by Sue Orsen
He's been on the job as city administrator of Victoria almost a full year now, enough time for us to begin to gauge where his heart lies.  The heart of Steve Sarvi lies in the right place.
It was tugged to that place in his childhood by a military father, a foster care mother, and a hero grandfather.  It swells in that place today for many reasons, but especially because of his wife and three children.  And now, to the benefit of another little corner of the world, a portion of it has come to grow in Victoria. 
Whether Steve Sarvi's heart will remain in Victoria for the short term or the long term, its dwelling place is pertinent to us, for he is today a leading man of the city, a city father, and his vision and perspective become part of Victoria's heritage as well as Victoria's future.
"My dad was a marine," said the 36-year old city administrator.  "He was a demanding father, but he helped us set goals.  He was a product of the Depression.  His mother had come over from Germany in the 1920's when Germany was in anarchy and poverty.  They would get Deutsch-marks by the wheelbarrow and use it to wallpaper their homes.  They got picked on here in the United States because they were German."
Steve knows that Victoria's heritage is also German. "People of Victoria are strong and focused," he said.  "They are determined, and the city council reflects that.  We have a determined council."
"My mother was a stay at home mom who went back to college when the kids left home," said Steve.  "She earned her master's degree in social work and is a national authority on Alzheimer's."
Steve's memories as a child include many foster children, especially one named Jenny because his parents adopted her.  "When we lived in New Jersey we took in quite a few kids," he said.  "Most of them were infants and their stays with us were for short periods of time.  Jenny came to us when she was a toddler, maybe three or four.  She's five years younger than I am."
Steve, who has an older brother and sister, remembers well when his family was given permission to adopt Jenny.
"I remember going into the judge's chamber," he said.  "We had to speak to the judge, as siblings, about what we thought about having another sister.  I was impressed to see a court room and a judge's gavel.  I was impressed that my opinion got to mean something.  I remember Jenny was sitting on my lap when the judge talked to me."
Does Steve remember what he told the judge?  "I told him that I thought it would be great to have another sister, that I loved her, and it would be nice if we got to keep her."
Steve said that the courtroom experience was the first time he realized that something bad happens to some kids.  "My mom used to always tell us what great kids we were for being kind to other children and what great parents we would make," he said.  "It was good to be someone's friend even though they weren't going to be with us for very long."
Another party responsible for the condition of Steve's heart was his grandfather.  "My grandfather was my pal," said Steve, who smiled at his memory.  "He was my hero.  He took me fishing and taught me how to play golf.  He had a '57 Olds and a gas station.  He let me wash windows for his customers at the station.  I enjoyed hanging out with the old guys. 
"One time my grandfather, who was a Concord, New Hampshire, policeman, helped capture somebody who was on the FBI's Most Wanted List.   Toward the end of his life, he knew he had leukemia and that he wasn't going to make it, but he still wanted to buy a Camaro.  The dealer loaned us a brand new red one to drive in his funeral procession."
When Steve looks back on the many places around the country that he lived as the son of a marine turned salesman, it's hard for him to say just where he grew up, but his favorite grandfather immediately comes to mind.  "I think I was raised in Concord, New Hampshire, because that's the one consistent thing in my life.  It's where my grandparents lived.  I sort of think of that as home more than anyplace else."
Was it difficult for a young boy to be moving from city to city and school to school?  "It wasn't so bad, and I got to see a lot of the country," replied the man with the good heart and positive attitude.

Stephen Sarvi was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on January 30^th, 1965, third child of Al and Joyce Sarvi.
"My father worked for Cargill," he said.  "He started in the rock salt division and then became vice president of the steel division.  He traveled a lot and was gone about two weeks out of every month.  We moved to Chicago, to Cincinnati, to Pitts-burgh, to New Jersey, to Massachusetts, to upstate New York, and then to Mound, Minnesota."
Steve attended his four years of high school at Mound Westonka, graduating in 1983.  At the age of 17, while still in high school, he enlisted in the army reserves.  At the University of Minnesota he was accepted into ROTC and got commissioned into active duty as a second lieutenant. 
Especially fond of history and literature, "all  the humanities," he said, Steve acquired his bachelor's degree in political science in 1987, then headed for a military school at Fort Knox, Kentucky.  He spent most of the next four years at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with a final stint at Fort Benning, Georgia.
During those first months at Fort Knox, Steve had dated, albeit mainly long distance, a young lady from Winona, Minnesota, the sister of his best friend's girl friend.  Steve and Barb were married on May 27^th, 1988, at "a big Polish church in Winona, the St. Stanislaus Catholic Church."
Said Steve, "Every time we moved as a youngster, it seemed we changed religions, but I was baptized Catholic and my wife is Catholic, so it turned out okay."

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