The livelihoods of these communities revolve around commercial fishing and without healthy fisheries, healthy markets, healthy opportunities for local harvesters and processors, these communities will go away,” he said.
As a member of the newly-created Alaska Seafood Task Force, Edgmon said he will work with other legislators to examine ways industry, government and community stakeholders can come together to keep coastal towns like King Cove afloat.
Earlier this year, Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed an education package that included permanent increases to the base student allocation — a number that helps determine how much state funding each district gets per student. Edgmon was among a group of representatives who challenged the veto, but the effort failed by one vote.
Edgmon said he wants to prioritize a permanent BSA funding increase moving forward.
“The primary impetus behind increasing it on a permanent basis, versus an annual basis — a very unpredictable sort of process — is to give schools certainty,” he said.
This would allow schools to plan for the year ahead with a fixed BSA figure in mind and “not have to go down to Juneau and scrap and claw and kick and fight for whatever increase,” Edgmon said.
As some districts see enrollment drops and increased costs, “it’s really been quite the struggle for schools to make ends meet,” he said.
The legislature also failed to pass a bill last session which would have reinstated pension plan options in the state retirement system. Edgmon said getting this passed next session is a priority of his.
