Skinner Seeks More Organization for Capital Projects

Brianna Gibbs/KMXT
On Thursday, three new faces joined the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly. One of them, Rebecca Skinner, was out of town following the election, but KMXT was able to catch up with her before taking her oath of office and get her thoughts on joining the governing body.
“I am happy and excited. I think that it’s going to be a tremendous learning experience for me. But then I also think that I have a lot to bring to the table. So I think it will hopefully be a good process for everyone.”
Skinner said one of the main things she’d like to focus on as an assembly member is a better coordinated capital planning process for the Kodiak region.

“So that would include the borough itself, the city, and then the villages. And then organizations that also tend to ask for, particularly state funding – so KEA and then KRAA. And that’s not to say any one organization would control the process or have veto power, but I would really like to see more coordination and more vetting of the projects overall.”
She said it would be helpful to eventually create some sort of rough prioritization of the projects.
“And I think as a region that would be very helpful as far as success at getting money and then also just understanding what are the capital needs that we have in the region.”
Skinner grew up in Kodiak and left after graduating from high school to pursue her education, including undergraduate work at Dartmouth College, law school in Vermont and eventually an MBA in North Carolina.
She was sworn into office with Dan Rohrer and Larry LeDoux Thursday night.