Business View Magazine
5
Infrastructure
Octob r – Business View 113
did some thinking about sustainability in this town. It
does seem like it’s engrained into the DNA around
here.”
Meanwhile, looking ahead, he and his colleagues will
be doing just that… looking ahead.
Theyareputtinga lotof energy towardcomprehensive
master planning – where much has been accomplished
already for the city’s water, wastewater and storm
water systems – as well as for a city-owned landfill. The
work will yield strategic plans for utilities, so city leaders
have a clear path into the future and can see where
Walla Walla is headed.
“I think they are crucial documents to help with
the communication, the prioritization, funding, and
ultimately the conversation to help us serve the public
as best as we can,” Bealey said
An independent consulting engineer in the state for
more than a decade, Bealey headed to Walla Walla at
the request of a former client who called to gauge his
interest in taking over as director of public works.
Bealey conceded to needing a map to find the place
the first time around, but its charms in the years since
he arrived have far outweighed the migraines that
helping to run a city can sometimes elicit.
He now oversees a department with 66 full-time
employees, an operating, capital, debt service and
reserve budget of approximately $33 million and a
responsibility to handle the planning, programming,
construction, maintenance and operations of the
AT A GLANCE
WHO:
City of Walla Walla
WHAT:
Municipality of 31,731
residents – as of the 2010 census
WHERE:
Southeastern
Washington, 13 miles north of
the Oregon line; about 240 miles
northeast of Portland, OR., and 260
miles southeast of Seattle
WEBSITE:
city’s utilities (water, wastewater and storm
water), solid waste and streets/roads/traffic
signals/street lighting.
It’s a tough job that takes a reliable and
talented team.
“These people that I work with, I’m
fortunate to work with them,” Bealey said.
“They work really hard every day. Stuff
happens, for sure, and we don’t like it, but
we do our best to prevent it and then to get
it taken care of when it does happen. It’s
just one of those kinds of thankless jobs until
there’s a problem, and then it’s a complaint.
There really isn’t much of an in-between.”
The payoff comes in knowing that in 25
years, when people look around Walla
Walla – or any city that’s been studiously managed and
planned – they’ll know Bealey and his like have been
there.
“It really shapes cities,” he said. “They’re the streets
we drive on, we ride our bikes on, we walk on and
they connect us to everything else. If you don’t have
that infrastructure you really don’t have much of a city.
And you don’t realize you’ve got it until it’s gone. I love
getting stuff done and I love making the places I live
better places.”
