Public works director retires

PALMER -- After a decade of working in the Mat-Su Borough and a career spent in the field of public works, Mat-Su Borough Public Works Director Jim Swing retired last week.

Swing had a history in public works before he reached the Mat-Su Borough. He began his career in the private sector, but shifted into public service 20 years ago, when he took a job with the Municipality of Anchorage's public works department. Swing said he began working with the Mat-Su Borough in 1993 when the position came open.

"I took the Mat-Su job because we had a home up here and I wanted to live and work in the Valley," Swing said.

At a retirement party held in his honor, Swing said he's seen considerable change in his department -- and in the mindset about public works services.

"When I first came on, the landfill was a place where you drove in and dumped," Swing said. Today, workers carefully cover over the debris and dumping areas are lined to collect potentially dangerous runoff and allow it to be carted away for disposal.

It's an achievement Swing said he's glad to have been a part of. The updated landfill and an aggressive paving program that has meant laying down asphalt on about 300 miles of road in the Mat-Su Borough -- nearly one-third of the 1,025 miles of borough-owned roads in the Valley -- are two accomplishments Swing said make him most proud.

It's likely Swing will continue to play a part -- if a less prominent one -- in borough public works actions. Dan Graham, who has worked as co-director with Swing for the past two weeks to learn the ropes of the multi-layered job, said he plans to keep Swing's number handy. Graham had worked under Swing as the department's engineering division manager for six months prior to his appointment as director.

An engineer in Alaska's mining industry, a 1988 University of Alaska Fairbanks graduate sole proprietor of an engineering consulting firm, and area manager of a large consulting firm in Anchorage, Graham said he feels lucky to have the opportunity to be the new public works director. A lot of positions that open up in the public sector, Graham said, are entry-level positions and taking one would be a step backward.

As the borough's public works director, Graham will oversee a year-round staff of about 35 and about 20 seasonal employees. The department has an annual budget of between $8 million and $10 million -- not including construction projects. It encompasses borough road maintenance and construction, reviewing subdivision design and platting, right-of-way permitting, solid waste, limited water and sewer operations and maintenance, community cleanups, and various project management duties.

Graham, with his wife and two children, moved to the Valley in 2001. But he's no stranger to Alaska. He's been living and working in interior Alaska -- primarily Fairbanks and Healy -- since 1983.

In the past few weeks, Graham said, he has identified a few areas he'd like to concentrate on as he moves into the director's chair. He'd like to streamline the platting process, he said, and focus on maintaining and improving the area's watershed and water quality and address some of the borough's transportation and traffic flow problems.

"I'd like to … concentrate efforts to make sure we move those issues along," Graham said.

Another area Graham said has become a focus of discussion both at the borough and within the community, is on preserving open space. It's a decision Graham said needs to be made, but by borough residents.

"I think the borough is at a real crux right now," Graham said. "We still have that rural look. I just think it's a decision time. If we want to retain that, then we need to develop that way."