CARY PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES DIRECTOR TO RETIRE AFTER MORE THAN 2 DECADES OF SERVICE

CARY , NC – Town of Cary Public Works and Utilities Director Robert K. (Kim) Fisher is retiring from the Town of Cary after over 22 years of service.  His last day of employment with the Town will be March 31, 2007 , and a national search is underway for his successor.

When Fisher joined the Town of Cary in 1984, Cary’s population was approximately 31,000, and the Town served about 9,000 utility customers.  At that time, it took just under 90 positions and a departmental budget of $3 million to provide the high quality public works and utilities services that Cary is known for.  Today, just over 400 department positions and $47 million are budgeted in service to Cary ’s 117,000 citizens and 43,000 utility customers.

“Kim has been an outstanding leader, valued member of our organization, and good friend; he is a person of vision and compassion,” said Town Manager Bill Coleman. “He is one of the smartest and most dedicated people I know, and he will be sorely missed.”

Under Fisher’s leadership, the Town of Cary successfully:

•  Combined its public works, utilities and parks maintenance activities into a single department;

• Established nationally recognized water conservation, curbside residential solid waste recycling, water treatment, and wastewater pretreatment programs;

• Built the state’s first municipal reclaimed water distribution system, which serves residential as well as commercial sites;

• Built the region’s first thermal biosolids dryer;

• Developed sufficient water supply capacity and wastewater treatment capacity to serve its projected customer base through 2025;

• Planned and developed the Town’s Operations Center complex for all public works and utilities operations;

• Built and subsequently expanded the water plant it co-owns with Apex;

• Expanded the treatment capacity at both the North Cary and the South Cary Water Reclamation Facilities;

• Successfully transitioned from twice a week backyard garbage collection to once a week collection and most recently to curbside garbage collection; and,

• Successfully merged Morrisville’s water and sewer utility system with Cary ’s water and sewer utility system.

Regarding his decision to retire, the 62-year old Fisher said he’s looking forward to spending time with his daughter, son-in-law and new grandson who live in San Francisco .  Other items on his to-do list include seeing more professional baseball games, traveling, bicycle touring and snow skiing throughout the country.

“It has been a real honor and privilege to work with such a terrific group of people in service to Cary citizens,” he said.

Those interested in being considered for the upcoming Public Works and Utilities Director vacancy should visit the Human Resources section of www.townofcary.org later today.

###