TWO RIVERS – Since the swearing-in of new Two Rivers City Manager Kyle Kordell, Greg Buckley has officially handed over the reigns of leadership as he looks forward to a retirement enjoying the community he spent the past 30 years guiding and helping to build.
Before his retirement started, Buckley sat down with a reporter from the Herald Times Reporter July 31 to talk about his accomplishments and connection with the Two Rivers community.
Here’s what he said. Some answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.
What made you decide to retire this year?
Well, you know, it’s time. I’m 67 years old now. I had been thinking about it for a while. I wasn’t dead set on hitting a 30-year anniversary, but when I realized I wanted it to be this year, I thought, well, that would be kind of cool. That’s a landmark anniversary.
Bearing in mind that the City Council would be going through a recruitment process, I thought — well, that wasn’t my primary motivation, but as for the time of year, that means they’d be doing a search and then interviews in May into June. We look really good in May into June. I remember coming here and interviewing in May 1995. That was part of it.
It’s just time. I’m rounding out 30 years in Two Rivers, 44 years in city management and in different capacities. I want to enjoy some personal time, retirement time with my wife and family. This is home now, and I look forward to getting out and enjoying the area more during the day, during the warm weather months. Doing the things that you see people out doing. You know, bicycling at the beach, kayaking on the rivers, all those great things. This is a very high quality of life community. So it’s about time to kick back and enjoy some of that high quality of life.
Looking back on your career, what are some of the accomplishments that stand out?
I’m especially proud and appreciative of the City Council’s support and the community support for the reinvestment we’ve done in the city’s infrastructure. You know, Two Rivers, we’re an older community. I think there’s been a lot of deferred maintenance on our infrastructure.
In my time here — again, it’s thanks to the support of the elected officials, the community and a heck of a staff team that we have — we’ve been able to reinvest in our roads, our utilities, our bridges. We upgraded the water filtration plant, goodness, 25 years ago to ultra filtration. So we can assure a very high standard of quality with our water. There have been major upgrades at wastewater.
Replacement of three bridges, most notably the 17th Street lift bridge, which is a local bridge. We were able to secure an $8 million federal earmark and about another $3 million in state funding. There’s about $3 million in local funding in that $14 million project. That was very fortunate because council at the time, in about 2010, determined it was in need of replacement. It is a local bridge, not on a state or county or federal highway. It was also pretty much noted that it should be a lift bridge to hopefully allow for more redevelopment of the waterfront. Hamilton was still there at the time, and it was it either had to be a lift bridge, which is very expensive, or no bridge at all, which really would have posed some some problems as far as circulating around the community, direct access to the beach, that sort of thing.
Rebuilding and working with the state to rebuild Washington Street downtown. Quality of life infrastructure investments.
Mariners Trail would have to rate very high on that list. That was over 20 years ago now, but about a $1.3 million project, largely funded through transportation enhancement dollars from the state. That’s a little over 5 miles of asphalt, but it’s magic. That little space next to the highway along the lake is the place where so many people, locals and visitors, enjoy being alongside Lake Michigan.
I’m very proud of the reinvestment in the parks in recent years, like the improvements at Neshotah.
The Central Park West project dedicated in 2023 — that was a huge lift by the community, about a $1.8 million project about $600,000 or one-third of that city money. The balance from the generosity of community support.
Early on in 1997, we dedicated the new Lester Public Library. That was, again, the generosity of the Lesters with a naming gift, a challenge grant, if you will, to the city. Going on 30 years later, our library is still a source of great pride to the community. The programming that was made possible with a modern facility, the incredible grounds, the programming that the staff does out of that facility.
So, there are there are a lot of infrastructure investments, but at the end of the day, I think the thing I’m proudest of has to be the people, the staff/team we have here that I just feel provides an outstanding level of service to this community. We’ve got some really stellar department heads and people through all of our departments that perform at a very high level and are always looking out for what’s best for Two Rivers. They do a good job with their budgets. They seize on funding opportunities to leverage those outside funding sources to the benefit of the community. Without exception, our people here do a fine job.
We have a very strong staff team and I like to think we’ve fostered an environment where people feel they can succeed. They can innovate, they can take some prudent degree of risk in doing their job, and then trying new initiatives, experiment with things programmatically. That’s paid off in a lot of ways. For a small city, this small city does a lot.
