Alex Plechash for Wayzata City Council

To my fellow Wayzata residents,

With the support and encouragement of my wife, I have decided to throw my hat in the ring for Wayzata City Council and I am asking for your support.  For those who know me well, this comes as no surprise.  It seems most of my adult life has been about service and community ... lots of them.  When I moved to Wayzata in 1994, it was the twelfth different state in which I had lived, in addition to two deployments overseas, since graduating from Annapolis in 1975.  However, Wayzata is now my permanent home.  It’s a great place to live and I want to help keep it that way.

Most of my adult life has been spent in service of one type or another.  First as a Marine Corps fighter pilot and air combat tactics instructor.  Then, upon leaving active duty, and outside of my work in corporate America and the financial sector, I continued to serve in a variety of capacities.  For instance, as a deacon at Christ Presbyterian Church in Edina, I had the privilege of leading its largest outreach program called Families Moving Forward and was able to introduce that program to St. Hubert’s Catholic Church where my wife was a member at the time.  Our faith is important to us and on any given Sunday we can be seen attending both Mass St. Bart’s in Wayzata and CPC services in Edina.

My wife and I are a team, and we are uniquely conected to Wayzata in that we have been serving together as volunteer firefighters on the Wayzata Fire Department since 2006.  Denise is the only female in the department.

Education is also very important to me.  I am currently an Admissions Officer for the Naval Academy and when I interview candidates, I see the quality of education that our students receive.  Although I didn’t realize it at the time, I was the product of a top quality public education system in Oak Park, IL and it served me well.  In my last year at Annapolis, I was the top Marine officer in my class and was nominated for a Rhodes Scholarship.  I also had the privilege of receiving both a Burke Scholarship and a Guggenheim Fellowship for postgraduate study at Princeton, Cal Tech and MIT.  Knowing of my dedication and concern for education, I was appointed to the board of the Perpich Center for Arts Education in Minnesota by then-Governor Tim Pawlenty which was confirmed by the State Senate.  I have a little more than one year to go in my second term.

Lastly, I have a strong connection to the veteran community; not only as the Chapter President and nationally elected Trustee of the U. S. Naval Academy Alumni Association, but also as the President of Minnesota-based Tee it up for the Troops, Inc. an organization I have been affiliated with since 2007.

I welcome your comments and hope that I will earn your vote this November.

LtCol Alex Plechash, USMC (ret.)