The City of Danville is losing one of its key administrators. Public Works Director Doug Ahrens will leave his post in December and become the new Director of the Danville Sanitary District. He has been with the City of Danville for nearly 28 years.
Current Sanitary District Director Shelly Koers says Ahrens will bring to his new position a wealth of public entity experience along with familiarity of the billing and collection systems. She adds the Sanitary District is very happy to have Ahrens becoming the new director.
Ahrens plans to leave his position with the city in mid-December and will move to his new job effective December 18th.
Ahrens has guided Danville’s Public Works Department through some key changes and community improvements over the years. One of the projects which makes him proud is Temple Plaza ‘’which was once an eyesore and is now a community gathering place,’’ said Ahrens. And he says the city has been blessed to have community-minded people step up to help when the soccer fields at Winter Park were created. Ahrens says he also appreciates the way Municipal Workers Local 703 has cooperated with cross-training workers in the various divisions. In some cases, he noted, it involved concessions. Consolidating the Public Works and Parks Departments in 2002 and implementation of an automated solid waste collection system were other key projects that occurred under Ahren’s leadership of the Public Works Division.
Ahrens quipped that just because he will be leaving his post with the city he might still be back for the night city council meetings ‘’to get my three minutes.’’ That is the time restriction for people making public comments at the council sessions.
