About Us :

The Lake and Peninsula Borough was incorporated in April, 1989 as a Home-Rule Borough with a manager form of government. A seven-member Assembly acts as the legislative body for the Borough. Six members are elected by district and the Mayor is elected at-large. Staff consists of six full-time employees: Borough Manager, Borough Clerk/Special Projects Coordinator, Finance Officer, Community Development Coordinator, Economic Development Coordinator, and an Administrative Assistant. The Borough also utilizes the services of legal council, a lobbyist, a fisheries advisor, and two mining consultants who work on specific projects. The Borough currently exercises limited powers and services, which include public schools, area-wide planning and land use regulation, technical assistance on government and economic development, and assistance on capital and infrastructure development. The Borough is predominately rural and contains seventeen communities, six of which are incorporated as second-class cities. Village or Tribal Councils govern the remaining eleven communities.

History :

The Lake and Peninsula Borough region has been inhabited almost continuously for the past 9,000 years. The area is rich in cultural resources and diversity. Yup'ik Eskimos, Aleuts, Athabascan Indians, and Inupiaq people have jointly occupied the area for the past 6,000 years. Russian explorers came to the region during the late 1700's. The late 1800's brought the first influx of non-native fishermen and cannery operations. A flu epidemic in 1918 was tragic to the Native population. Reindeer were introduced to assist the survivors, but the experiment eventually failed. In the 1930's, additional disease epidemics further decimated villages. After the Japanese attach on Dutch Harbor during World War II, numerous military facilities were constructed on the Alaska Peninsula including Fort Marrow at Port Heiden.