Meet the 3 finalists vying to become the next Columbia Public Works director

When the City of Columbia conducts a project related to streets, bridges, sidewalks, parking infrastructure or the city's bus system, the public works director is tasked with overseeing all aspects of the process.

Nearly a year ago, Dave Nichols retired from the position, and the city instituted a search for a new director.

The city recently settled on three finalists for the position.

The trio met with the public Thursday evening.

Shane Creech

Shane Creech currently works for Columbia Public Works and has served as interim director since Nichols' retirement last October.

Creech wants the department to have better public communication if he is chosen as the department's new director, he said.

"We need to do a better job of educating the public," he said. "That is everything from the kid the maintenance guys see who come to look at the big trucks, to the citizens we impact with projects or don't understand our (winter plowing schedule)."

Improving public communication also could lead to better recruitment and retention for positions within the department, Creech said.

He wants to see the department adopt a software program other than Microsoft Excel for planning and weighting priorities for projects.

"If we could have some (other) software that would help us with that, we could do a better job of educating people," he said. "It gives you that pie chart, that information that is more easily digestible."

Creech aims to have more preplanning for where roads could go before a business or residential development comes into an area of the city. This could aid the city when it returns to residents with its renewal request of the Capital Improvement Sales Tax in 2025.

"We need to have data-driven reasons why we are doing the roads we are. Education, technology and planning for the future," Creech said.

Creech has 22 years' experience in civil engineering, with 18 of those years in the public sector. He worked for a private engineering consultant firm in Kansas City before transitioning into public service as an engineer at the City of Overland Park, Kansas.

He returned to Columbia as the manager of design and construction at Boone County Public Works, before joining the city in 2008. He has a bachelor's degree in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Missouri, and is a registered professional engineer in Missouri and Kansas.

Eric Stevens

Columbia has an opportunity to take its Public Works Department to the next level, Eric Stevens said about what drew him to applying for the position.

Stevens currently lives in the Houston metro area, but has lived all over the country in his work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over his 25 years of experience. He has provided administrative and engineering support services to a variety of municipal governments in both public and private consulting.

Stevens is in the preretirement phase of his career, he said, but that doesn't mean he would only be in the job for one to two years. He has at least 15 more years before retirement, he said, adding he is looking for a place to be back closer to his extended family in Macon.

"That has been one of the things on the list, coming back to Missouri," Stevens said. "This looked like it was a good opportunity. It's a great opportunity to bring my skill set."

Stevens holds a master's degree in civil and environmental engineering and a juris doctorate. He is a licensed professional engineer and a certified project management professional.

Having both an engineering and law degree taught Stevens a lot, he said. Engineering has a single solution, whereas with the law there can be a myriad of solutions, he said.

"It has really helped me expand and be inclusive in my decision-making process and also be flexible enough to look at things from other perspectives," he said. "... I want to maintain continuity with what we have (in Columbia) to build trust and then move into identifying ways to make (changes)."

This includes identifying alternate funding sources, such as grants, for major projects.

Martin Gugel

Martin Gugel has worked in Springfield the past seven years as its assistant public works director and has been employed by that city for 15 years.

He is already familiar with the Columbia area, having observed its changes and growth, he said.

"Looking at the city's strategic plan and all the information on the projects they have planned, it is really exciting," Gugel said about his interest in the job.

If selected, Gugel plans on having deeper conversations with staff to learn about what projects are happening before anything would change with operations.

"The idea is not to come in and do initial widespread changes, but use my experience and tailor it to what fits Columbia," he said.

Gugel has experience in transportation engineering, traffic engineering, stormwater engineering and construction inspection as aspects of project development.

Gugel received his bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the Missouri University of Science & Technology. He is registered as a professional engineer in Missouri and is certified as a professional traffic operations engineer.

Charles Dunlap covers local government, community stories and other general subjects for the Tribune. You can reach him at cdunlap@columbiatribune.com or @CD_CDT on Twitter. Please consider subscribing to support vital local journalism.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Columbia Public Works director candidates meet community members