Grier Hopkins
Mayor · Fairbanks North Star Borough
38 articles · 4 transcripts · 18 clips
Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska
Mayor Grier Hopkins was born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska, and grew up in Goldstream. He served in the Alaska House of Representatives from 2019 to 2023 and is serving his first three-year term as Fairbanks North Star Borough mayor, having been sworn in on October 24, 2024.
Affiliations
Fairbanks mayor seeks $200,000 in borough savings for 2028 Arctic Winter Games
Fairbanks hosts the Arctic Winter Games again in 2028, and the borough mayor wants $200,000 in savings to help raise the more than $6 million it'll take.
Fairbanks borough mayor proposes capping whole-home short-term rentals
Fairbanks' borough mayor wants to cap whole-home short-term rentals and charge $250 a room to register them, saying they've shrunk the housing supply.
Fairbanks mayor proposes waiving school district's pool fee to keep kids learning to swim
“Swimming is a critical life skill in Interior Alaska, where residents regularly recreate around rivers, lakes, and other waterways.”
Fairbanks planning staff back data center pause and urge a 40,000-square-foot threshold
Fairbanks borough planners back the mayor's pause on big data centers and want it to reach smaller ones, starting at 40,000 square feet instead of 50,000.
Fairbanks' new comprehensive plan won't ban data centers, despite calls for one
Fairbanks' new 20-year plan won't ban data centers, though many comments asked it to. Planners say a ban there is legally problematic; rules would come later.
Fairbanks borough panel backs grant bids for a Chena Lake loop and a Tanana Lakes trailhead
A Fairbanks borough panel backed grant bids to start a paved loop around Chena Lake and add a toilet and better parking at Tanana Lakes' Flicker Trailhead.
Fairbanks adopts flood maps that take about 2,900 buildings out of the high-risk zone
Fairbanks adopted new flood maps that take about 2,900 buildings out of the high-risk zone and put about 540 in. Salcha comes out ahead; Moose Creek doesn't.
Proposal deadlines have passed on two Air Force plans to lease Eielson land
Bids were due this summer on Air Force plans to lease Eielson land for AI data centers and for housing. Fairbanks' mayor flagged it in July. No winner yet.
Fairbanks borough mayor proposes pause on large data center permits through 2027
Fairbanks' mayor wants no big new data centers permitted through 2027. Houston already hit pause, and Petersburg is drafting a pause of its own.
Fairbanks commission may send Assembly a report on SS Nenana restoration
Fairbanks' preservation commission may report to the Assembly on the SS Nenana's restoration. Its chair has raised concerns the record doesn't spell out.
Fairbanks senior commission to consider asking mayor to speed up a Senior Center bus shelter
Fairbanks Senior Citizens Advisory Commission votes Thursday on asking Mayor Grier Hopkins to move a covered bus shelter at the Senior Center from 2037 to the next few years of the capital budget.
Fairbanks gets $728,000 in congressionally directed funds for a 14-stretcher ambulance bus
“our EMT service is all borough-provided outside of the city of Fairbanks”
Seventeen foreclosed Fairbanks properties sold, 25 drew no bid
Fairbanks sold 17 tax-foreclosed properties last month. One of them, assessed at $146,019, went for $12,120 — a hundred dollars over the minimum.
Fairbanks ordinance would shift board appointments from Assembly to borough mayor
Mayor Hopkins would gain power to appoint most borough board members now split between the Assembly and Fairbanks and North Pole, under an ordinance the Assembly takes up Wednesday.
Fairbanks would require union labor agreements on big borough projects
Fairbanks wants union-negotiated labor agreements on borough projects over $3.5 million, using an ordinance copied almost word for word from Anchorage.
New flood maps would end mandatory flood insurance for thousands of Fairbanks properties
New flood maps would pull 2,343 more Fairbanks structures out of the high-risk zone than they add, ending mandatory flood insurance for thousands.
Fairbanks borough weighs a $303,346 replacement ambulance
“our EMT service is all borough-provided outside of the city of Fairbanks”
Fairbanks would spend $1.2 million more to defend the pipeline's value in court
Fairbanks would pour another $1.2 million into defending the pipeline's assessed value in court — a decades-old fight over a tax base that funds its schools.
