Photo by Deb Gau City of Marshall senior engineering specialist Kim Jergenson, who is retiring, looks over plans for the Saratoga Street reconstruction project.

MARSHALL — Kim Jergenson has seen a lot of change in his years with the city of Marshall.

For one thing, he said, the tools of his trade have changed. When he first joined the city engineering department, preparing for street construction meant using a transit, a level and steel tape instead of GPS survey equipment.

“You worked off property pins,” Jergenson said. There weren’t any computer programs to assist with drafting plans, either. “You drew it by hand.”

But Jergenson said he’s also enjoyed his work a lot.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Jergenson said. “We have a great team.”

Jergenson, senior engineering specialist for the city of Marshall, will be retiring this week after a 39-year career. A reception was held for Jergenson last Friday.

Jergenson was hired by the city on April 16, 1979, as an aide for Duane Aden, the city engineer at the time.

Over time, Jergenson’s been part of a long list of city street and construction projects. The city of Marshall has grown in the past 40 years. When he started his career in Marshall, there were 55 miles of city streets, county roads and state highway in the city.

“Now, it’s just short of 95 miles,” Jergenson said.

The very first street he worked on, he said, was the construction of Deschepper Court in the late 1970s. After that, Marshall cycled through periods of expansion and reconstruction, he said.

In 1981, the city started doing a number of big projects, like the construction of Channel Parkway, Country Club Drive, and North Seventh Street. Independence Park was also built during the same time period.

When North Seventh Street was built out in the early 1980s, the current Archer Daniels Midland plant and the heavy truck traffic in the area didn’t exist yet.

“It was interesting to survey it to do plans, because you had corn 10 feet tall” all around, Jergenson said.

“Independence Park was just a farm field,” Jergenson said. It took a lot of digging — in 20-below winter temperatures — to turn that corn field into a park with ponds. “I believe they finished (digging) right around Christmas eve,” Jergenson recalled.

Being there during construction meant Jergenson also got a unique view of Independence Park.

“I got to drive around in the bottom of those ponds in a van,” he said.

In the 1990s, Jergenson was part of planning for another major project, the construction of a trunk sanitary sewer system serving the east and south sides of town. That sewer infrastructure opened up new areas for development — including the lots where Wal-Mart, Menards, and the Carr Estates development are today, he said.

“Now, it’s been a lot of reconstruction,” along with some big projects like the construction of the new athletic fields near the Red Baron Arena and Expo, and Memorial Park in downtown Marshall, Jergenson said.

“I like to do the reconstructions. I find them a little more challenging,” he said. One of Jergenson’s last major projects before retiring has been the plans for the reconstruction of Saratoga Street, which will start this year. At more than 50 pages long, “It’s also my biggest set of plans I’ve ever done,” he said.

Through all his work, Jergenson said he’s worked with good people and had a lot of fun. He’s also seen some interesting pieces of local history while working on city projects.

Once, while working in the alley behind the Wells Fargo building downtown, “We actually found a wooden water main in there,” he said. City work to expand the Tiger Lake drainage pond also uncovered old concrete structures from the railroad.

Although he’s retiring from the engineering department, Jergenson isn’t just going to take things easy. He said he and his wife are moving back to Swift Falls where he will help his brother farm.

“We’re going to miss the town,” Jergenson said. He’s also had fun with his work in Marshall.

“I enjoy it, I really do. But I can also tell it’s time,” Jergenson said of retiring.