Dale McDowell started as Seaside's new Public Works Director on Nov. 9.

Seaside’s new Public Works Director Dale McDowell says there won’t be major changes under his leadership. McDowell plans to continue supporting staff and serving community residents as they tackle new projects.

On Nov. 9, McDowell, a 12-year Seaside resident, started working as Public Works Director. He is filling the role formerly held by Neal Wallace, who retired in June. Wallace served the city for about 17 years.

McDowell brings to the job about 40 years of experience in the construction industry. Most recently, he worked for TFT Construction, a full-service contractor based in Scappoose. Prior to that, he worked for a contractor based in Astoria. He has experience and training working on buildings; roads; wastewater and storm systems; water lines; and water treatment and sewer treatment plants. He has built relationships with governmental agencies including the Oregon Department of Transportation, Department of Environmental Quality, Army Corps of Engineers and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

McDowell sought to become Public Works Director in anticipation of “a little change.”

“It’s the only facet in which I haven’t really been involved in construction,” he said. “I thought it would be interesting.”

As a director, he has more managerial responsibilities, including “a lot of paperwork,” which he said he doesn’t mind.

McDowell oversees a staff of 19 from the engineering, water, sewer and streets and parks departments. He also works with the Seaside building and planning departments on several projects.

When he accepted the position as Public Works Director, McDowell served on the Transportation Advisory Commission, the Budget Committee and the City Tree Board. He had to resign from the budget committee; he will continue serving on the City Tree Board and the Transportation Advisory Commission but as the staff representative, a position he also will take on the Airport Committee and Parks Advisory Committee.

Additionally, in the past, McDowell volunteered to help install playground equipment at Cartwright Park. “You have to give back to your community,” McDowell said. “Sometimes when you’re younger, you don’t really realize that, and as you get older, you really realize it. You want to do those things.”

In particular, he liked serving on the city’s Budget Committee, where he could see how the city was spending its tax revenue.

As Public Works Director, McDowell hopes to bring to the table more learning opportunities for employees.

“A lot of it is training the staff from the construction end of it, to show them some of the new techniques that are out there,” he said. “There’s quite a bit of difference when you’re maintaining something and when you’re building it from scratch to start with.”

He wants his staff to be adept at both.

McDowell also plans to bring more projects to the table and write grants to get funding to accomplish those projects.

“We have a long, long list of projects,” he said. The city has to decide which “ones to take on at a time because of funding.”

Besides the North Holladay Drive improvement project — scheduled for completion by summer 2016 — the city also is contemplating an improvement project for Avenue S, from its intersection with Roosevelt Drive to Wahanna Road, and redoing the intersection of Broadway and Roosevelt Drive near Seaside City Hall. The project would include putting in turn lanes so traffic does not get so backed up during busy days. The department is “going to do some preliminary design for that” project, to determine what can be done with the available property at that location, McDowell said, adding they will “see what we can come up with and then get some funding to pursue that.”

Additionally, he said, the city would like to put all the utilities throughout the city underground, “but unfortunately everything comes down to funding.”

The city does some small projects and many repairs in-house. Certain projects must be sent to public bid based on the city’s charter and state laws.

McDowell said he does not anticipate there will be any major changes to the department under his leadership. He would like to get more city employees involved in each project “so everyone gets a say or at least an opinion on it,” he said.

“Any time you haves a change in administration, there is always some changes that go on, too. But a lot of what was being done will continue,” McDowell said. “Like I’ve told all the staff, I’m not here to change what they’re doing. I’m here to support them. And along the way, we’ll probably make some changes, but for the time being, we still have to provide for the city and the residents, and that’s our most important focus.”