Borough faces a time of change with new manager, superintendent

There will be two new faces in very powerful positions in the next few months. Kenneth Burnley is taking over as superintendent of schools July 1 and a national search will soon begin to find someone to replace Borough Manager John Duffy.

Burnley enters a fray that has teachers and classified employees unhappy with their contracts. As a result, the teachers are working to contract, meaning they will only work hours agreed to in their contract. That precludes grading papers at night and other extra work some had done as part of their daily or weekly routine.

There has been conversation recently that if something isn’t accomplished in negotiations, the work action could extend into the fall.

Burnley will have to start dealing with that as soon as he moves into his office.

The issues facing a new borough manager look no easier. John Duffy will be a hard act to follow. He has his detractors, but the new manager won’t get much of a honeymoon either.

Duffy leaves the borough having accomplished much, including many road projects, a prison under construction that means hundreds of jobs now and permanent ones later. He also got the ferry under way. That one has some people scratching their heads, but with time it may be a vital operation that will become part of the fabric of a new Mat-Su.

Both replacements need to be people with vision. The Valley isn’t falling backward. To keep pace, community leaders of all kinds, including politicians, need to make sure their decisions look 20 to 30 years down the road — literally. In this day, we should be able to predict where growth will be and start buying land for roads that will be needed in the future.

We should be looking at property now for new schools to address emerging population centers.

Anyone who was here in the early 1980s or before can tell what the Palmer-Wasilla Highway was like — a washboard-rutted dirt road with little commerce along the way. Now the drive is interrupted by one stoplight after another and businesses lining the highway nearly all the distance.

Had leaders then thought ahead of time, they might have envisioned more traffic and commerce between the borough’s two largest cities. Now, a highway that needs expansion likely won’t get it because buying lateral land is prohibitive.

Burnley and future school boards, in conjunction with Duffy’s replacement and borough assemblies, need to work together to chart a path to the future. Stagnancy will only result in unnecessary burdens for the next generation or two.