East Dundee hires village administrator
East Dundee leaders have made Bob Skurla their village administrator, officially removing the word “interim” that preceded his title for two years.
“He’s been acting as the administrator for the past couple of years,” Village President Jerald Bartels said. “In reality, he’s not an interim, he’s the regular administrator for East Dundee.”
Monday night, the village board and Skurla unanimously agreed to a contract that expires April 30, 2013 — when Bartels’ term in office terminates.
As part of the contract, Skurla, will make $130,000 a year and accrue 20 vacation days.
He will no longer receive a separate $500 monthly car allowance — the board agreed to put that money into his salary. Skurla previously made $102,000 a year, a figure that includes the car allowance.
“There’s a lot of good things that have happened in the time that Bob has been with us and we’d certainly like to see Bob stay with the village for quite a while,” Bartels said.
Skurla’s career in East Dundee began in 2008 when was hired as the village’s economic development consultant.
After Frank Koehler, the previous administrator, retired in 2011, Skurla was named interim village administrator. The board never ran a separate search for Koehler’s replacement because Skurla was thought to be the logical choice, Bartels said, noting that Skurla has worked as a village administrator elsewhere.
Skurla is credited with helping to lure businesses and development into the village.
His accomplishments include annexing GAT Guns and property from the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation on Route 25 into the village, something the village had been negotiating for 25 years.
“Both of those projects I’d been working on since early 2008 and it was a lot of effort on a lot of people’s parts to finally get it accepted,” Skurla said. “It wasn’t just my getting it done, but having a willing and cooperative village board to work with me.”
Skurla also helped secure a new tenant for the vacant Saturn dealership, new business for the downtown and the Riverhaven subdivision, which has 80 units for seniors and 68 for veterans.
There are several other things on the horizon.
East Dundee officials are working with Tom Roeser, owner of Otto Engineering, to spruce up the downtown, creating a redevelopment agreement to bring developers to an industrial park on Route 25, and planning a site review for an auto auction company that’s looking to move to the east side of town.
“It’s really is a wonderful town in which to work and the opportunities here to make some very positive impacts on the town are quite plentiful. I think we’ve been able to get a lot of things accomplished in the last 18 months,” Skurla said.