PRESQUE ISLE – If you ask Jim Brown to single out the most satisfying project in his 22 years on the job with the city, he’ll tell you that it’s a simple little sidewalk between University Street and Green Hill Drive.

Brown, 57, is retiring officially on Oct 13, but his last day on the job as director of economic and community development is July 28. He said this week that he is proud of many projects in which he has taken part on behalf of the city, including the establishment of a Wal-Mart store and the Aroostook Centre Mall, as well as revitalization efforts in the downtown.

But he said that, though his colleagues like to rib him about it, the little sidewalk project is the one of which he is most proud because it symbolizes why he has spent about a quarter-century in municipal planning.

“I watched university students who lived at the Presque Isle Inn and Convention Center and people who worked at MBNA have to walk along that road,” he remembered.

“That road” is U.S. Route 1, and Brown noted that the lack of a sidewalk there was always a safety concern. He said the city had to work closely with the Maine Department of Transportation on the project, since it had to borrow some of the state’s right-of-way to complete the sidewalk.

What he treasures about the project is that, regardless of how big or important it was, everyone brought a high level of support to the table to get it done, and it improved, in a simple way, the lives of many people.

“When I started here, I set out to make sure anyone coming through the door had an equal opportunity for information and the maximum amount of support we could give them,” Brown said. “That’s probably the one thing I’m most proud of.”

Brown has worked for the city of Presque Isle since 1984 and took on the position of director of planning and development in 1992. In the years since then, he has overseen an office that has grown from five employees devoted to planning and development to six employees among the four different departments he now oversees administratively: code enforcement, emergency management, tax assessment, and planning and economic development.

During his tenure, he has done his share of grant writing; developed the Presque Isle Development Fund, which now stands at $1.8 million; was instrumental in the update of the city charter; and was an integral player in the development of north Main Street.

“He’s worn a number of hats very, very capably throughout his career with the city and we’re certainly going to miss him,” City Manager Tom Stevens said this week. Stevens announced Brown’s retirement during the Presque Isle City Council’s meeting on Monday night.

With a City Council focus on economic development and with its decision last year to create a new city planner position, Stevens said that in finding a replacement for Brown, the city may shift the office’s focus and the job description for a new director more toward planning and development.

Brown said that with all the coming changes, this seemed to be the time to go.

He said he has his great-great-grandfather’s Civil War diary to publish and a long list of things to do around the house, so he isn’t worried about staying busy in retirement.

But when he talks about brainstorming with co-workers on a project and how the ideas start flying because everyone in the room is targeted toward the same goal, his eyes light up.

“Anything I’ve been able to do here has been a direct result of the caliber of the people I had the opportunity to work with,” he said.

And that makes him pause and look down intently at his hands.

“I’ve just enjoyed working for the city so much,” he said quietly. “I hate the prospect of leaving, but it’s time to go.”