The Borrough's New Community Development Director gets ready for area-wide projects

Eric Phillips has been the director of the Borough’s Community Development now for a little over a week. He’s at the top spot for the Department which is responsible for all the trails, parks, libraries, and land resources in the borough. As the Communies of Trapper Creek, Susitna, and Talkeetna all continue to strive to bring facilities and improvements to their communities, Phillips says his approach is to listen to what people want.

1: [audio:https://ktna.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/1CommunityDevMgr11.mp3|titles=1CommunityDevMgr11]

Much of Eric Phillips’ background has been working with smaller rural communities  doing project development. Before ending up in the Mat Su, he was assistant city manager in Valdez. Before that, he had several years working in non-profits, and he says most of which involved getting people what they needed.

2: [audio:https://ktna.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/2CommunityDevMgr33.mp3|titles=2CommunityDevMgr33]

He has a background in recreation in recreation and environmental resource management. He says the goal of any project is to bring a variety of viewpoints in to agreement.

3: [audio:https://ktna.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/3CommunityDevMgr33.mp3|titles=3CommunityDevMgr33]

Phillips says he’s started the process of making his way to all the communities to see the facilities and structures, visit the parks and trails, and meet the people Mat Su.