Full Text
About the City By Councilman Kingery It is time to bring you up to date on what is happening concerning the selection of a new City Administrator, and the future of Douglas. I reported earlier that the City Council had offered the City Administrator position to an applicant we had interviewed and whom some of you met at a "Meet and Greet" session at the new library. Unfortunately that person declined for reasons associated with a family situation. While that was disappointing, it was better for us that this happened now than the Administrator leaving after a few months on the job. We started the process over and received a large number of applicants. Those were narrowed down to eight applicants which were interviewed via Skype on March 14th. The Skype interviews helped narrow our list to four candidates that we will interview in person here in Douglas; at present we hope to do those interviews on April 6th. We are again planning a "Meet and Greet" for these four candidates the evening of April 5th. Our "Meet and Greet" is being scheduled at the Ruthe James building at the State Fair Grounds from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. on April 5th. Everyone is welcome and we encourage you to come and meet these candidates and visit with them. This will provide an opportunity for you to get to know the candidates a little and for the candidates to get to know some of our community members, and a better feel for this community. During the "Meet and Greet" each of the candidates will be asked to share a few comments about themselves and why they want to come to Douglas to be part of our community. Economic indicators show Douglas may be heading into another "boom" cycle that could bring many changes to our community. While each of us may look at the future differently, the fact is, no one knows for sure what our future will be. The City Council and our city Staff want to choose a new City Administrator that has ---PAGE BREAK--- the skills and knowledge to lead us into the future in the best way possible for our community. The boom may be as large, or larger, than the last boom. Only time will tell us what we are approaching. If the boom does occur, and it appears to be already in progress, we will experience growth whether we like it or whether we do not like it. There will be opportunities for many in our community, there will likely be difficulties for some of us. The right City Administrator hopefully will help us minimize the difficulties and maximize the opportunities. It is important that each of us also do what we can to make this a positive time for our community. Share your opinions with the community leaders, become a community leader, keep an open mind, understand you and I cannot always get what we want because we have differing ideas of what is best. Douglas has about 6,000 people that must work together for the future of our community. We should want what is best for the community and it's future. What do we want to leave for the people of Douglas 10-20-50 years from now? Today and the days ahead we must continue planning for the future of Douglas. Please join in being part of that future!