New public works director settles into position

• Image: Jim Eulberg

Jim Eulberg, Worthington’s new Director of Publc Works, poses by a truck recently in the city maintenance shed. (Aaron Hagen/Daily Globe)

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WORTHINGTON — After years of working in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, Jim Eulberg was ready to get back to that small-town feel.

Having grown up in Hudson, Wis., Eulberg jumped at the opportunity to move to Worthington.

“After many years of working in the Twin Cities, I was ready to work somewhere other than the Twin Cities,” Eulberg said. “I had grown up in Hudson, and kind of liked that small-town feel. I had worked in Hudson for three years before going to the light rail. I basically wanted to get in the public works and into a more small-town atmosphere.”

Eulberg, who is the new Director of Public Works, began his duties about a month ago.

“It’s going good. It’s a learning curve,” he said. “You plunk somebody in that doesn’t know any of the streets and all of that. The phone rings, you pick it up, ‘I have a problem at X address.’ Well, I’m having to look up at the map and figuring out where it is. I’ve gotten to the point where you could drop me off just about anywhere in town and I can at least make it back to the shop.

“I’m getting most of the streets down. I may not know exactly where they are, but I tend to have an idea that it’s in this part of town and I could find it.”

Outside of figuring out the streets in Worthington, Eulberg has been learning the community’s expectations.

“I did it in Hudson and I’ve done it in other places,” he said. “On the one hand, it’s all the same, but it’s different because every community has their own set of standards of how they want the snow removed. Part of it is learning what is the expected level of service that the city expects.

“It’s a fine line. You don’t want to be sending the guys out doing a super job. Well, you run out of money with overtime and sand and salt. But you don’t want to be too cheap and not put sand and salt on when you should. Part of it is learning what is expected.”

One new experience for Eulberg will be the maintenance of the airport.

“The other thing that’s been interesting is the airport,” he said. “It isn’t particularly difficult. But I haven’t had to deal with an airport before, so there is a whole new set of stuff to learn.”

The people he works with have been a big help in the transition.

“The guys I have working for me are excellent. The know what to do, they don’t need a lot of guidance,” Eulberg said. “You tell them this is what we’re going to do and you’re not having to go out there and hold their hand. They keep working. It’s not something where you go out and they are goofing off, they are not. Those guys are working and they are doing a good job. I’ve been very, very happy with the streets and parks guys. They’re a really good group of guys.”

Replacing Jim Laffrenzen, who was an employee of the city for 42 years, isn’t easy, but Eulberg isn’t going to make a lot of changes right away.

“When I started, I sat the guys down and talked to them and said, ‘OK, I know change is scary. Having a new guy come in is scary enough, let’s just kind of try to run it sort of how it has been and let me take a look at how it’s been,’” Eulberg said. “Undoubtedly I’m going to have some ideas that maybe we should try this, but let’s get everybody used to one another and see how it goes. Maybe the way some of the stuff is going I wouldn’t do it this way, but after watching, you decide that maybe is a good way to do it. No need to get too crazy making changes right off the get go.”

Before coming to Worthington, he worked on the light rail in the Twin Cities.

“I had spent five-and-a-half years working on the light rail between St. Paul and Minneapolis,” Eulberg said. “I was in charge of getting the utilities relocated. We reached the point where basically that was done. The whole job isn’t done, but the utility portion is done. It was time for me to move on.”

Eulberg is married and between him and his wife, they have four children and seven grandchildren.

And so far, he has felt very welcome in the community.

“I remember it growing up in Hudson, everybody was friendly and said ‘Hello’ when you passed each other in the grocery store,” Eulberg said. “There is more of the small-town charm and small-town friendliness. That’s been a pleasant experience. It’s something I’ve enjoyed and it makes you feel welcome.”

When he’s not working, Eulberg is an avid outdoorsman. He enjoys hunting and is a tournament bass fisherman.

“The last number of years I’ve fished 20 or 30 tournaments a year, ranging from big tournaments to fishing in a Tuesday night league,” he said. “It’s like if you had a softball league or a golf league, we’d have a fishing league where we’d fish 12 or 14 tournaments on Tuesday nights.

“Those are pretty low-key and more fun. Other ones are a lot more pressure. I had Skeeter and Yamaha Motors sponsor me.”

Eulberg has traveled all throughout the U.S. and Canada fishing, and has done “OK.” However, with the new job and the move this year, he has cancelled his tournaments for this year.

“I suspect I’m going to be busy enough this year,” Eulberg said. “Will I miss it? Absolutely. Am I going to get out of it? Absolutely not.”

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Coordinator Aaron Hagen may be reached at 376-7323.

Tags: news, public, works, eulberg