End of the line

La Crosse Tribune, Mar 28, 2005 by Kent, Joan

During a blizzard in the late 1990s, the LaCrosse Public Works Department got an alarm that signalled trouble with the city's radio system, including police and fire communications, on Grandad Bluff.

Public Works Director Pat Caffrey went home, got his snow shoes, and walked through drifts that were 10 feet high in places out to the alarm, then located at the end of the bluff.

In 2001, when flood waters pushed at the city's dikes, Caffrey worked day and night to oversee city workers who patrolled to see that the dikes held.

And on a Thanksgiving eve in the late 1980s, he worked all night and joined workers who crawled inside a collapsed pipe to patch leaks. He remembers it was 20 degrees, and they were all soaking wet, and happy when a Salvation Army canteen arrived with hot drinks.

Caffrey, who was known to spend 55 to 60 hours on the job, retired Thursday after 29 years with the city. People in and out of City Hall say he will be greatly missed.

"It's been a pleasure working with that guy," said Laurie Alexander, daughter of Harry Viner and secretary of Harry Viner Inc., which has contracted on jobs with the city. "He is very good to work with, in helping people out and getting jobs done."

"He is the ultimate public servant," said Mayor John Medinger. "He's very professional, but also very understanding to the, people who come in City Hall. He knows the big, multimilliondollar stuff, but is also sensitive to someone who didn't get their garbage picked up. He is just a real good guy. I've enjoyed working with him."

Caffrey came to work for the city in September 1975. He had one job before, studying the environmental impacts of landfilling solid waste for the University of WisconsinMadison's Institute for Environmental Studies, after obtaining his master's degree in civil and environmental engineering from UWMadison.

He hadn't originally intended to go into government, and started college with a double major in math and physics. But after a summer job in construction, he switched to engineering. And in graduate school, he took a municipal engineering option that provided background in subjects like water and sewer.

When he started in City Hall in the Engineering Department, he figured it would only be for a couple years. But that lasted 11 years and then he was made waste water superintendent and then head of public works, over eight departments including streets, recycling, water, sewer, parking, grounds and buildings, public works and engineering.

"It's certainly going to be a vacuum," said City Planner Larry Kirch. "He is very professional, extremely hard working, and dedicated to the city and to the people who work for him. He respects the work they do and the people around him respect the work he has done. He works 20 years in 10. He's always there, in more ways than one - for the city and the people who work for him."

Caffrey's favorite memories include scuba diving in the Mississippi River to learn about clams when dredging was proposed near Green Island, and rappelling over a cliff to check the stability of rocks after a huge rock came loose.

The public works director job has gotten tougher in recent years as the city has cut positions due to tight budgets. There were 18 fewer people in public works than when he started in the department, and 38 fewer people than there were in 1960, Caffrey said. And meanwhile, the number of miles of streets and number sewer mains and lengths of pipes has increased, he said, noting the addition of Valley View Mall, and growth along Hwy. B and on the southeast edge of the city.

And then there's the politics. "It's a challenge," Caffrey admitted. "But we've been able to keep much of the decisionmaking objective, like paving streets based on need, not on what district they're in. It has not been as bad as I thought it would be because most elected officials try to do what is best for the city as a whole, not for their electability or political issues."

He has seen his role as "giving factual information to the elected officials so they can make decisions," Caffrey said. "I think if I tried to reinforce my personal opinions, the credibility suffers."

The public in general has been good to deal with, he said. "But there are always some that think that whatever is proposed, you are the opponent, and they can be very nasty at times," he said.

In retirement, Caffrey plans to do volunteer work with the Hixon Forest Nature Center and Mississippi Valley Conservancy, build an addition on a house he and his wife own in Trempealeau, Wis., and do more of the outside activities he loves including hiking, canoeing, biking, nature photography and woodworking. "I've bought a sawmill," he said, "and I like the idea of doing a piece all the way from the tree to the finished product."