Farrell hires new city manager

May 10—FARRELL — After about five months without a city manager, Farrell hired a man from New Castle to take over the reins.

Shawn Anderson worked for a school district in New Castle and as a business consultant in Lawrence County. He worked on various projects for different clients.

Anderson started as Farrell's city manager May 1. City officials are still working out the details of his contract.

"My first step is to get in and understand the council's vision for the city," Anderson said. "I'd like to understand the programs that are already in place."

Anderson said he wants to make sure that he is able to figure out how to work with the state as well.

"I'm excited to be somewhere where I can use my expertise," Anderson said.

Anderson said he gives a lot of credit to fire Chief Mike Renner and city clerk Barbara Mosley, who served as interim city managers for the past months, filling the gap.

"They did a fantastic job and they are helping me get acclimated to the position," Anderson said. "I'm excited to get started. There's a lot of good staff here."

Renner thanked city council and the residents, pointing out that he is especially grateful to city employees for stepping up and helping him and Mosley for the past five months.

"It hasn't been easy," Renner said. "We didn't expect that going in it would be easy but I think that we have held things together."

Renner said he did not know what to expect taking over as interim city manager.

"I knew there were some issues and found others," Renner said. "I think we're on our way to correcting everything we need to correct and keep this ship sailing and moving forward."

Mosley thanked the community and residents.

"You guys took it easy on us and did not work against us," Mosley said. "I think in these last five months or so we've all grown a lot and came to a better understanding of some of the things that are going on here."

Mayor Kimberly Doss is looking forward to working with Anderson.

"He has a lot of connections to other people and he has a great financial background," Doss said.

Doss said something they were missing previously is that the city manager has to connect with other communities and lobby for Farrell.

"With all of us working together, hopefully we can get Farrell moving forward," Doss said. "We don't always agree but our focus is Farrell."

Follow Melissa Klaric on twitter @HeraldKlaric or email her at mklaric@sharonherald.com

Follow Melissa Klaric on twitter @HeraldKlaric or email her at mklaric@sharonherald.com