This week will be the last week in Wellman for our City Administrator, Dave Ross, before he starts another job in Wisconsin.  I would like to personally thank Dave for all that he has done to move our community forward during his time here and wish him all the best in his new position.  I have turned my column over to Dave this week so he could share some thoughts about his time here in Wellman…

To the residents of the City of Wellman,

As most of you are aware of by now I’ve been preparing myself for the next step in my career – a move to a city more the size of where I came from in Arizona. This isn’t reflective in any way on Wellman – but on my professional growth and experiences. I’m in my fifth year here in Wellman and during that time the community has accomplished so many wonderful things – and it is all due to not only the working relationship that the City staff has with Council but also to all of the great people we have in our community. 

Think of where the community was five years ago and where it is today. We are positioned for additional growth and for more great things to happen. Parkside is a reality, we have a working 5-year Capital Improvement Plan, fund balances are significantly improved, we’ve received millions in grants (we’ve received 20 grants from local, state, or federal agencies since my time here), we have a brand new multi-million dollar city-wide reverse osmosis water treatment system, we have a successful downtown business incentive grant program, we’ve successfully cleaned up dozens (probably near a 100 over the years) of properties around town, the City Council has been kept fully informed on issues affecting the City and thus allowed to do their job – that of setting policy – while freeing them from the responsibility of dealing with the numerous day-to-day operations and decisions, we’ve completely re-written our entire personnel policy manual, we’ve had to handle some employee matters over the years (and we’ve ensured all applicable local and federal laws were complied with while handling these issues), we’ve updated our infrastructure and will be doing much more in the very near future (new roads, numerous new fire hydrants, new water mains, new sewer mains, etc.), we’ve successfully all but completed the DNR mandated inflow and infiltration repairs, we’ve helped bring employee salaries and benefits in-line with other area communities, we’ve lowered our ISO rating (allowing for less expensive property-owner’s insurance rates for everyone in town), and we’ve lowered the property tax rate for four years in a row – to its lowest rate in twelve years. I’d say we’ve accomplished quite a bit in the past few years. 

I hope there is no doubt as to the benefits of having a city administrator. I realize this is a smaller community; however, with all that we have going on, the fact this is a multi-million dollar a year business, the fact we own and operate multiple enterprise funds (skating rink, water department, sanitary sewer, senior dining, and natural gas system), the fact that the manager is able to make decisions without having to wait for two weeks until the next council meeting, the fact that the day-to-day operations are taken out of the council’s hands so they can concentrate on setting good “policy”, the benefits of “planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting, and budgeting”, and of course our success with grant writing – the position has more than paid for itself over the years.

I’ve been very fortunate to have come to such a wonderful community and I know that with all of the amazing people we have in Wellman that with focus and effort this community will continue to move forward in a professional manner.  With all of the successes we’ve had at the city level in the past several years I am more thankful for all of the wonderful friendships I’ve developed here in the community – Wellman is very lucky to have such awesome people living and working here. I wish everyone nothing but the best!