Good things come to those who wait.
Arnold city officials are repeating that mantra as they wait for their next Public Works director to assume the post.
Missouri Department of Transportation area engineer Judy Wagner, who oversees the agency’s projects in Jefferson and Franklin counties, will take over the job in Arnold on Oct. 1 – one month after retiring from MoDOT on Sept. 1.
Arnold will pay Wagner a $100,000 annual salary. She is paid a $72,432 annual salary at MoDOT.
The Arnold Public Works director position has been vacant since May 1, 2018, when Ed Blattner retired.
Wagner, 51, of Mapaville accepted the Arnold job on July 6, 2018, but she asked the city not to announce the hiring until her retirement plan was finalized at MoDOT, City Administrator Bryan Richison said.
“I think it (the wait) is worth every minute,” Arnold Mayor Ron Counts said. “It is rare to have someone with this kind of experience. I think she is a rare find. I’ve had people in the county already ask me, how did you do that?
“I would be willing to wait two years if we didn’t already get her.”
Counts announced that Wagner will be the next Public Works director at the March 21 City Council meeting.
“I’m so honored that the city is willing to wait for me to retire here at MoDOT,” Wagner said. “I never expected I would leave MoDOT. It has been a great place, but I’m really excited about the challenge of taking on this new leadership role in the city.”
Richison said the city received 18 applications for the job, but didn’t find an exciting candidate until Wagner’s name came up as a possibility.
“Judy is friends with Mary Holden, our former Community Development director,” Richison said. “Mary knew Judy was considering retirement from MoDOT and thinking about the next chapter in her career. We reached out to Judy and asked her if she was interested in talking to us about our job. She was willing to talk. She made it clear that she wasn’t planning on retiring from MoDOT until 2019. We told her we were willing to wait.”
Tom Palasky has been serving as the city’s interim Public Works director and will return to his role as the assistant director when Wagner assumes the top job.
The city has been paying Palasky an extra $10,000 a year since he took over as the interim director, but his annual salary will return to $59,375 once he resumes the assistant director job, Richison said.
“He is doing really well,” Richison said. “He has done it all and kept everything running. You wouldn’t know we didn’t have a director. The snow got plowed and the potholes got patched.”
Richison said Wagner will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to Arnold.
She graduated from the University of Missouri-Rolla (now called Missouri University of Science and Technology) in 1991 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, and she is a licensed professional engineer in Missouri.
She completed internships for the Union-Pacific Railroad Bridge Division in 1989 in Omaha, Neb., and was a MoDOT maintenance intern in 1990 before being hired as a MoDOT construction inspector in 1991.
Wagner became a resident engineer in 1997 and was promoted to her current position in 2002.
“It is a sad loss for MoDOT that she is moving on,” said St. Louis district engineer Tom Blair, who has worked with Wagner for 22 years. “She has had a long, rewarding career at MoDOT. She has had a massively positive impact on our agency and the areas she has represented, most recently Jefferson and Franklin counties.”
While at MoDOT, Wagner inspected several big projects, including the I-270/I-55 interchange, the I-55 bridge over the Meramec River after it was widened, and the new stretch of Hwy. 21 and Jeffco Boulevard in Arnold after it was widened.
She said one of the things she is most proud of is leading the construction of the new Hwy. 47 bridge that goes over the Missouri River in Washington.
“Finishing that project before I retired has been a goal of mine, and that is something that is going to happen,” said Wagner.
In her job at MoDOT, Wagner also has communicated and coordinated with public interest groups, legislators and community leaders about projects; found funding sources for construction projects; responded to weather events and emergencies; and served as the transportation expert and adviser on several local transportation committees and task forces.
“Her experience at MoDOT is invaluable. She has basically done our job, but on a bigger scale for MoDOT,” Richison said.
One of the first tasks Wagner will tackle for Arnold will be to create an inventory and asset management plan for city streets. She said a database will show what street assets the city has, what condition the streets are in and how much it will cost to improve streets. It will also prioritize street improvements.
“The city, right now, doesn’t have a plan like that,” Wagner said. “They don’t really know the conditions of all of their roads. They don’t have an ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) transition plan. This is a very vibrant community. We want to make sure it is walkable and bikeable.”
Richison said he believes Wagner will help the city better maintain its streets.
“Judy is used to dealing and managing big projects, so I believe she will be able to do great things for us there,” he said.
As the Public Works director, she will oversee maintenance of all the city buildings and vehicles, assist and support all departments, oversee snow removal and stormsewer drainage and keep streets in working order.
Blair said Wagner will be able to handle all those duties.
“Judy brings a ton of experience in engineering, leading teams and public engagement to this position, which I think will be critical,” he said.
Wagner said she is looking forward to focus her attention on one city, rather than two counties.
“I’m looking forward to it because I can get in more to the details, the planning and making sure things get done,” Wagner said. “That has always been my goal as an engineer at MoDOT, to make sure things get done. I look at having the same challenges, but on a smaller scale. I’m hoping to use my experience in the two counties and all the cities I’ve been in over the last 17 years to help improve Arnold.”
Blair said MoDOT plans to begin its search to replace Wagner in early June and have someone in place during the final few weeks Wagner works in the department.
“These are big shoes to fill in MoDOT,” Blair said. “I don’t know that there will ever be another person who does the area engineer position the same way Judy has done it.”
She has been married to Mike Wagner since 1991, and they have two grown children – Mandy, 25, and Johnny, 22.