David C. Stahl, Sr., was selected as Kremmling’s new Town Manager at Wednesday night’s town meeting. His contract was approved for $65,000 a year with allowances totaling $11,600 for insurance, retirement, and a vehicle.
Stahl is a three-generation Coloradoan who currently resides in Erie with his wife of 41 years, Patricia. Patricia currently works for Boulder County and will retire in April.
Stahl likes living in the Colorado mountain areas and is familiar with the Kremmling area. One of his sons worked in Hot Sulphur Springs for Grand County. Stahl has five grown children and seven grandkids.
“I have a vast amount of experience in both the public and the private sector. I enjoy working with folks, especially the staff,” Stahl explained of mentoring and sharing his knowledge and experience.
Stahl mentioned in his interview he would make an effort to meet with all the business people in the community. “It is a partnership. Without one leg of the chair, we are done,” he remarked of the business sector.
He also recognized the importance of grant writing and believes a lot of the process of successful grant writing is networking. “I have a vast amount of experience in both the public and the private sector. I enjoy working with folks, especially the staff,” Stahl explained of mentoring and sharing his knowledge and experience, “At some point, hopefully, you can promote from within and won’t have to go outside to look for a town manager.”
Stahl has already read the Town’s codebook.
“Codes should reflect what your current vision is and what your philosophies in terms of how you want to manage the city,” remarked Stahl who believed the Town’s codes should be updated and modified to reflect current times. Stahl read the Town’s codes before the interview.
When updating codes, Stahl recommends collaborating with the community, residents, and Chamber of Commerce by having open houses and meetings for transparency.
“Beginning code enforcement can be very contentious. It requires a lot of one and one, meetings, and explaining the benefits to the folks you are trying to persuade to do something different whether it be to cut the weeds, deal with abandoned vehicles…”
He continued, “There needs to be consistency and consensus in moving forward with new policy.”
His decades of experience spans titles such as Director of Parks & Recreation, Director of Public Works, Director of Community Development, Director of Public Transportation System, City Manager, and Town Administrator. He has managed cities with populations of 300,000 with staffs of 200 to smaller towns with a population of 350. Cities, where he has worked, include Aurora, Westminster, Louisville, Basalt, Central City, Greeley, and Dolores. According to his resume, notable projects include downtown redevelopment projects, new water treatment facilities, pipeline projects, and waste treatment facilities. In Louisville, he coordinated financing, planning, construction and operation of a municipal golf course and 60,000 square foot recreation center, municipal complex and public library.
Stahl also worked in the private sector. He is familiar with building new infrastructure and homes. As the president of Horizon Homes, he identified sites and was responsible for real estate acquisition and development to manufacture modular homes. He also helped build charter schools and private prisons with the Facilities Development Group. As the Senior Development Director for Homart Development Co (Sears Roebuck and Co) in Chicago, he was directly involved in feasibility studies, planning and engineering of infrastructure construction. “We did mid-rise suburban office buildings and regional shopping centers around the country. I was placed in the real estate owned division. Primarily we were taking properties that had been acquired over the years but were not suitable for development as a regional mall or a midrise suburban office building – we would go back in and replan them for mixed-used properties, doing local commercial, residential mixed-use properties.”
Stahl is expected to begin his official duties as Town Manager on September 17.
