When Tim Dillon first joined the board of directors for the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District, or KPEDD, in 2008, he had a vision for the organization.
“When you sit on a board, sometimes you look at things and you say, ‘If I was ever in charge, I would not do it this way,”’ he said.
In 2016, Dillon got the chance when he was named executive director of the organization, which works to kick start local businesses, support existing ones and bring money to both incorporated and unincorporated peninsula communities. He has worked to realize his vision for KPEDD ever since.
“So that’s what we’ve tried to do for the last eight or so years,” he said. “Change the brand of who KPEDD is, and what we do here.”
Dillon will retire from the director role at the end of the year.
He spent more than 25 years working in sports and entertainment before coming to Alaska to work on the Arctic Winter Games. That project connected him to Alaska leaders, and eventually led to him becoming the city manager of Seldovia, the peninsula’s smallest city.
His legacy at KPEDD was celebrated publicly by the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly and several municipalities in the months leading up to his retirement. Current Special Projects Manager Cassidi Cameron will take over the director role.
Dillon said in addition to rebranding the organization, one of his proudest achievements at KPEDD has been distributing millions in CARES Act funds during the pandemic. In many cases, he said, that involved working directly with individuals, often with no technology experience, to help them complete the online application process.
“We brought in over $50 million dollars to the Kenai Peninsula, out of $240 million statewide. People were able to use it to keep their lights on, to keep their heat on, to pay their mortgage or pay their rental,” Dillon said. “Even though we have all those other projects and things, sitting across the table and looking in somebody’s eyes and knowing the hurt they were in and knowing you were gonna do your best to help them, that I really feel good about.”
He said identifying sources of federal funding and making sure the Kenai Peninsula is in the running for them has been one of the most critical parts of his job, and one that sometimes means putting politics aside.
“Periodically, I’ll be criticized because of the monies we do bring in. And I sit here and I look at it and say, ‘I’m not for all these different programs, but if there’s an opportunity for the Kenai Peninsula to get it, versus somewhere in the Lower 48, well then my job is to make sure it comes to the Kenai Peninsula. And let's keep the politics out of it,”’ he said. “The bottom line is, our community needs this, the opportunity is there through the federal government. And one way or another you’re paying for it. So if we’re paying for it, I want our community to benefit from it.”
Dillon retires at the end of the month, and Cameron officially takes the helm with the beginning of the new year. She isn’t just Dillon’s successor to the KPEDD director role; after moving to Seldovia 16 years ago, she worked as a bartender, water utility employee and city administrative assistant before eventually becoming city manager, like Dillon.
“I came up to try Seldovia for just a year, that’s what I told my parents, and history started to rewrite itself for me,” Cameron said.
She joined the KPEDD board, then came on as a full-time staff member four years ago.
Cameron said her goal is to maintain the work that Dillon set in motion. Right now, she’s planning KPEDD’s annual industry outlook forum. Normally hosted in January, it will be in late April this year in Soldotna.
Additionally, Cameron said she’ll oversee the next three years of rolling out money for mariculture development, a revamp of KPEDD’s website with more geography-based resources and a focus on bringing more broadband coverage to the peninsula.
“And then we’ll be continuing the work that Tim has done in terms of networking, going to our communities, understanding what they’re looking to do,” she said. “We tune into their capital improvement project plans, they update them every year. We hold them on our desks as a placeholder, and we find funding for them to pursue and get their projects done.”
Dillon will maintain his office in the KPEDD building, but work on select projects as a private consultant. He said he’s looking forward to slowing down, and being picky about which causes he takes up.
You can listen to the full interview with Dillon and Cameron on The Kenai Conversation.
