Borough manager says farewell to Wasilla chamber

WASILLA — If John Duffy is any different today than he was before he announced his retirement, it didn’t show at his last address as Mat-Su Borough manager to the Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce.

As he has many times in the past, Duffy said that in his view, the Valley should recognize it’s coming into its own. The population here has exceeded state projections consistently and is on track to soon become the second-largest municipality in the state. There’s a lot of potential.

Duffy also didn’t miss the opportunity to crack a few jokes at Tuesday’s gathering. On the subject of the M/V Susitna, the borough’s recently completed fast-moving, ice-breaking ferry that will be spending the winter in Ketchikan, Duffy said the designers wanted to go with a staid paint job.

“We said, ‘No way man, because then it will look like the Marine Highway System,’” Duffy said, explaining the somewhat striking swirling yellow lines running down the ship’s hull.

In introducing Duffy, Bert Hall said he’d made a call to Alaska Municipal League officials to ask if they could name a municipal manager who had served longer than Duffy. They couldn’t. The nearly 10 years Duffy will have put in when he leaves this summer might well be a record. Hall said the average is 4.5 years for a manager.

In his time, Hall pointed out, Duffy has overseen most of the Valley’s explosive growth. The population has increased five-fold since Duffy started working in the Mat-Su, and has more than doubled since he signed on as manager.

Duffy said the borough had a number of projects to be proud of that were completed on his watch. Two, he pointed out, were schools built to a national standard of energy-efficient design — Machetanz Elementary School and Su Valley Jr./Sr. High School.

But the soon-to-be ex-manager spent most of his address looking forward. One of the main topics of his conversation was a rail line to Port MacKenzie. The line, he said, would be key in accessing heretofore-unreachable resources. He cited University of Alaska Fairbanks studies showing massive mineral deposits in the state’s interior.

“We’ve got Afghanistan beat hands down,” he joked, referencing the recently announced $1 trillion in untapped mineral resources discovered in that war-torn country.

Just the cement deposit near Livengood, he said, could supply 15 percent of the country’s cement.

Duffy said he believes the rail project and the jobs it will spawn is one solution to the state’s most pressing problem: dwindling oil resources.

He also mentioned the prison being built in the Point MacKenzie area.

“It’s moving right along,” he said, before pointing to a photo of the half-constructed interior and joking, “They’re almost done with my padded cell.”

Another long-term project he felt was showing progress is the ski area at Hatcher Pass. Duffy said the borough has money in hand to build a road into the Nordic ski area and construct Olympic-class trails, a biathlon range and a warming hut.

Duffy also said a few things about the perceived rivalry between the Port of Anchorage and Port MacKenzie. He said the borough’s port has a few advantages over Anchorage’s port. The water is deeper. There is a huge swath of land above the docks just waiting to be put to industrial use as a staging area. The borough owns the tidelands.

He said there is a notion that the port will compete with Anchorage’s. But he feels they’re in different businesses. Port MacKenzie is an export hub. Anchorage is an import hub.

“People are concerned about it. They’re concerned about us. And I’m saying they shouldn’t be.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.