By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News
Price City mayoral candidate Michael Kourianos joined the KOAL newsroom to discuss his campaign, platform, and what he aims to accomplish if elected.
Speaking first on his decision to run for reelection, Kourianos explained its,” because I care, you know, it’s hard work, but I care about people. People in the community, people who work for Price City, I think that is the driving force behind me, is trying to resolve the issues at hand and try to take care of them.”
Having served as Price’s mayor since 2018, and working at Pacificorp since 1979, Kourianos shared how these experiences would benefit him if reelected: “Working in industry is very important to me because Price City has the electrical, it has the water, it has all the infrastructure that sustains the needs of our community. Just like a power plant has all the equipment that makes the electricity, I look at the city in the same way. And it’s addressing those issues with the knowledge that I have coming forward and addressing them so that it doesn’t impact our citizens.”
One primary task faced by the council and mayor each year is managing the city budget. Kourianos discussed how he would approach this Herculean task, “The budget is a really complex thing because, like I said, with water, with sewer, with the electrical, we’re always faced with different problems that were not budgeted, that you don’t foresee. And so you have to come up with those solutions and find that money. That’s a moving target, and that’s where I think that we collectively as a mayor, council, directors and employees are listening to resolve those issues so that it doesn’t impact our citizens.”
Looking to the future, Kourianos gave a preview of his plans for the next four years if reelected, “Water is at the top. Price City has been a sponsor of a reservoir, and a lot of people, as I talk to them, don’t know about it. And I think the main thing is communicating to our citizens about this. We want to make sure that we’re going to become a sustainable community for industry, because industry needs a lot of water, and that’s getting everyone to support and sustain this community at the federal, state, and local levels. And that’s the thing, we’ve worked on the local, we’ve worked on the federal, the NRCS has been a great champion to us. That’s this reservoir project for sustainability for our future is something that we definitely need.”
He continued,” The next thing is the sustainability of our drinking water. In Price City, we just approved $15 million for a water transmission line that I had been working on for two years. And that came to fruition. The next thing is our water plant. That’s the other challenge. I have a solution to it that won’t impact our citizens like this transmission line. We are looking at ways as a team – it’s not just me; I can’t give the credit to myself. We have different engineering firms and people who are a lot smarter to come up with solutions. That’s my focus in the next four years. But the other part of it is, as we transition from a new energy, coal and coal-fired power plants. Those are the things that I’ve been very vocal about for our community.”
An issue faced by Price City over the past year has been communication between first responders, namely police officers, and the city council and mayor. Kourianos described how he would attempt to bridge this communication gap: “That’s an important topic in this whole process, which is finding the right way to communicate to all of our employees about their concerns and what’s important to them. Their livelihood is important to me and the council. I think trying to be supportive and create ways that will benefit our employees because we’ve got great employees from streets and water to sewer to our first responders, I can’t be happier.”
The candidate added,” That’s the main thing, making sure that their voices are heard and making sure that we let them know what we’re working on, too. That’s a hard question to make sure that we’re answering all those questions and communicating. If anybody has a solution to this problem, I’d love to have it, because I think that as we look at our community, our citizens, our employees, what is the best source?”
Closing our conversation, Kourianos answered why he thinks citizens of Price should use their vote this November for him,” I’m not finished with the projects that I’m working on and passionately working on and putting the hours and the time in. If elected, I will put that time in, because for the last eight years, I have been working in their best interest, trying to curb those needs and their concerns of keeping their rates, water rates, electrical rates, everything low.
This article does not serve as an endorsement for the candidate featured. All candidates in the 2025 municipal election cycles are entitled to one free interview. To schedule, email news@koal.net.