PAGE – Few people dedicate as much of their time and energy to public service as Brian Carey.

He’s outspoken, does his homework, and passionate about what he does. He’s a fighter and not afraid to butt heads.

Born in the San Francisco Bay area, he moved to Florida at the age of 10, went to high school in Miami, then studied biology at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina. From there, he began his career with the National Park Service.

Carey worked with NPS Everglades National Park in Florida, Biscayne National Park, and Canaveral National Seashore.

“My office was a mile and a half from the launch pad. We were right on the border with the Kennedy Space Center,” Carey said of Cape Canaveral. “It was a pretty cool experience to see million-year-old sea turtles nesting on our beaches and the 20th-century rockets right behind them.”

Carey worked at Canaveral for 10 years and has a patch collection of all the launches he witnessed.

After working in Florida, Carey transferred to Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park in Texas. Before coming to Glen Canyon, he worked at Chiricahua National Monument in southeast Arizona for a few years. Carey became the deputy superintendent for Glen Canyon National Recreation Area – temporarily – from August 2008 to February 2009, then returned the following October on a permanent basis, also making Page his permanent home.

Since then, Carey has served the Page community in many capacities, volunteering his time to various committees, boards and nonprofits. After he retired as deputy superintendent of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in 2013, Mayor Bill Diak asked him to join Page’s newly formed Parks and Recreation Advisory Board.

Carey was on the board for two terms and served as chair most of the six years. 

He said, “We had a good crew throughout the time and a good partnership with City staff to get a lot of things done that you now see in the community – the skatepark, improvement at Golliard’s Park and Children’s Park and Sports Park Annex, different recreational issues that we got involved in, and producing the master plan that should be guiding the rest of the development for the city of Page through about 2025.”

Carey was elected to Page City Council in 2020. He brought an extensive list of strategic priorities to the table, by far the longest compared to other current council members.

The Chronicle asked if he could pick only one goal he’d like to accomplish as a council member, what would it be?

Carey responded, “I have to speak in general terms if it’s just one thing, that would be to leave the city and better shape socially, financially, infrastructure-wise than it was before I was on the council. In other words, to make a positive contribution … I’m the kind of person who thinks we should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time.”

Carey continued, “Everything from growing our park system, including some type of aquatic recreational facility to increasing our housing stock, especially modestly-priced homes, to better integrate ourselves with the larger world in terms of our political and community partners, state, federal, county.

“We tend to isolate ourselves in Page and pretend nobody loves us and a lot of times it’s self-imposed because we don’t put ourselves out there and get involved in the wider community.

“You have to be in the room when decisions are made, and you have to have friends and partners before you make a request.”

When asked about self-reflection and the experience of working with the council, Carey said, “It’s a city manager form of government.

“My role in the latter part of my career was what would be a chief operating officer in a corporation. I was in charge of the operations of the units, so used to getting people together, deciding what gets to be done, and making sure it gets done.

“With the council, we are involved in setting the policy, setting expectations, but we’re not involved in actually making sure that things get done. That is the city manager and staff’s role. So, I’m trying to work best and in that and understand what my role is. It’s going to be a learning experience as well.”

As busy as Carey is, he still finds time to hike, travel and explore new places. He said he and his wife like to mix it up and see new places each trip. They have a travel trailer and would like to visit the Dakotas and the Pacific Northwest.

He refers to his trailer as a “COVID-coach” because it reduces some of the risks involved in traveling during a pandemic.

Carey said, “It is quite handy to not have to go into any public restrooms or restaurants or things like that. You can be pretty self-contained in these travel trailers.”