New city manager wants to bring Minot together

MINOT, N.D. (AP) - Minot’s new city manager wants to help bring greater unity to a community working through flood recovery.

Tom Barry, who recently started in the job, addressed some of the issues that are on his agenda during a news conference Dec. 16 in City Hall, the Minot Daily News (https://bit.ly/2hLUmm4 ) reported.

“I am excited to get to the good work of the city. There’s a lot of it, I have been learning,” he said. “It’s been a wild education. There’s a lot of things to get up to speed on and I am very excited to tackle that work.”

Although he’s had limited chance to get acquainted with the community in his first week, he said he can detect Minot is in a state of recovery.

“It’s a very warm community, but you can tell it’s a community that is healing. It’s been through a lot. There are still a number of different opinions in regards to what’s happened, what should happen,” Barry said. “I would like to see the community come together more. There’s some opposing views about how things are or how they should be.”

He said he wants to educate himself further about the community and try to unite people in working toward the community’s vision and goals. His initial impression of Minot has been favorable.

“The community has been outstanding,” he said. “It’s just been a very, very warm welcome, and it just affirms the decision we made to join the city of Minot.”

Barry brings to Minot with him his wife, Alisha, and their four children.

“There are certainly a lot of expectations by our community that I hope to be able to meet and exceed. There’s a number of issues that are already beginning to form. Certainly, flood control is an issue that we have to continue to be diligent about,” he said.

Having attended a Corps of Engineers meeting on a flood protection study Thursday, he noted, “That work is very impressive and is a culmination of many, many years of thought and collaboration and unity. I am grateful for the community’s commitment to that.”

He also indicated he will work closely with area legislators during the upcoming session and will be involved in the change of government coming next June with the shrinking of the city council’s size.

“Our economic outlook is something that we are going to be paying particular attention to,” Barry said. “The economic outlook going forward is looking maybe a little bit less than we would like and so we are going to have to be creative with our budget and our spending and we are going to have to be careful about where we place our priorities.”

In the short term, he said, he will be looking for operational improvements within city government, including any streamlining or internal controls that can improve efficiencies.

“I will be working with the team to identify any low-hanging fruit initially. I know from talking with some of the business folks and just general residents, there’s a number of different ideas out there and expectations, and we will see what we can do to advance those that are meaningful and important and have the biggest impact to our community,” he said.

Barry also expressed appreciation for city staff.

“They are extremely dedicated and talented, and I am very impressed,” he said. “Just in the first week I can tell we have a very, very good team, and I am excited to be a part of it.”

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Information from: Minot Daily News, https://www.minotdailynews.com