Anchorage Assembly to weigh naming AWWU headquarters for longtime manager Mark Premo

The Anchorage Assembly takes up a recommendation Wednesday, Nov. 4, to name the Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility (AWWU) headquarters at 3000 Arctic Boulevard the "Mark C. Premo AWWU Headquarters Building." The city's Public Naming Commission voted 5-0 to recommend the name, according to a commission memo dated Oct. 22.

The Assembly has a public hearing on the proposal scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 1.

Premo led the utility as general manager from 1990 to 2011, longer than anyone else in that job. The proposal was submitted Aug. 14 on behalf of the Premo family, the AWWU board, community and industry leaders and AWWU employees. The commission received 49 written comments, all in support.

Family members, current and retired employees and leaders of national water groups wrote letters included in a 64-page packet filed with the commission. Under his leadership, AWWU received more than 75 national, statewide and regional awards, the packet states. Letters say his tenure spanned six mayoral administrations and that Premo served as president of the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies.

Craig Woolard, who led the American Water Works Association in 2009 and 2010 and later succeeded Premo as general manager, wrote that "Mark's greatest contribution was not any single project or technological achievement," pointing instead to the culture Premo built.

Mark A. Corsentino, general manager from 2019 to 2025, wrote that "one of the greatest testaments to Mark's success is the fact the AWWU General Manager today is a graduate of both AWWU's internship program and the UNC Leadership course." His letter says Premo helped found that course, a water and wastewater leadership program at the University of North Carolina.

Premo also pushed for an independent utility board, created under municipal code in 2005. Brian I. Crewdson, his assistant general manager until 2006, wrote that Premo championed it. The code provision was repealed in 2011. A former utility general manager who served from 2013 to 2019 wrote that the repeal led to Premo's resignation. That letter also says AWWU grew from more than 40,000 accounts when Premo took over to more than 55,000 by 2011.

The commission found the proposal meets city policy requiring a person be dead at least 36 months before a public place is named for them, and that the name would not replace an existing one. The headquarters was built in 1968. Letters in the packet say Premo remodeled and expanded the building to bring administrative, engineering and customer service staff under one roof.