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Monday, December 21, 2009

CITY HIRES NEW DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS


Mayor James Ireton, Jr., is pleased to announce the appointment of Ms. Teresa Gardner as the City’s new Director of Public Works. Ms. Gardner will replace Jim Caldwell who resigned in May.

Ms. Gardner has over 23 years of professional experience in engineering. Most recently, she was employed as a Senior Transportation and Safety Engineer for Vanesse Hangen Brustlin, Inc., in Vienna, Virginia. Prior to that, Ms. Gardner worked for the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) for almost 17 years.

During her service with DelDOT, she was employed as a Traffic Project Engineer, Contract Review Engineer, Assistant Maintenance Engineer, Project Manager, and Traffic Manager. During her last two years with DelDOT, she was Assistant Director.
Ms. Gardner has a Bachelors Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Delaware. She is a registered Professional Engineer in Delaware.

As Director of Public Works, Ms. Gardner will be responsible for overseeing water and sewer operations, engineering, sanitation, street maintenance, parks, the Salisbury Zoo, vehicle maintenance, and the marina.

“Salisbury welcomes Ms. Gardner as our first female head of the Public Works Department,” said Mayor Ireton. “Her leadership and professionalism will guide the department as we strive to become more efficient, as we work to improve the health of the Wicomico River, and as we face down the challenges of our Wastewater Treatment Plant. I appreciate the work of the search committee and the rate of confidence the Salisbury City Council gave in approving Ms. Gardner’s nomination.”

Ms. Gardner will begin her new assignment on Monday, January 25, 2010. For further information, please contact John Pick, City Administrator, at 410-548-3100.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope her first call of order is to get rid of the old dead wood starting with Gary Hales.

Anonymous said...

Uh-OH:

Despite her "credentials" it appears she has no hands on or other experience in sewer and water systems, which is the core function of public works in Salisbury.

Anonymous said...

I'm told she has ZERO waste water experience!?!?! So now she'll have to lean on the opinions of the engineers that agreed not only to the design of a faulty plan, but also the $1 million fault clause. Way to knock that one out of the park Mayor.

Ridiculous!

Anonymous said...

4:09~

Yes but she has a history of politics....that is what matters to the mayor and council......yes sir yes sir anything you say sir

Anonymous said...

"“Salisbury welcomes Ms. Gardner as our first female head of the Public Works Department,”

Gardner may be a great candidate but, why the Gender card? It diminishes her implied qualifications and, if I were her, I would be offended.

Apologies in advance but, what would the reaction be if the announcement were that "Women have been cleaning bathrooms longer than anyone else".

Teresa is an engineer (IR12). Systems are systems and engineers are trained to understand how things work as systems so 4:09PM's comments have no substance and are very myopic.

Again, no attack intended. I wish Teresa and the City the best of luck in moving forward.

Anonymous said...

I have seen a few very nasty comments on this blog about Gary Hales. What is the problem with this guy? I think he behaves in a profesional manner and he is a pleasure to do business with.

dinosaur said...

Why did Chip Messick not get the job ?? This is outragous. Chip has more experience than any engineer in what Salisbury needs in Public Works.

Anonymous said...

Yikes --

She has no experience in municipal public works. This could be a debacle like under John Jacobs -- can you say waste water treatment plant (?) -- all over again.

Anonymous said...

dinosaur said...

Why did Chip Messick not get the job ?? This is outragous. Chip has more experience than any engineer in what Salisbury needs in Public Works.

8:32 PM

He is an asswipe and a minion of BPT!

Anonymous said...

Fire chief search

The choice for a new fire chief has not yet been made. Mayor Jim Ireton said a consensus among firefighters, search committee members and city administrators could not be reached. A second search will be performed.

Anonymous said...

Welcome Ms. Gardner. I hope you are the strong leader that Public Works needs and I also hope that you are a quick study. Good luck and God Bless.

Anonymous said...

You have got to be kidding me? A traffic Engineer. Why the heck would we hire a trafifc engineer to come into to lead our city Public Works Department? RThe only thin gthat doesnl;t need fixing is our roads! How does she have a prayer of making the correct decisions on the treatment plant when she knows nothing of sewer?

I have to suspect that this is purely an estrogen thing. I wonder how the voting went? I wonder if Debbie and Terry finally got Shanie to vote along with them......

Anonymous said...

Yes 7:02. It appears 2:47 has some issues, “cry baby” being one of them. I am surprised personal attacks are even posted on this site.