UTICA - Next week Utica Mayor Tim Julian will officially hand the keys of the city over to mayor-elect David Roefaro.

Julian says the past seven and a half years went by in the blink of an eye. But it all began with a big gasp of surprise in the summer of 2000.

When most new mayors take office, there's snow on the ground. But when Tim Julian took office, there were fireworks. That's because the job fell into his lap after former Mayor Ed Hanna resigned without prior warning on July 3, 2000.

"I'll be on my deathbed thinking of that night, that's for sure," Julian said.

There was no transition period - Hanna was gone, and Julian was on his own. He met with department heads. He was their boss, but listened intently as senior city hall workers shared valuable experience. In time, the native Utican found his groove.

And now as he prepares to leave office, there will be reminders on city streets he'll now walk as a civilian - reminders of the things he's most proud to have helped bring about in his seven and a half years in city hall. Among them - Colonial Square - senior citizen apartments later to be joined by single family and cottage homes on Trenton Road in north Utica.

"Taking a field that had been vacant and empty forever and turning that into $28 million retail development," he described it as.

Julian is also proud of the fact that property values soared during his time in office, and proud of helping bring Utica National and roughly 200 jobs to downtown. Company leaders say Julian's leadership was essential in getting them downtown. But one of Julian's biggest regrets while in office can also be found downtown.

"Obviously, the parking situation in downtown Utica, the federal grant that's tied to that, very difficult to push that through," he said.

While it was unnerving going to bed as the common council president and wake up as mayor just seven months after the election, Julian would like to think that unexpected turn of events actually helped shape the kind of mayor he became.

"Whatever I gave, I gave honestly, and I gave my 100%," he said. "I think that I was able to do that because of the way I got in here - I didn't have to make a million promises, I didn't have to do 1,000 favors for everybody who helped me get to where I was."