For the past eight years, Parks and Recreation Director Kate Thomas has kept Wrangell in peak physical and mental form by fostering a welcoming gym environment where the community can swim, sweat and sustain each other through the long winter months. In the coming year, however, she will take her talents to another area of the municipal government.
As the new Economic Development Director, Thomas plans to improve the borough’s economic fitness by bolstering workforce development, securing Wrangell’s place in the maritime industrial economy and working with residents to implement their vision for the community’s growing tourism sector.
In her time as the Parks and Recreation Director, Thomas introduced in-kind memberships for school district faculty, offered swim lessons to elementary school students, and vastly improved the equipment in the weight room. Her proudest accomplishments, however, are the relationships she has developed with the youth of Wrangell.
“I have worked with over 200 part-time, entry-level staff,” she said. “They’ve helped me become a better leader. Some of these people were 16 when I hired them — now they’re 24 and we go out to dinner when they come back to town.”
She’s also proud of the department’s culture that she and fellow Parks and Rec staff Lane Fitzjarrald and Lucy Robinson have fostered together.
Working at Parks and Recreation has been one of the most rewarding experiences in Thomas’ career. However, she acknowledged that “opportunities like the economic development director job don’t come along very often.” She plans to utilize her years of experience as a borough employee to work toward Wrangell’s economic potential — while staying true to the desires of its residents. She’ll also bring her background in tourism and small business development to bear on the role.
Because of the job’s broad scope, she plans to spend her first year following through on the economic development projects the borough already has in play, like its comprehensive plan and community projects, and learning from the current director, Carol Rushmore, who is retiring.
“I have an opportunity to gain as much information as I can from a woman who has done an extraordinary job over the last 30 years,” said Thomas. “How rare is it that you get to learn the ropes from someone of her caliber … before they vacate their position.”
Eventually, Thomas hopes to become “an expert in all things economics and planning-related.” Her long-term goals include “expanding the borough’s outdoor recreation potential, securing our place within the tourism market, developing our waterfront and developing the (6-Mile) mill property.”
Thomas is working on an updated Parks and Recreation director job description, which will be submitted to the borough assembly in January. Once the assembly approves it, the borough will begin its competitive recruitment process. Though the borough plans to advertise the position widely, Thomas can think of “some folks with great potential in our community and more specifically, our department” who could take on the role.
Whether they’re recruited or promoted internally, the future Parks and Recreation director can expect to receive plenty of support from their predecessor. “I’m not leaving the borough, I’m just leaving the department,” Thomas said. “It would give me great pleasure and joy for (the new director) to need me like five times in the first year.”
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