Dan Smith has spent his life fostering transportation.
He brings experience from Greene County and the Missouri Department of Transportation to the city’s Public Works department.
Smith was picked above finalists Jonathan Gano, assistant director of Public Works, and Becky Baltz, district engineer for the Southwest District of MoDOT, to succeed Phil Broyles, who died from cancer in March. Earning a salary of $114,000, Smith officially started as director Dec. 1 after working over 10 years with the county.
Two weeks into the role, Smith told Springfield Business Journal his first goals are to listen and learn. He plans to lean on the assistance of Gano and the roughly 250 other Public Works employees.
“I always think it’s better to listen quite a bit before you charge in and start making any changes,” Smith says, noting his managerial style could differ from Broyles, but he wants to continue the work set in motion by the well-respected director of three years. “I will say that the best person to follow when you come into a position is someone who was fantastic, and Phil was fantastic.”
One obstacle Smith faces at the city comes from his former employer, MoDOT. The struggling state department earlier this year suspended its cost-share program, through which Smith says some $3.5 million in additional transportation funds were helping build large local projects such as the city’s diverging diamond interchanges and the railroad overpass on East Chestnut Expressway.
“Without that money being there, we really don’t have a way to replace it,” he says.
As Public Works director, Smith oversees the maintenance and construction of the city’s infrastructure, including 935 lane miles of street; 138 traffic signals; 38,000 traffic and street signs; 100 public buildings – comprising nearly 1.2 million square feet; 70 bridges and waterways; Hazelwood Cemetery; and 800 city vehicles. The department’s budget is roughly $45 million, he says, which compares to the $25 million budget he managed at the Greene County Highway Department.
“I enjoy the challenge of solving problems, and with a system like this, there’s always problems,” Smith says. “The thing that makes it manageable, from my perspective, is the fact that there are so many good employees at the city of Springfield. They’re the ones who bring forward solutions to these problems.”
Smith says he gained an education in the value of the transportation system early on in life, as well as the interconnectivity between roadway systems and business.
His father, who owned a saw mill, told stories about how MoDOT widening U.S. 60 to four lanes improved his lumber business. “That enabled him to go further away from his saw mill to buy logs, which allowed him to expand his business and hire more people,” Smith says. “I really think transportation is fundamentally important to the development of business. Where would we be without a fantastic roadway system?”
This installment of Springfield Business Journal’s Architects & Engineers Project Report showcases 26 endeavors by area design and engineering professionals.