A dollar-a-year lease would help stand up an American Legion post near Alaska's first state veterans cemetery
A dollar-a-year lease would help build an American Legion post in Salcha, beside Alaska's first state veterans cemetery — a 257-acre site for 12,000+ vets.
Fairbanks voters will weigh banning voting machines for hand counts
Fairbanks voters decide Oct. 6 whether to ban voting machines and hand-count all ballots — an initiative its backers call cost-saving and its critics contest.
Fairbanks borough moves to study rural emergency coverage it flagged in 2018
“But our EMT service is all borough-provided outside of the city of Fairbanks.”
Sterling residents want to tax themselves for recreation
“get service to people who want to tax themselves to provide it but are currently struggling to join existing service areas”
Fairbanks rally targets data centers as Air Force pursues Eielson lease
Air Force is exploring AI data center leases at Eielson while a community group rallies Saturday against 15 proposed statewide data centers over power grid and revenue concerns.
Fairbanks weighs doubling a rec area and shifting trail approvals to staff
Fairbanks may nearly double the Isberg Recreation Area to 740 acres — and let future trails get built through staff review instead of public hearings.
A reserve cap just cost Fairbanks schools $11.4M. Now officials are fighting it.
Fairbanks officials are taking on the reserve cap that clawed back $11.4M from schools this year — a fight between planning flexibility and keeping money in taxpayers' pockets.
What Fairbanks wants from Juneau — and why it costs more up north
“We are currently paying between $24 and $26 per MCF for natural gas for our 3,500 ratepayers in the Interior Gas Utility System.”
A vacant Fairbanks school's fall reopening hinges on a vote — and an unsigned charter
A vacant Fairbanks school could reopen as a charter this fall — if the Assembly says yes Wednesday and the charter group finally signs a district contract.
Failed concrete keeps Fairbanks' Wescott Pool closed all summer, cost climbs
Bad concrete will keep Fairbanks' Wescott Pool closed all summer, pushing reopening to November — and the fix just cost another $837,000, over $12 million total.
North Slope, Fairbanks, Valdez sue over pipeline tax values
“the borough here only has 2 miles of line going through it. So even at the full 20 mills, if we were taxing at that full rate, would be only about $400,000 worth of revenue.”
Alaska's LNG tax break now hinges on a gas line to Fairbanks
“We don't need more gas, we need affordable gas.”
Anchorage's mayor told Senate Finance LNG could cost "tens of millions of dollars"
“The biggest impact we would see in terms of road usage would be our emergency medical services, our EMS services along the road.”
Fairbanks spur line language added to Alaska LNG tax bill
“That language is currently in Senate Bill 2001 and has been agreed to between the Fairbanks North Star Borough and Glenfarm, the developer.”
Alaska House examines $4 billion LNG equity option, Fairbanks spur-line tax break
“the spur line in this language as it is right now is— it's an eligibility requirement. If the spur line is not being permitted by the developer, by the time that they're getting constructed, they would not get access to the full tax break that is being debated”
Alaska LNG Project Shifts Focus to In-State Gas, Delays Export Phase
Alaska LNG delays exports, focuses first on supplying in-state gas from North Slope to Cook Inlet. • Lawmakers debate tying tax breaks to a required gas line serving Fairbanks. • Company warns narrow financial window and limited pipeline capacity pose challenges. • Governor says tax breaks are needed to compete with cheaper energy projects elsewhere.
House panel ties Alaska gas line tax breaks to Fairbanks spur line
“This new committee substitute corrects that by conditioning those tax benefits on delivering real statewide value through getting Alaska gas to Alaska— Alaska gas to Alaskans at the Alaska price.”
House panel hears Fairbanks road service area reform proposal
House panel heard a bill to let second-class boroughs reshape road service areas without two concurrent elections, a process that has failed 60 percent of the time.
State employee per diem frozen since 2010 despite 40% inflation
House Bill 300 would raise state employee per diem rates frozen since 2010 from $60 to $82 per day, with automatic adjustments every three years starting in 2029.
Mayors Oppose Alaska LNG Tax Bill, Cite Revenue Concerns
Five Alaska borough mayors told lawmakers the proposed Alaska LNG tax bill would slash municipal revenues by up to 90 percent, prompting the Senate to delay it for further review.