Longtime Yakutat Mayor Dave Stone has been unseated.
The southeast Alaska community had its municipal election Tuesday. Cindy Bremner won the mayor’s chair, 104 to 79. Stone leaves the job after seven years as mayor, and four years before that on the Assembly.
Bremner was born and raised in Yakutat and had previously served on the Assembly as well. She said her election as mayor is still sinking in, but that she’s happy the voters opted for a change.
“Dave’s been a dedicated mayor, and we appreciate all he’s done for our community,” Bremner said. “But I think with the rising cost of energy, the decline in the economy, the transportation issues that we as residents of Yakutat face … all of these things combined prompted the voters to go ahead and seek a change.”
Electricity in Yakutat comes from diesel generators. Residents pay roughly 51 cents per kilowatt hour. In Sitka, residents pay between 8 and 16 cents per kilowatt hour, depending on usage.
Bremner says addressing Yakutat’s energy concerns will be her top priority as mayor.
“I would like to see all the organizations within our community come together and come to a consensus on what type of alternative energy we should be looking to build in Yakutat,” she said.
Besides the race for mayor, Yakutat also elected Assembly and school board members Tuesday.
Daryl James and Jeremiah Charles James have been elected to the Assembly. The father-and-son pair unseated incumbents Lowell Petersen and Kathy Jacobson.
Incumbents Nick Holcomb and Victoria Demmert held on to their positions and will remain on the Assembly.
For school board in Yakutat, voters went with Vincent Jacobson, who won with 122 votes over David Drumm’s 56.
There were 26 absentee ballots cast. Those will be counted Thursday morning.
