Borough honors Jay Nolfi with park dedication

MAT-SU — Even if you’ve been living under a rock, it’s hard to miss the influence Jay Nolfi has had on the Mat-Su Borough. And if that rock happens to be the large boulder at Fish Creek Park in Big Lake, the large plaque proclaiming the area as “Jay Nolfi Fish Creek Park” makes that inescapable.

The Mat-Su Borough will officially dedicate the park to Nolfi, a longtime borough political presence and tireless volunteer, on Saturday. For the feisty 89-year-old woman, the designation is confirmation that her decades of community service have not gone unnoticed.

It’s a long way removed from where Nolfi thought her future would take her when her husband, Adrian, returned from a tour of duty in Alaska during World War II. They both had grown up in Pennsylvania coal mining country, and his skills were needed in the Last Frontier.

“You’re not going to believe this, but he came back (from his service) and one day he says, ‘’you know, I’m not going to do this anymore. I’m going back to Alaska,” Jay recalled. “He said, ‘You want to go?’ That was his way of asking me to marry him. So, we came to Alaska and lived in Palmer with some friends he made when he was up here.”

That was in 1947, the same year that found Jay working at the state Department of Taxation (now Department of Revenue) when it was a two-person office. She would go on to raise a family and embark on a lifetime of community service in the Mat-Su. That service includes two terms on the Mat-Su Borough Assembly from 1993-99, six years on the borough Ethics Board (five years as its chairperson), president of the Big Lake Chamber of Commerce, president of the Big Lake Community Council, an officer for the National Secretary’s Association and a Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman Civic Person of the Year.

Shortly after moving to Palmer, Jay said she knew she didn’t want her husband working in the local coal mines. She would hear whistles come from the mine signifying accidents, “and I knew what they meant,” she said. “I played like I didn’t know for awhile, but I knew.”

So the couple moved to Anchorage and started working for the state.

“There were just two people in the department back then, the director for the whole Southcentral area and me,” she said. “Then the director I worked with was put in jail for embezzling funds, so I was put in charge for nine months.”

Although Nolfi did a good job acting as the department’s director, the governor and her gender kept the position from becoming permanent.

“He wouldn’t give me the position permanently because — and this came from the governor — I was a woman and was apt to have children. So I said, ‘I quit.’”

Jay and Adrian, who was eventually named to the Coal Miners Hall of Fame in Sutton and passed away in 1997, continued to live in Anchorage raising their family. But that doesn’t mean Nolfi curtailed her instinct for civic involvement. Like many who lived in Alaska at the time, she became involved in the campaign for statehood.

“I was very supportive of it,” she said. “My husband and I both worked as hard as we could to make it happen — of course, not in a very meaningful way, as I was still a housewife.”

When Alaska won statehood in 1959, Nolfi recalls the elation exhibited in parties in the streets and a large bonfire.

“It was tremendous — the joy, that bonfire said it all. It was like burning the past when we couldn’t vote for a president. It was a very joyful event,” she said, joking that, “I sometimes wonder now if we were right.”

Community service

The Nolfis moved back to the Valley in 1979, settling in the Big Lake area, which sparked what has been more than three decades of relentless community service. Along with her terms as an elected official, she volunteers regularly with numerous groups. In fact, although now 89 and acknowledging her time is growing shorter, it was Nolfi’s own dedication to improving and preserving Fish Creek Park that helped spark interest for naming it for her.

And her work continues. Although the park will be dedicated Saturday, she’s already working to improve it. She’s secured $8,000 from the state Legislature to help build an enclosed bandstand, and is working to raise another $60,000 to complete the project. Service, she said, is a vital part of living a happy life.

“Actually, I don’t think life is fulfilled completely unless you offer your service to the public, and I really mean that,” she said. “I’m a great supporter of volunteerism and I know we’re a much better community when it does happen. Big Lake right now is a very, very thriving community. People are moving in, buying huge homes for their retirement.”

That doesn’t mean she has lost interest in local politics and policy. She continues to be a fixture at borough assembly and other board meetings. And she’s not content to be a silent bystander. She regularly questions and grills assembly members about their decisions.

“She’s not only there, she sits in the front row, too,” said Assemblyman Mark Ewing. “She always speaks her mind and I think she’s very conservative. I agree with those beliefs. But she’s still keeping an eye on the borough, and I think that’s wonderful after all these years.”

Nolfi’s attention to detail keeps local government on its toes, Ewing said.

“She’s an icon,” he said. “She’ll pull you aside and spank you when you’re out of line. She points out things that are sometimes overlooked and has a lot of experience in this borough.”

When asked what reaction local boards and councils have when she attends their meetings, Nolfi chuckles.

“Above all, I just want to keep tabs of what is happening,” she said. “I read body language. I think they all by now recognize that fact. Let’s put it this way, I think they probably wish I would have to depend on crutches to get around, which would mean I wouldn’t be at the meetings. … I’m only kidding.”

“I enjoy talking to her,” Ewing said. “Every once in awhile, if you step out of line, you get a little butt-kicking, but that’s fine. That’s her job. It’s too bad there aren’t more people like Jay Nolfi.”

Lasting legacy

When confronted with the idea of having a park named for her, Nolfi said the experience is a little surreal.

“Oh, I pass this park on my way home every day,” she said. “It’s a beautiful park. It’s going to be very, very nice. We’ve got all new swings set up and gazebos built. I can’t believe that it’s happening. All the time I have done any volunteer work, I have never for a moment expected any praise. I did it because I wanted to do it and I wanted it to be good. I am certainly overwhelmed.”

What she envisions Jay Nolfi Fish Creek Park becoming is a nice place to host community events and a destination for local seniors. Although many Valley organizations are dedicated to youth, she said she thinks there needs to be more places for seniors to go and more for them to do.

“What’s a nicer place to sit than by a bubbling brook in a park with the elderly sitting in a wheelchair,” she said.

While Saturday is Jay’s day, she’s still the same watchdog everyone has come to admire at the borough, Ewing said. “I think she opposed spending borough money to change the signs at the park.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.