Mayor Ryan served first on the Planning Commission, then as a City Council member before 24 years as mayor.
“I originally ran because my uncle had trouble with local government and he says, ‘Tom can anyone straighten this out?’ He was really disgusted,” said Ryan.
Ryan says guiding Blaine through a period of exponential growth is his biggest accomplishment. But it didn’t start out that way.
“You know I was pretty much elected by a group of people that wanted to stop growth in Blaine,” said Ryan. “They said let’s just close Blaine up. It didn’t take me two weeks to figure out that wasn’t going to happen.”
The city had just 30,000 people when Dick Swanson was first elected to the council in 1993.
“It was a small-town feel. The sod fields were still here, The Lakes didn’t exist,” said Swanson.
Now, Blaine is one of the fastest-growing cities in the metro. Ryan says the population is headed to 80,000 plus in the near future. Both men say none of it was possible until engineers figured out how to create neighborhoods out of a flat landscape.
“Those places would have never had a chance to develop until technology changed, which is moving water out of an area, digging a pond, and moving it back, bringing the water back in,” said Ryan.
Swanson says they managed to grow while avoiding most growing pains.
“One of the big accomplishments I think that Tom and I have managed to pull off along with the rest of the council, is we managed to go from a small town to the major metropolitan city we are right now without going through blood bathes of councils being wiped out, and major citizen battles,” said Swanson.
Swanson also points to the current improvements underway on Interstate 35-W as a major accomplishment that was 20 years in the making. He’s been a supporter of building an extensive trail system and he’s served on the North Metro Cable Commission for more than 20 years.
“This is a major asset for all the communities involved in North Metro [Community Television] not just Blaine,” said Swanson. “To have this type of facility and the quality of staff we have here to do things like the elections and work with the schools is something not every community has.”
Mayor Ryan is known for his work on veterans and senior causes. The Veterans’ Memorial Park across from city hall is named after him, as is the dining hall at the senior center.
“I’ll still be cooking their dinners in the summer for picnics,” said Ryan. “They certainly deserve it after what they’ve been through. Everybody’s been through trouble this year.”
Both men agree working with people is what they will miss the most. Swanson says meeting them one-on-one is the best way to get a feel for the community.
“I’m a retail politician,” said Swanson. “I go out and I pound doors. The last election I knocked on 7,000 doors.”
One piece of advice that helped Ryan through the years came from his father.
“He always said to me, use 15 percent of your heart, and 85 percent of your brain, and you’ll be just fine. You’ll get along with people really well. And I love working with people,” said Ryan.
Both men expect the city’s growth to continue. They did not run for re-election this year.
