Here are the candidates seeking 6-year terms on PenMet Parks Board. Ballots are here

Two Peninsula Metropolitan Park District commissioners face challengers for six-year terms in the general election Nov. 2.

Maryellen “Missy” Hill, a former PenMet board president, faces Matt McKee, a Boeing software developer.

Steven Nixon, a retired assistant fire chief who has been on the park board six years, is being challenged by Joshua Hardwick, an accountant.

PenMet Position No. 2

Missy Hill

Missy Hill was elected to the park board in 2016 and served the last two years as president of the board.

In her campaign statement for the Pierce County voters’ guide, she emphasized her role in improving the district’s credit rating and setting in motion plans for a new indoor community recreation center.

She is a member of the Tacoma Narrows Airport advisory commission, the Gig Harbor Chamber of Commerce government relations committee, Rotary and Kiwanis. She is a board member of the Veterans’ Hope Center, a former vice president of the Greater Gig Harbor Foundation and a former board member of the Canoe and Kayak Racing Team.

Matt McKee

Matt McKee is making his first run at political office. A software developer for 35 years, he nevertheless has “a blue-collar mentality,” he said in his campaign statement. “I fix cars and spread gravel,” he wrote.

McKee emphasizes his credentials as a fiscal conservative, and criticizes plans for “large buildings that could be better established by private companies.”

“Given the current economic situation, I think we should be concentrating on essential services and not luxury items,” he wrote. “I also don’t think the government should be competing with private enterprise.”

McKee holds a bachelor of science degree in computer information systems from Devry Institute.

PenMet Position No. 3

Steven Nixon

Steve Nixon is a recently retired assistant fire chief with Gig Harbor Fire and Medic One. He has been on the park board six years.

Nixon emphasizes his role in strategic planning for the district’s future, and his efforts to provide a “fiscally sustainable approach to managing the district.”

“As a board member, I have worked to solidify funding to allow the district to support planning, acquisition and development of community assets,” he wrote.

Nixon has lived in Gig Harbor since 1971 “when I was a first-grader at Artondale Elementary.” He attended Bates Technical College and Washington State University. He has served as a volunteer with Gig Harbor Little League and as a parent volunteer at Artondale. He’s a member of the Gig Harbor Firefighters’ Association.

Joshua Hardwick

Josh Hardwick says he has spent a career in finance, accounting and technology, serving as a mortgage loan officer, financial controller for a local restaurant group, and as a computer network specialist.

An amateur actor with the Performance Circle and Encore Theater, Hardwick praises the district’s appeal to enthusiasts of outdoor sports, but says he would like to see a greater variety of activities in the parks, including the arts.

“We have 32 ball fields,” he writes. “As PenMet continues to grow ... it will be important to include new spaces, indoor and outdoor, that showcase athletics and also our community of visual and performance artists.”

Hardwick was housing coordinator for Youth With a Mission during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and volunteers as a middle school Sunday school teacher. A graduate of Peninsula High School, he has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Washington and an associate’s degree in computer networks from ITT Technical Institute.

This story was originally published October 25, 2021 at 5:00 AM.