It does it, too, because we’re a traditional community, we’re community organizations, individuals, businesses’ support. This summer, yet again through Parks and Rec (Parks and Recreation Department), we offer an amazing variety of downtown concerts Thursday and Friday nights, bands on the beach, a stellar Fourth of July Independence Day program at Walsh Field. There’s over $35,000 in community donations and contributions that support those efforts, and that all goes to enhance quality of life. We couldn’t do it all alone as a city just from tax-funded sources. Not to mention that all the volunteers that help out, whether it’s at the Senior Center or the library, lots of lots of things there.
Is there anything you’re not going to miss about this job?
I’m not going to miss having meetings just about every Monday night. I’m not necessarily very good at work-life balance and this is a job that does command a lot of hours. It’s been a joy, but it will be nice to have Monday nights and a few other nights of the week free.
I love the degree of public contact. This is a good community. It’s a good place and I hope, even as we’ve seen changes in things over the years, it’s been done with the respect for the traditions and the values of Two Rivers.
You know, we went through a council-led project with the rebranding, but at the end of the day, it still is, I think, very true to the values of the community. Innovation, entrepreneurial spirit, respect for history.
It’s not one of your questions, but certainly one of the tougher things to see over the course of 30 years was the last of Hamilton. The beating economic heart of this community for well over 100-120 years.
Nobody can say it wasn’t something you saw coming because there had been a lack of reinvestment in facilities. But that wasn’t just an economic blow, it was really a punch in the gut to the community because people’s parents, grandparents, you know, generations that worked there. There was a lot of pride and identity wrapped up in that industry. The Two Rivers Community Band was the Hamilton Band originally, the J.E. Hamilton Community House.
I think we’ve also seen, in the wake of that blow … we’ve also seen that this community is resilient. It’s dusted itself off and looked around and said, you know, we’re in a pretty beautiful place and Two Rivers going to be OK.
We’ve seen some changes. We also see people moving to this community all the time and making investments here because they like what they see. They believe in the community and they see positive forward direction. It’s not always going to be the same as it was 50 or 100 years ago, but there are opportunities here. There are people that want to move here and make some things happen and we see that with individual investments around the community. So, I look forward to living here in retirement.
I have the highest hopes for Kyle Kordell as the new city manager. He and his family, they’re excited and enthusiastic to move to the area and for him to begin his duties on Monday (Aug. 4). So yeah, it’s been a good run. It’s been a good run. I love this place and I have been very — I’m very grateful, seriously, to have had the opportunity to serve here.
When you started, did you think this was going to be a long-term career?
Well, you know, city managers typically have — I think the average tenure is still under six years. It’s a fairly transient profession.
I remember we were considering the offer, made a trip here as a family. Our daughter Libby was 2, going on 3, and I remember sitting on the swings at the playground at Magee school and saying, “Well, should we do it?”
It felt like one of the loneliest times in our lives. You know, you’re looking at picking your family up and moving a decent distance, 300-and-some miles. For some reason, that sticks with me.
And earlier this year, we were watching our granddaughter Hazel, who’s just turned 3 years old, so she’s about the same age her mom was. We went over to Magee school to play on the new playground equipment. We sat on the swings and we both commented, “Remember this? It must be time for a change.” Because they just got all-new playground and we’re still here. So I don’t know, I think that was — what’s the word I’m looking for? That was certainly, that was a metaphor — it’s time for a new swing set.
So no, to answer your question, we didn’t anticipate staying as long, but there’s always been a challenge here with the job and this place captured our hearts as well. It’s a good place to be.
It’s a great community, a safe community. There’s a sense of history, a sense of place. The access to the water here, public access, whether it’s the lake or the river corridors. The incredible natural environment that we live in with the state forest, Woodland Dunes, Van der Brohe Arboretum, the magnificent beach. What’s not to like?
Alisa M. Schafer is a reporter for the Herald Times Reporter in Manitowoc. She can be reached by email at aschafer@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: After 30 years as Two Rivers city manager, Greg Buckley says ‘it’s time for a new swing set’
Reporting by Alisa M. Schafer, Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter / Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter
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