BECKLEY, WV (WOAY)- The city of Beckley has officially sworn in Micheal Resare as the first official city manager. He says it’ll be a big responsibility, but he’s ready for it.
“So there’s a lot of big expectations going along with that,” Resare said. “I’m definitely equipped to meet that challenge and excited to bring my expertise and experience to the City of Beckley here to help make it consistent with a lot of the other cities in the United States.”
This comes after a vote in early 2024 to change Beckley from a strong mayor government to a city manager style. Resare comes from Arizona where he served as the Deputy City Manager for the City of Wilcox. He managed a variety of departments there in that role, he also has experience as an attorney ranging from prosecution to debt collection.
Mayor Ryan Neal said the city council made a unanimous decision to hire Resare. The two are already talking about what they want for the city.
“He’s told me ,what he sees from an outside perspective, what he thinks the great qualities about Beckley are. WVU Tech here, being a college town, right here off the Interstate [and the] National Park,” said Ryan Neal, Mayor of Beckley. “So the sky’s the limit. He and I just have to figure out how to bring more businesses in and more activities for kids and things like that.”
Among plans to boost tourism, they hope to bring more businesses, like Target, Home Depot, and more small businesses to Beckley. However before they can hit the ground running with that, resare says there are organizational structures that they have to focus on.
“I’d love to get a third party in here to do an analysis of the different organizations, the departments, their workflow, and help streamline a lot of the departments to make sure that they’re following a common practice in other cities that are out there right now,” explained Resare. “And I think that would be very effective to try to stick to the kind of budget and utilize the city’s resources in the most appropriate way possible.”
Resare says that he’s excited to have come to Beckley. His exact words were, “Why would you not come to Beckley?” He sees a plethora of opportunities and he wants to make it happen. He and Neal will try to work together to make Beckley better.
