Listen to this interview:
Wali Rana
Today, we're joined by Kenny Hughes. He's running for mayor of Nome in the 2025 race. Kenny has years of experience serving as mayor of Teller and currently chairs Nomes Planning Commission. Welcome to KNOM.
Kenny Hughes
Thank you, Wali.
Wali Rana
Thank you for joining us today. Can you tell me a little bit about your background and what inspired you to run?
Kenny Hughes
Sure. I'm running for mayor, because I'm very interested in representing the citizens in Nome as their mayor to help make the decisions about how the community runs. I've served on the Planning Commission for a number of years, and have participated in many City Council meetings and Port Commission meetings, attended them, and feel like I can, I feel that, as well as having done all that, I also have an extremely varied experience across a lot of different industries.
I have a commercial fishing permit. I have a mining permit. I've had a mining permit for a lot of number of years. I've traveled extensively across the region doing fixed dish satellite as a commercial level HughesNet satellite dish installer, that's actually taken me across many portions of the state. So, I have an extremely wide range of experiences that all help to inform me about what people are experiencing, and so much of rural Alaska is, I've found is extremely similar in the sense that all these villages, regional hubs, and so here in Nome, I've lived in Nome since 2006, after spending 25 years in Teller. My folks were actually teachers in Teller the year I was conceived and born in 58, but they subsequently homesteaded in the interior of Alaska, which is where I grew up. And I didn't come back to Nome until about 81, and ended up in Teller where I spent the 25 years and then Nome, 2006. So, people kid me about being like the salmon, come back where they were born to spawn and die.
Yep, I met a local gal in Teller, and we raised a family, and there in Teller, and now at least, I've been able to pass on the dying, long enough to be old enough to where now I feel like I have some wisdom to share with the younger generation so that they can learn from our generation's mistakes, perhaps not repeat them.
Wali Rana
That's a good segue into the next question. Your years of experience as Mayor of Teller, and just like your life experience, how do you feel like that will help you address some of Nome's problems?
Kenny Hughes
Well, primarily it's just the attitude in the sense that I've had to apply out of the box solutions constantly in order to fix the problems that I come across in in the businesses that I run. The governing processes in Teller, things that needed, needed fixing for which there was no immediate, apparent answer. Limited resources, and just MacGyver something together and it works. So again, it's, you know, my extreme variation of different life experiences, I think puts me in a position not only to see potential solutions that others might miss, but also I've lived the same, I've lived the life of a villager in the village for 25 years. You know? I've been in rural Alaska pretty much all my life. I mean, I grew up on a road system on the interior, 200 miles there in the Glenallen area, 200 miles northeast Anchorage. And, large urban areas, for me, Nome is a large urban area. Meanwhile, you can call someone and there's more people in their building than live in Nome, and that always kind of blows me away.
But nonetheless, and I think a lot of folks that get out and travel, you know, you see more of that stuff, and thankfully I've had, I've traveled a few places, tourist destinations and and as President of the Nome Chamber of Commerce, also, we've been, we've had the contract to assist the city, and in managing the Visitors Center, we've been fairly active there. Well, obviously, we've been administering that contract at the Visitor Center for a number of years, and have been able to, I think, have a positive impact on developing tourism, working with the private sector in that regards.
And so, yeah, there's all sorts of things that are occurring. One of the things you don't hear a whole lot about is the mineral development and mineral resource. Oh, boy, if you've checked the price of gold lately, you know, a couple years ago, I was informing the City Council of our billion dollar resource that's offshore Nome, which is the value of the gold deposit. Well, it's now worth $2 billion. Pretty crazy thing, and the price of oil is stable. So if this trend continues, I guess one would perhaps anticipate a little more of an interest, although, although on the Gold Rush concept, despite the higher price, for instance, this season, I wouldn't say that we're experiencing a massive gold rush, and I think one can attribute that to the fact that the economy elsewhere in America has improved to the point where there's plenty of opportunities, and folks are staying home with a sure thing, rather than gambling on a gold adventure.
Wali Rana
So if you were to win the election, what would be on your immediate agenda?
Kenny Hughes
Well, one of the things that I think is missing from the Nome governing process is enough citizen participation. We do not have enough citizen participation. So my first big deal would be to say hello to all the organizations, and also say hello to the citizens and say hey, you know, we we need more people to become involved in our boards and commissions and different places and and try and make them feel supported and appreciated and useful in those positions while they are serving, and see if we can't get more people involved.
You know, there's numerous council meetings I've been to where I've been about the only person that wasn't required by some agency or the other to be there. And, unless there's, unless there's something that unless there's a big issue, that there's a whole bunch of that riles up a bunch of people, nobody shows up, despite the fact that there are a lot of important questions about about the future in Nome that the council has to deal with on a regular basis.
Wali Rana
Looking forward to the future. What would be some of your long term goals for the city?
Kenny Hughes
Most of my long term goals for the city are less about a specific goal for the city than the fact that they establish some, you know? For instance, if we could, see it's already 2025, so it's talking about the comprehensive development plan. That is a plan that funding agencies like to have you have, and typically, the Planning Commission is the one that does that. Our current one is outdated. I think a community visioning process to create a 2030, plan that the city, the tribes, citizenry, we could all seriously buy into and use as a guiding document as we went to the different funding agencies to look for money to put the different parts and pieces together with.
I also feel like over the years, that the City of Nome hasn't necessarily applied for quite as many grants as they as they might have done, but I also know that they kind of struggle a little bit with administrative capacity because they are kind of overwhelmed with the with the workload that they've got, for the small amount of people that they've got, trying to try and accomplish it all. And so that's, I mean, in two years, you can't really do a whole lot. That's the other thing too. You know, government does not move at the speed of business, and in two years, boy, you can barely get anything, hardly done. Four years, you can start to get a little bit done. But really, it takes six or eight years of consistent struggle in a direction before I've found that you can, can really make a difference.
So within two years, you know, if we could come up with with a good 2030 comprehensive development plan and and you know, get the community in agreement on a shared vision for Nome. I think that would be a tremendous accomplishment, which I'd be happy to spend my time doing, which is why I'm running for mayor.
Wali Rana
So coming back to the present, if anything, what would you differently from what's being done now?
Kenny Hughes
Well, it's difficult to point to one thing necessarily and say I'm going to fill this pothole and not that pothole. You know, nothing at all like that. Primarily, I'd just be in a position with a very different set of eyes than what is there now, and it's going to respond to me differently than it does to the current mayor, and so my response is going to be informed by my varied experience of all the various industries I participated in.
The things that I see happening in the region. You know, there's, Nome is really a regional hub, and you really need to understand and take a great look at the over all larger picture, and understand Nomes place in it, in order to create some opportunities for Nome to really excel.
Wali Rana
With the election right on the horizon, what would you want folks to know that you feel like I maybe didn't ask you?
Kenny Hughes
Oh, I guess just that. You know, I've lived in Nome, on the Seward Peninsula for over 40 years. I feel like I truly have the citizenry's best interests at heart and willing to put my interests behind theirs, and would just really appreciate the opportunity to serve the community in this fashion. Thank you.
Wali Rana
You just heard from Kenny Hughes, candidate for mayor of Nome for the 2025 race, Kenny, thank you for joining us.
Kenny Hughes
Thank you, Wali. Appreciate your time.
Wali Rana
Of course.
