Ex-official set to take Missouri job

TEXARKANA — Kenny Haskin will be the next city manager of Cape Girardeau, the Missouri city announced Tuesday.

Haskin will succeed retiring City Manager Scott Meyer on June 1. Haskin resigned as city manager of Texarkana unexpectedly on April 1 after meeting with the city Board of Directors in a private session that lasted for nearly an hour. At that meeting, raised voices and a banging gavel at times could be heard outside the boardroom. After that meeting, Haskin said he had been contemplating moving on for some time.

On Wednesday, Haskin expressed his thanks to the people of Texarkana and Cape Girardeau.

“I’m just very, very grateful right now. It’s all happened so fast, I’m at a loss for words,” he said. “I’ll always be thankful to the community in Texarkana. I wouldn’t have gotten here without their support and prayers.”

Cape Girardeau Mayor Bob Fox called Haskin a visionary leader and great communicator.

“We involved our staff in this very heavily, and he stood out with them, too. And that was important to us as a council to have somebody that the staff liked and seemed happy with. He did a very, very good job in these interviews. He talks a lot, and that’s a good thing.

“He just fits what we needed. We need somebody who’s a great communicator and will interact with the public and interact with the council and the staff. And he fits that need very well,” he said. “It’s Texarkana’s loss.”

Fox also pointed to Haskin’s experience in economic development and his long tenure in Texarkana government positions as pluses.

“We were impressed that he’s not someone that hops around a lot [from job to job],” he said.

With a population of about 40,000, Cape Girardeau fronts the Mississippi River and is home to Southeast Missouri State University. Haskin praised the beauty of the campus and the city’s riverfront development and mentioned recent improvements such as new police and fire stations and a new City Hall currently under construction.

“It’s a great community, and the people here have been wonderful,” he said.