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Eau Claire's new transit leader coming from AlaskaJul 15, 2009 (The Leader-Telegram - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- There's no bus line connecting Alaska to Eau Claire, but the new transit manager will be making that journey. Michael J. Branco, 27, will move in the next few weeks from Ketchikan, Alaska, to the Chippewa Valley to head up the city's bus system. He finishes up two years as transit manager for Ketchikan Gateway Borough (similar to a county) July 23 and will start his job in Eau Claire Aug. 3. "I was looking for that next step up," he said Tuesday evening in a phone interview with the Leader-Telegram. The bus system in Ketchikan is small, Branco said, with just five routes during the warm season and shrinking to three in winter when tourists leave. The borough has a population of about 14,000. Branco flew to Eau Claire on June 28 and received a phone call June 30 from Brian Amundson, Eau Claire public works director, who offered Branco the job. City Manager Mike Huggins confirmed Tuesday that the city's Human Resources and Public Works departments selected Branco in late June to succeed Gwen Larson. Larson worked for nine years as transit manager and is moving to eastern Wisconsin to work as a transit consultant. Branco said his experience in securing grants and improving facilities would work well in Eau Claire. He recently headed a project that brought federal funds to Ketchikan to pay for bus shelters built by local contractors. "That was our emphasis, to stay local on putting up bus shelters," he said. Branco acknowledged his career path to public transportation has been a little odd. "My resume's really strange, but it worked out the best," he said. He graduated from Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall with a bachelor's degree in speech communication with an emphasis in radio and television. From there he worked for computer firm Gateway in Sioux City, S.D., before moving to Ketchikan to manage a Movie Gallery video rental store. He later was hired to be director of the local senior citizens center, which included coordinating paratransit services. That made him interested in public transportation, and he applied to be Ketchikan Gateway Borough transit manager when the position opened two years ago. Branco is in the process of getting his master's degree in public administration through the University of Alaska. Branco and his wife, Michele, have three children: twins Madelynn and Mitchell, 5, and son Marshall, 2. The new job will bring Branco and his wife closer to their extended families in the Midwest, and he said they were looking for a change of scenery. Though his family moved around the U.S. while he was growing up, Branco calls Minnesota home. Ketchikan grabbed national headlines a few years ago for a federal pork-barrel project dubbed the "Bridge to Nowhere." Alaska politicians proposed a multimillion-dollar bridge to connect the town to neighboring Gravina Island, which has only about 50 people and an airport and is already served by a ferry. Dowd can be reached at 833-9204, 800-236-7077 or [email protected]. To see more of The Leader-Telegram or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.leadertelegram.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Leader-Telegram, Eau Claire, Wis. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |