Wagenaar takes reins as Watertown city manager

Jan. 2—WATERTOWN — Eric F. Wagenaar was busy his first day as the city manager on Tuesday.

He met with some of the members of his team during the day, and he attended his first City Council meeting on Tuesday night.

"So it was a pretty busy day," he said.

Wagenaar, who served as the deputy to the garrison commander at Fort Drum for eight years, officially started his new job on Saturday, but Tuesday was the first day in his third-floor office in City Hall.

He succeeded former City Manager Kenneth A. Mix, who left on Friday after four years in the position.

At the time that Mix was about to leave City Hall, Wagenaar said the Army wanted to reassign him to another post, so he'd have to leave Fort Drum, or he could stay and serve in a position other than the deputy.

Instead, the Carthage native decided to pursue the $153,000-a-year job with the city.

"Timing is everything," he said.

As he sees it, it's "a great opportunity" to continue to serve the community and to do that for the new City Council.

He's ready to start working on the council's priorities and to fill key positions of his staff. A new city engineer and human resources personnel are among the vacancies.

Another priority will be putting together a successful grant application to submit to the Department of Defense for funding for the city's estimated $50 million water treatment plant project.

With his Fort Drum and U.S. Army connections, he stressed the importance of talking to state and federal elected officials about funding possibilities for the project that will reduce the amounts of two contaminants at the Huntington Street plant.

Last summer, the city was unable to obtain the funding through the DOD's Local Defense Community Cooperation office, but with Wagenaar at City Hall, council members believe he can make the difference.

"I think the best way is to tell them our story and tell them the importance of the project to the community, Fort Drum and the communities in between that use city water," he said.

For now, he's getting acquainted with his new job.

On Tuesday, he met with Police Chief Charles P. Donoghue and Capt. Michael J. LaBarge; Fire Chief Matthew R. Timerman and deputy chief Michael D. Kellogg; Logan Eddy, the assistant to the city manager; and later on with city comptroller James E. Mills to talk about their departments and city issues.

On New Year's Day, Wagenaar went to the swearing-in ceremony for Mayor Sarah V. Compo Pierce and new council members Robert O. Kimball and Benjamin P. Shoen in the rotunda of the Flower Memorial Library, where he was introduced to the public. The new mayor and the other council members also welcomed him to City Hall at the beginning of Tuesday's meeting.

Unlike the last two years, the council meeting lasted less than an hour and produced no fireworks. He barely spoke as council members rattled through 10 resolutions.

Wagenaar spent his early years in the north country before returning to the area after he was assigned to Fort Drum.

He graduated from Carthage High School and St. Lawrence University in Canton, where he played nose guard on the football team.

During an interview before the council meeting, Wagenaar joked that's where he learned how to take on "multiple blockers at the same time," something that he might have to do as city manager.

He continues to be a big college football fan and "loves hockey," growing up rooting for the Boston Bruins.

While he grew up watching the Dallas Cowboys on local television, he's become a Buffalo Bills "convert" after attending a game last year.

"It was an exciting experience," he said.

A resident of Chaumont, Wagenaar spent 26 years in the Army and retired as a colonel in 2009 before he became the senior operations officer of Fort Drum that year. He was appointed the deputy garrison commander in 2015.