District administrator resigns from SWCD

CELINA — The Mercer Soil and Water Conservation District board of supervisors accepted the resignation of District Administration/District Technician Chad Scott during a special board meeting Thursday morning.

His resignation is effective Friday.

Scott was hired during the board’s Oct. 8, 2020 meeting following months of the district administrator job being left without a fulltime employee following long-time SWCD administrator Nikki Hawk’s departure in March.

“I thank the SWCD Board, county commissioners and staff for their support while employed with Mercer SWCD,” he said.

District Technician Matt Heckler will take over as acting district administrator, much like he had before Scott’s arrival.

The board discussed moving forward and looking for someone to fill Scott’s position.

Heckler said he thought it would be a better idea to go back to having the district administrator’s duties focus solely on administrative work to begin, and potentially look at adding responsibilities in the future.

“I don’t know if would just be simpler to look for just a DA and then other duties assigned becomes, ‘You have to learn technician stuff. You have to learn that field stuff. You have to get more involved with it as opposed to just staying in the office,’” said Heckler. “It is a more rigorous or strenuous requirements to be able to meet both of those [position duties.] The interview committee can make some of that determination.”

Scott agreed with Heckler’s statements and expounded on it with his thoughts.

“Just sheer time that it takes,” Scott said about the dual position. “My concern is finding a person that’s going to be able to do the DA and the technical work moving forward. Maybe you hire a DA at a little bit lower pay and as they’re getting their boots on the ground, maybe transition it over to a DA/technician job.”

The board agreed that going back to a district administrator position with the opportunity to expand it to a district technician job would work and approved the motion 3-0.

Board Chairman Theresa Howick said she would like to get the position posted as quickly as possible.

“I want to see this hit the paper by Monday,” said Howick.

The board was able to finalize a job description during the meeting so the SWCD can begin advertising the position as soon as Friday.

The next regular meeting for the district will be at 8:30 a.m. on March 11.