Chaffee's Eskew takes Scott City position

SCOTT CITY, Mo. -- Chaffee, Mo., city administrator Ron Eskew will take over Erika Glock's duties as city administrator in Scott City Dec. 1.

Glock, Scott City's administrator since August 1998, left Oct. 26 to become city administrator in Mount Vernon, Mo.

Chaffee is seeking a replacement for Eskew, who has held the job for five and one-half years.

"I wasn't looking to leave Chaffee," Eskew said. "When the Scott City position came open I saw my opportunity to advance professionally and still live in the Bootheel area."

Eskew said Scott City offers new challenges and a chance to work on larger projects, including two already in the works. The city is building its first water treatment plant, and Eskew will be in charge of seeing it is up and running. He also will work on the Missouri Department of Transportation's interchange project at the Interstate 55 exit.

While in Chaffee, Eskew wrote three grants for improvements that produced more than $160,000 for the city.

The largest was a $146,000 Community Development Block Grant for improvements to the city's sewer system. He also wrote a grant for urban beautification in the city's park and an AmerenUE grant for lighting at one of the baseball diamonds. The city received $10,000 for each of those projects.

Eskew said modernizing the police department and city hall and implementing a city employee retirement plan were his biggest accomplishments in Chaffee.

"One of my first projects was working on an employee retirement system," he said. "I was able to do that, and the city has offered the system to every full-time employee since 1996."

Eskew was chosen Scott City administrator from a group of 11 applicants.

hkronmueller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 128