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Last updated on Wednesday, June 27, 2012
(LINTON) - Linton’s new utilities manager is also their old one: On July 16, Brent Slover will return to the job he once held.
Mark Stalcup of the Greene County Daily World reports that Slover will replace his successor, Linton Municipal Utilities Director Shawn Clifford, who resigned June 11 after just over 18 months on the job.
Clifford originally replaced Slover, who resigned in November 2009 to take work with Hoosier Energy's Bloomington office.
Mayor John Wilkes praised Slover's return as a lucky break for the city, suggesting the return of an experienced hand to the position saves time otherwise needed for training a newcomer.
"He knows the drill, and he knows how everything's done," Wilkes said. "It's really hard to find someone who's run five utilities before, as he has."
While the mayor contacted a handful of candidates about the position, Wilkes said re-hiring Slover was an easy choice to make.
"I think it's a perfect fit. He did a good job, and everybody liked him. He was one of the first people I thought of when the position became open."
Slover, meanwhile, said he's happy to return.
"When I left the city of Linton, I didn't have any quarrel with anyone," he said. "It was a difficult decision to leave, and once I felt that the opportunity was there to come back and I spoke with the mayor and discussed it with my wife and family, I was glad to do it."
In the month's interim between Clifford's resignation and Slover's return, Wilkes said city employees will handle the utility operations with assistances from project engineers.
"We'll handle as much of it as we can in house," Wilkes said, adding Jim Frizzell of Triad Engineering and Randy Welling of First Group Engineers will also be assisting with the city's major projects.
As manager of Linton Municipal Utilities, Slover will oversee six utilities: Electricity, natural gas, water, wastewater, garbage collection, and wireless broadband.
Linton Utilities additionally employs three department superintendents and 39 union employees, the record shows.
The transition back to Slover comes as Wilkes is transitioning the city utilities back to greater local control of billing.
While prior administrations contracted to have bills prepared and sent, Wilkes returned oversight of those measures to the city.
That, the mayor said in January, allows cost reductions for the city. It was also intended to eliminate errors, making overbilling easier to correct.
Now, Slover said he plans to reacquiant himself with the billing system and the job's demands over the next month.
"We've got a couple of big projects with the water and wastewater renovations, and when I get back in office I want to reacquaint myself with those and the billing software and policies and procedures," he said. "I've also got a few ideas for things we can do differently coming back."
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