Dylan Ward, current Henderson assistant city manager, will become full-time city manager in March.
He’ll replace long-time employee William “Buzzy” Newman who will stay on for a bit to ease the transition.
Ward started as an engineering assistant straight out of college in 2014. He advanced to a project manager before his current position.
He has a technical background as a professional engineer. He’s led large-scale city efforts such as road projects and the new $18 million sports center. One of his early projects were the green wayfinding signs around downtown.
Being a city manager means overseeing programs and projects. He feels his engineering experience is an asset.
“We've got a lot of things going on with economic development,” he said. “We just had a new housing development. So having that technical background really lends itself well to understanding those conversations, especially because a lot of those are big ticket items and expensive items.”
He also enjoyed administering organizations like his fraternity in college.
“I’ve always said, if there was a way I could combine (administration) with my engineering and technical background, that would be my dream job,” he said. “Well, I came to work for the City of Henderson, and I figured out that that's what a city manager was.”
He said his job is to help make the mayor and city council’s vision and policies a reality.
“Basically, the elected officials, they set policy, and then it's up to the city manager to carry out that policy.”
This is different from Indiana or Illinois, where most mayors are full time and have executive authority over city departments.
He said public safety is the area in which he’s spent the least amount of time, but he looks forward to learning more about the police and fire departments.
A current project he's overseeing is the development of a parks Master Plan.
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