Nate Anderson new city administrator
It’s official. Hill City resident Nate Anderson was appointed as the new city administrator at the Hill City Common Council Meeting Oct. 28.
The motion to appoint Anderson was unanimous, and he was sworn in by mayor Tana Nichols.
Afterward, alderwoman Lori Miner said, “The entire council had an opportunity to meet with Nate before tonight, and we believe that he is a good candidate. He has an excellent work history, I guess you would say of things he has accomplished, his leadership and management skills. We believe he will be a good fit. That’s why he was selected. So I just want to include you, the public, as to how we came to this decision.”
“Trust us, we did not take this lightly,” said Nichols.
“We’re excited to have him,” said alderman Justin Thiry.
“I thank the vote of confidence from the mayor and the council. I’m looking forward to meeting the team and (public works director) Justin’s (Asher) team and everybody around. There’s a lot more to the city than I think a lot of people recognize,” said Anderson.
Anderson grew up in Custer and later left for the military. About five years ago, he had the opportunity to move to Hill City for a job at the 1880 Train, where he served as the business operations manager.
“I’ve tried to become a good part of the community since then,” said Anderson. “I’m looking forward to moving over here to city hall.”
When asked about his qualifications for the position, Anderson said, “I have an engineering background. I was a marine engineer by degree. I worked in both marine engineering and nuclear engineering for ship propulsion primarily. Promoted into management in those fields.
“Then around 2012, I got a master’s degree in education, and I actually taught high school math and physics for a little while as well. In 2020, the train where I had worked 25 or more years ago had a position available, and I applied for that. That’s how I ended up back in the Black Hills.”
In between, Anderson lived everywhere from New York City, to Washington State, to Montana.
“I kind of moved around and just kept coming closer back to home here in South Dakota,” said Anderson.
For the last two or three years, Anderson has also served on the city’s park board and is currently the vice president. He was involved with the Tracy Park remodel, Memorial Park planning and the Ponderosa Park pavilion project.
Anderson was attending the Sept. 23 council meeting on behalf of the park board when the announcement was made that former city administrator Brett McMacken would not be reappointed.
“That was the first I’d heard of that. But I had been involved for a couple years with the Park Board, and I was familiar with a little bit of what the position held and I had an interest in it. So at that point, I had a little interest so I talked to the mayor and went from there,” said Anderson.
As he takes on this role, Anderson said, “I look forward to getting to know the team and getting to know the regulations behind city governance and making sure that I’m in line there. And take some time obviously to listen to concerns and listen to the staff and understand the issues.
“I do have that technical background so for things like the water and sewer, I think I can support Justin (Asher) in that and understand what the engineering team is trying to do with the plans that they’re laying out.”
Officially, Anderson will not start serving until Nov. 18 after he attends to prior commitments. Until then, he will be able to access files and review information at his leisure.