LISA HOBBS – News Editor
Kelvin Ridgley has accepted the city of McMinnville’s offer to be its next city administrator.
“I did accept the position,” he stated in a telephone interview with Warren County Way. Now, he and the city of McMinnville will hash out employment contract terms.
“I’m currently still working,” stated Ridgley. “I’m still actively employed, so this is a little crazy right now.”
He is the CEO of Pope Douglas Solid Waste Management in Alexandria, Minnesota, and has been for the last 10 months.
“They do not,” he stated, when asked if his current employer was aware of this situation. “The good thing is that I’ve done a great job, in my opinion, of getting the next level ready for an opportunity. This situation is kind of like the situation that I’ll be walking into in McMinnville, where there was already a person in waiting and that person just needed to be polished a little bit and to be helped with just the employee morale and how to deal with certain personnel issues. I think that person has gotten up to speed, for the most part, and I think she’d be ready to take the bull by the horns, if she were to be selected.”
Ridgley says he applied for the city administrator position because he misses public service work and felt like it would be a good fit for him.
“I’ve been in public service for a little more than 10 years, so when I saw this opportunity, I thought I’d be a great fit. When I left the last public service job to come to Minnesota, I didn’t realize how much I’d actually miss serving the residents and working with the residents on a day-to-day basis. I thought that had kind of gotten worn out, but I found out that I missed it. So, when I saw this opportunity, I thought this would be a great fit for me in this community.”
That position was the director of public works for the Town of Pecos City in Pecos, Texas, as well as its assistant city manager – positions he says he held for right at three years.
“We did some amazing things there. We upgraded a ton of the infrastructure. We did have a water project where we looped in our entire water system. It was a seven-phase project. It cost us a little more than $200 million to do. It was a tremendous opportunity. We installed water wells and we installed one of the water towers. So, there were a lot of things that happened under my watch there as the director of public works and assistant city manager for the Town of Pecos City.”
As for McMinnville, he has plans.
“My goal is to come in and educate the community on the things that they may not be educated on. Another one of my goals is to keep up with the transparency that Nolan Ming, my predecessor, had going prior to me starting. I think he did a great job at transparency, and my job is to keep the ball rolling and add to the great staff that’s already in place.”
He says he’s been watching the videos and reading the weakly updates posted by Ming online.
“I have been watching those to see if that’s something that we can continue. I’ve been wondering who his camera person was. I have a lot of questions about that, because his productions were very nice. I enjoy watching those.”
Ridgley is originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and stated, “I will be bringing that southern hospitality to McMinnville, Tennessee. I’m not sure if that’s something that common in that area of the world, but I will bring an even tempered, easy going, easy to work with mentality to the area.”
Once settled in the area, Ridgley plans to introduce himself to the community by getting involved in activities and organizations.
“Outside of working with the media, I’ll be present. I’ll be at the grocery store. I’ll attempt to join some of the clubs and organizations in the area to introduce myself. Again, I will be present within your community. So, anytime there is a situation or a resident who wants to talk, I’ll always be open and willing to have those conversations. So, I think that will be a great opportunity, as well – to have someone who’s in the community that doesn’t mind having a conversation when the residents want to have a conversation, because I understand that this is a public facing position.”
His interview with city officials was conducted via zoom, so he’s yet to visit McMinnville in person. He stated that he has been looking online at McMinnville and Warren County to begin the process of becoming familiar with it.
The tourism aspect is something in which he is familiar.
“I have worked with tourism and parks and recreation in previous opportunities, so I familiar with coming up with new innovative ways to create new streams of revenue and finding different ways to attract new vendors and new organizations to your city, as well.”
During Tuesday night’s meeting, Alderman Keri Morton mentioned that Ridgley was into sports, and she felt he and Interim City Administrator Justin Scott would “get along like gangbusters.”
Ridgley says he’s yet to speak with Scott, but that he’s looking forward to that conversation, and confirmed that he is a huge Tigers fan.
“I love my LSU Tigers. We are going to be playing Tennessee here soon.”
LSU Tigers v. Tennessee Volunteers is scheduled for Nov. 21 at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville.
When cautioned about letting people know he will be rooting for the opposing team, he jokingly stated, “Please, mention it. That should be the headline.”
Contract negotiations are currently underway and Ridgley stated that they are “nearing the end.” Once finalized, he will begin the process of relocating. However, his wife’s move will take a bit longer. She has been a schoolteacher for the last 17 years. The couple have a daughter in college studying pre-pharmacy at LSU, and a son studying engineering in a college in South Eastern Louisiana.