A Long Road

After more than 30 years with Lewis and Clark County and nearly 28 years managing the county's infrastructure, Public Works Director Eric Griffin is retiring April 15.

Griffin is the first and only Public Works Director Lewis and Clark County has had. Before he got the job, the departments that oversaw infrastructure were separate, but in 1994, the County Commission combined the Road and Bridge Department, County Shop, Rural Improvement and maintenance districts, Solid Waste, county buildings and the County Parks Department under the umbrella of a newly created Public Works Department.

"I look at it as, anything physical in the county is our responsibility to take care of," Griffin told the BVD.

Before landing the newly created position, Griffin had served as the county's building manager from 1991-1994. Before that he had spent eight years with Dick Anderson Construction after graduating from Montana State University in 1983.

"When I started, I had no help. It was just me. Then after about a year I got a finance person. That was critical because numbers have not been my game. You have to surround yourself with good people and I've always had good people taking care of our money, which is critical," he said. "The biggest challenge every year since the start has been being able to provide the same level of service with fewer dollars, like everybody has to deal with. Inflation and everything else going on right now is very difficult, it's kicking everybody in the head right now."

During his tenure, Griffin has overseen improvements to both the county's equipment, it's infrastructure and communication with community members.

"That first year... we had ten different motor graders of ten different kinds. That didn't make sense. Our equipment has definitely gotten better, due to implementation of our Capital Improvement Plan by our finance people," he said.

"I think our infrastructure is greatly improved, with all of our grants from the (Forest Land Access Program) grants and the forest highway, all of our bridge projects," he said. "I think with the county, we're doing a better job of trying to get people to understand what goes on and how we do it.

During his tenure, Griffin has dealt with plenty of challenges in the Lincoln area and has been a regular fixture at Lincoln Government Day and community council meetings.

"In this community we've experienced floods, fires, earthquakes, and snow. We don't get the snow in the other parts of the county like we do here. Lincoln is the big snow country," he said, and admitted that's presented challenges over the years, particularly when the county had to handle both Stemple and Flesher Passes, before the state took over the job of plowing state secondary roads like Highway 279.

"We had to take care of those two passes. The valley was always second fiddle. We didn't do as good a job as we could have because we didn't have the staff," he said.

Afterward, the county was able to concentrate more on dealing with the snow on Stemple Pass and the roads around Lincoln.

Over the years, Griffin may not have always been the most popular person at some of meetings here. He's dealt with contentious discussions about snowmobiles on county roads, criticisms about the condition of Lincoln's streets, subsequent "interesting discussions" about the creation of the Lincoln Rural Improvement District in 2004, backlash against a 2012 plan to return Copper Creek Road to a gravel surface and, most recently, the issue of the Dalton Mountain Road Bridge.

"I'd like to see Dalton Bridge done (before retirement) but it ain't gonna happen," he said.

Despite some difficult meetings, County Commissioner Andy Hunthausen said Griffin's been great at helping the commission respond to the public.

"'Yes' is not always the answer," he said. "But at least he was responding to the public and trying to understand their concerns and wishes and understanding what we can do."

"We've kind of gone full circle in Lincoln," Griffin said. "Years and years and years ago it was always a difficult meeting to come to in Lincoln. It was always very difficult. I think over the years, from commissioners and staff, we've worked very hard on our relationships with everybody, be it in Lincoln, Augusta, Wolf Creek or the Helena Valley."

Hunthausen, who's worked with Griffin since 2006, said he's always been a strong advocate for the rural areas of the county, even if people haven't realized it.

"We could have everyone (in Public Works) in Helena and say 'OK, go out and grade the roads in the Lincoln area and come back.' But he has really been committed to saying we need people in the community who understand the community and the needs of the community."

Zach Muse, who has worked extensively with Griffin in his roles with both the Upper Blackfoot Valley Community Council and the Lincoln rural Fire Department, isn't sure people appreciate how much Griffin has helped Lincoln over the years.

"When we want something, no matter how outlandish it may seem, he'll go to bat for us. If someone says 'no, you can't do that,' well we tried," he said. "He always backs us. A lot of things have been done here because of him Just the amount of work we get done for as little as we pay in taxes."

Muse worries what Lincoln's relationship with Public Works will be like after Griffin retires. The new guy or gal has some huge shoes to fill. He left a pretty good legacy, his crew is real good, so I think we'll be OK."

Who will fill those shoes remains to be seen. Last week Hunthausen told the BVD the commissioners aren't involved in the hiring process, but he believed it had been narrowed down to three candidates.

Looking ahead to retirement Griffin said he and his family are going to go south for a while to decompress, and they have a busy summer planned. Then he'll take it one day at a time.

"As this type of job needs, you can only take it one day at a time. It's hard to get past the one day at a time.

In his final weeks on the job, Griffin has been working on some of the things he wants to take care of before his final day. "I have to carry my staff's vision forward. They have some big vision projects. I want to be sure I carry that forward. I want to get all my employees and managers evaluations done because they'll have a new boss come April 16," he said. "My staff is real important to me, (and) that they're well taken care of into the future."

"I hope I've created friendships in this community and the people I work with," Griffin said. "They're all amazing people. You're only as good as the people who work with you, and the people I work with are outstanding individuals."