The Observer, January 2006
Long-time Valdez resident takes board seat
George Levasseur, a commercial fisherman and retired official of the state Department of Transportation, has joined the citizens’ council board as one of two representatives of the city of Valdez.
Levasseur was nominated by the Valdez city council in July and seated at the board’s September meeting in Seward. He replaces Dr. JoAnn McDowell, who left the board last summer to move out of state. She had served on the board for over eight years.
In applying for the seat, Levasseur wrote the city council that he was an avid sportsman who loves to fish and hunt, and knows “that protection of these resources and environmental issues is vital to us and to future generations.”
He has lived in Valdez for over 30 years. He participated in the response to the Exxon Valdez spill of 1989, as well as a spill in Thompson Pass the previous year and in the more recent Windy Bay spill in Prince William Sound.
Levasseur worked for the state transportation department for 20 years ending in 2004. He was a manager and maintenance engineer.
He is a commercial fisherman and, with his wife, owns halibut and black cod quotas, and runs charters for halibut and salmon. In addition, he has long served on the board of the Valdez Fisheries Development Association and is a past board member of the Prince William Sound Aquaculture Association.
The other Valdez representative on the council board is Connie Stephens.