Suffolk City Manager Al Moor is retiring at the end of July, capping a more than 40-year career in public service.
Moor was appointed city manager in 2021 after more than half a year as the interim. He’d worked as Suffolk’s director of public utilities since 1995, coming to the city after 11 years working for Norfolk.
WHRO spoke with Moor about the decision with the Delaware-born administrator, who said the time felt right to join his wife, Cecilia, in retired life.
This interview was edited for time and clarity.
Nick McNamara: What's it been like for you to serve the city of Suffolk all of these years?
Al Moor: A blessing, I guess. I've been blessed with finding the opportunities to grow in my professional career. It went by fast, or it seems to have gone by fast. But I think the service that we do, there's no better service unless you're a nurse. But, I mean, it's the relationships you build along the way and the things you accomplished; the problem is we don't take those moments enough to sit back and see what we really have achieved because we're always pushing forward.
But, to me, it's been a great opportunity. I've (had) great people around me, great mentors, great staff, great peers, the support of city council and the support of the citizens. We have a great community here and, as we like to say, it's a great time to be in Suffolk.
NM: Suffolk is growing fast, which means good revenue growth for a city; but that also that comes with infrastructure challenges. How would you rate your ability to strike a balance between growth and keeping up with growth?
AM: When I arrived here there were 58,000 citizens. Today, there's around 105,000 approximately. So we have seen the growth over the years, over that 30 year span; and a couple times it was rapid, other times when the housing market crashed, it was a little bit slower. But we've been fortunate to be able to leverage funding to do certain improvements, such as Route 58 improvements which are coming to an end; the Shoulders Hill work that's just starting up there – or has been underway for a bit, actually; the flyover on Wilroy Road that's nearing completion. So everywhere you ride in Suffolk right now, you'll find a construction barrel.
I think what's driven and helped us balance that is our land use plan; that has driven our growth into two areas, which now have merged into one urban/suburban development area under the new plan. So I think planning is the one thing that helps us balance it, both from a land use plan, a utility plan, a transportation perspective and also our capital improvement plan. I mean, all that comes together to help us reach that vision of our city.
NM: Is there a project or an initiative that you wish could have gotten started, that you wish you could have seen through, but you weren't able to accomplish?
AM: There is one that really is dear to my heart, and that's an Amtrak station in the core city.
We as a region, we talked about – and when I've been to some of the meetings on the rail system and Virginia fast rail initiatives – if you're west of the Elizabeth River and you want to go to Northern Virginia, (and) say you're in Suffolk; it takes you 40 minutes to go down to Harbor Park to catch the train. Then you travel another, by train if it leaves as soon as you get there, 20 minutes (to) a half hour and you're coming right back through downtown Suffolk.
If you add those times together, you'd already be sitting in Richmond. So I think an Amtrak station out here in the western part of the Hampton Roads region would be a great benefit not only to Suffolk residents, but those residents in northern North Carolina, or even west of us to Isle of Wight; even in Chesapeake, if you're on the western side of the Elizabeth River. Our rail systems are missing some ridership which would really just benefit us all as we talk about transportation links.
