Jim Kasten has spent nearly all his 75 years living in Herculaneum, and for the past 16 years, he was the Herculaneum city administrator.
While he retired on Tuesday, he said he plans to remain active in his hometown.
Herculaneum City Administrator Jim Kasten has retired after 16 years on the job.
After graduating from Herculaneum High School in 1966, Kasten served five years in the U.S. Navy and Navy Reserves. He then attended the Naval Academy before finishing his education at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in education.
Kasten returned to the Herculaneum area after that to teach junior high science for the Dunklin R-5 School District’s Senn-Thomas Middle School for four years before teaching math and physics at Windsor High School for three years.
He then worked for 29 years at H.W. Herrell Distributing Co. in Imperial before former Herculaneum Mayor Gina Vinyard appointed Kasten city administrator in 2008 to replace Herculaneum’s first city administrator, Bill Whitmer.
Kasten also was a member of the Dunklin R-5 Board of Education for 15 years and a member of the Jefferson County Council for almost three years. He also served on the Jefferson County Water Authority Board, the Jefferson County Economic Development Commission and the Jefferson County Port Authority. He was the co-founder of Herculaneum Today and Tomorrow, a nonprofit group that works to better the city. He also was the city’s treasurer for 20 years and served on other Herculaneum boards and committees.
He is a member of Sons of the Amvets and the Elks and has served as a Scout leader.
While Kasten has served his community in many ways, he may be most well-known for his time coaching youth sports, including little league and high school sports.
Kasten was named track Coach of the Year in 1979 while coaching at Windsor High School, and he was named cross country Coach of the Year in 2002, 2006, 2008 while coaching for Herculaneum High School. He was Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA) Coach of the Year for 2003, as well as a finalist for national Coach of the Year.
He was inducted into the Missouri High School Track and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2010. He also was inducted into Windsor High School’s Hall of Fame in 2007 and Dunklin R-5’s Blackcat Hall of Fame in 2014.
City administrator years
Kasten said he is proud of the work for the city over the years, during which residents enjoyed clean water, as well as well-maintained roads, sidewalks, streetlights and park amenities.
He said there were many improvements to the city during his tenure, including the construction of the Mississippi River and Bonne Terre Railway Memorial Bridge, Kade’s playground, the Bay of Naples Splash Zone, the Joachim Loop Trail and the All Bark Village dog park.
He said there also were improvements to ballpark fences, lights and fields, and the city received the Tree City USA designation. In addition, the McNutt Corridor Community Improvement District was created.
However, Kasten said one of his proudest accomplishments is the hiring, training and retention of the city’s workforce.
“We’ve added great employees here. We’ve retained great employees. Our department heads are, in my opinion, the best of the best. You can’t run a city without good people,” he said. “Our Public Works director, city clerk, new building commissioner, police chief, fire chief, these are all great people who have put years and years into this city. They take ownership of what they do and pride in what they do.”
Gene Karr, 75, of Herculaneum, who has known Kasten since they were in kindergarten together, said he asked his old friend to work on three things when he got the city administrator job in Herculaneum: clean up the water, get city roads into better shape and get a good park for the city’s children.
“It seemed like it wasn’t long until those were completed, and I was thinking I should have asked for more,” Karr joked.
Karr’s wife, Sue, 73, said Kasten also came through when it came to her request for installing more streetlights.
“He was very good about it. He listened when you asked.”
Larry Sapaugh, 79, of Festus, who has known Kasten for more than 40 years, praised Kasten’s community service.
“I don’t know anyone else who’s worked in different positions at the school and as a city official for over 40 years,” Sapaugh said.
Crystal City Administrator Jason Eisenbeis said he has enjoyed working with Kasten over the years.
“He’s been a good friend and a good colleague. With Jim, you get honesty, you get integrity and you get values that are unprecedented,” Eisenbeis said.
Kasten said there’s one project he wishes he could have seen to fruition before retiring – the container-on-vessel port being developed in Herculaneum. The port eventually will see vessels filled with containers of cargo from around the world stop at the port and unload there.
“That’s the one thing that we’ve been working on since the beginning and I wish was further along,” he said. “I get a little frustrated, but it’s such big money, so when you’re talking about that kind of money, I guess a little city administrator’s wishes and hopes don’t really have much weight.”
Kasten said what he has enjoyed the most about being city administrator is interacting with residents.
“My goal was to try to let people feel like I did my best to help them, and even the most challenging ones, I would try to make them leave not mad. So that was kind of a goal, and I tried to do that the best I could.”
Kasten said the one thing he won’t miss, however, is all the meetings.
“You put in a full day of work, then coaching, and you just eat a meal, and you’ve got to get up and go to a meeting,” he said.
Kasten said he couldn’t have done the job without the support he’s gotten over the years from colleagues, friends and family, including his three children, eight grandchildren, and most importantly, his wife of nearly 54 years, Tina.
“She’s the glue that holds it all together. If you don’t have that support, when you go out in the world, you just don’t have that same feeling about yourself. The support from home and family and friends is really important.”
Kasten said that support helped him make the tough decisions, even if he knew it would not please everyone.
“I think sometimes when people get in these jobs, whether they’re elected or appointed, they’re afraid of the next election. They’re afraid to make decisions based on will somebody still vote for me? I think that’s the wrong way to look at it. I think if you make decisions based on the best possible information, even if they don’t re-elect you, you can look yourself in the mirror and say, ‘I did the right thing,’ and you move on because your friends and your family know you did (the right thing). They’re the ones who count.”
Even though he has retired, Kasten said he doesn’t plan to leave Herculaneum behind and hopes to be involved with the tree board and maybe eventually the park board, as well as volunteering when needed.
“The school and the town really define me. I feel like I owe so much to both places because it was a safe place to grow up where people cared about you, the teachers and administrators and coaches,” Kasten said. “To those who much is given, much is expected.”
Kasten said he is looking forward, though, to enjoying some relaxing mornings, a new exercise routine at the gym, visiting family, traveling with Tina, hunting and, of course, coaching youth sports.
“As long as the kids (he coaches) keep listening, and I feel like I’m making a difference, I’ll keep doing it,” he said. “It keeps me young, keeps me active. And it’s something I have a passion for.”
As of Tuesday, the city had not hired anyone to replace Kasten, who was paid $82,000 a year as the city administrator.
Herculaneum Mayor Ryan Wright has recommended a candidate for the job – Dusty Hosna – and while the Herculaneum Board of Aldermen didn’t approve the recommendation earlier this month, Wright said he plans to ask the board to vote again in April to hire Hosna.