City Management
City Management
City Manager/Clerk
Scottville, Michigan
February 1995 – August 1996
This challenging and valuable experience gave me unique insight to understand and appreciate the comprehensive responsibilities that a City Manager must handle on a daily basis. I accepted this job shortly after earning my graduate degree in Public administration. During my time in graduate school, I worked full time as an assistant to the City Manager of Grand Blanc, Michigan.
The following presents insight concerning my experience serving as a City Manager in Scottville, Michigan in the mid-1990’s.
My responsibilities included:
Administrator of Scottville’s Downtown Development Authority
Scottville City Clerk (Elections, Council Agendas, City Records)
Scottville Zoning and Code Enforcement Administrator
Member, Mason County Rural Fire Authority (Serving with member communities to establish this important and successful organization)
Member, Mason County Drain Commission Board (Serving with other community officials regarding project coordination and review).
Closure of the City of Scottville Landfill - Summer 1996
To me, this was the best project I did in Scottville of which I am very proud to this day. It is a project which few people in the City or Mason County know about or will ever see, the cell capping of the old Scottville landfill along the Pere Marquette River. This project helped address a serious water contamination and the improperly-dumped materials placed on this City-owned site (also utilized by Mason County, who assisted with the closure’s engineering soft costs and cap construction hard costs).
Downtown Main Street - 1995
Main Street in Downtown Scottville had a narrow right-of way while also using angle parking. The angle parking made cars and trucks cross the double yellow line into opposite traffic. Funding I secured from federal funds via MDOT to improve Main Street (resurfacing, storm drains, curb and gutter) would not allow the angle parking. Through a series of public meetings and coordination with MDOT engineers, preservation of the angle parking while using the transportation grant funds was resolved. As part of the final design and construction, a new water/wastewater trunk line and upgraded water meters, partially funded by the City’s Downtown Development Authority and the City’s Water Department fund, was integrated into of the project.
Article Source: Ludington Daily News, 1994
I worked closely with MDOT Engineer Ron Krause to figure out how the federal grant funding could be applied to some of the project while not influencing the current angle parking the citizens of Scottville wanted to preserve. What became evident was that the City would need to assume liability for the paving and striping of the parking spaces (addressing the surface issue), which would not make MDOT liable for the angle parking (which their thoroughfare design standards would not allow). MDOT instead helped extend the original paving of the surface of Main Street further south where the angle parking configuration was not an issue.
Article Source: Ludington Daily News
Mason County Rural Fire Authority - 1995 to 1996
The Mason County Rural Fire Authority leveraged numerous Central and Western Mason County Townships and Village’s fire departments by unifying their separate facility, training and equipment costs through a special proposal voted on in every participating community. Ultimately, the City of Scottville Commission and residents voted for the Mason County Rural Fire Authority, which has provided funding for upgraded fire equipment (fire trucks, brush trucks, ambulances, fire gear) and valuable extensive, coordinated training previously not available to each independent departments.
Picture Source: Shoreline Media.net
BACKGROUND: The Scottville City Commission, despite some extensive discussions in Executive Session and Public Meeting discussions, struggled with what some Commissioners felt was a loss of local autonomy of the Scottville Fire Department (SFD). SFD was, at the time, a volunteer department which received City funds and donated equipment.
Editorial Cartoon Source: Ludington Daily News
Editorial Cartoon Source: Ludington Daily News
City of Dallas - Riverside Park - Summer 1995
The City’s Riverside Park along the beautiful Pere Marquette River includes an RV park which is very popular from early Spring until early Fall. While City Manager, I helped with the installation of a new swimming pool funding using a State of Michigan recreation grant and local city funding match. The pool provides a nice recreational facility as well as profitable addition to this popular West Michigan RV Park in the heart of Mason County, Michigan.
Article Source: Ludington Daily News, March 3, 1995
Article Source: Ludington Daily News, April 3, 1995
BACKGROUND: This is a Facebook posting from my friend Rob Alway, who is the CEO and Editor-in-Chief of the Mason County Press (www.masoncountypress.com). Rob wrote it shortly after my visit in November, 2017 to Scottville to see him and his family, as well as to see how both Scottville and Mason County have being doing in recent years.
Previously, during my service with the City of Scottville as City Manager, Rob was the Ludington Daily News reporter for Scottville. We often interacted on community issues, Commission meetings and mutual interests in community service. I thought I’d include this wonderful post from Rob, who provided a far better summary of my time within the City of Scottville community than I could within this webpage. I value my time working with Rob, the Scottville Commissioners and the residents of Scottville.
Source: Rob Alway (Facebook Post), November 6, 2017
