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.”
He’s faced a unique challenge in Walla
Walla, a city of nearly 32,000 residents
whose population has grown steadily in
each of four 10-year increments since it
stood at 23,619 for the 1970U.S. Census. It
ticked up 8.5 percent by the time the census
was done in 1980, and rose another 3.4 and
12.1 in two subsequent population counts
en route to reaching 31,731by 2010.
It was incorporated as a city in 1862, and
city leadership over the years has been
particularly effective in dealing with
infrastructure issues like drinking water
treatment and wastewater processing. The
64 | BusinessWorld |
June-July 2014
