If a wide variety of work experiences is a prerequisite for a good public-works director, the City of Kewanee has found the right man.
Chris Berry, who started this fall as Kewanee’s director of public works, has held jobs ranging from millwright to project executive.
After a year at Aurora University’s computer science program, Berry decided to begin as an apprentice in the building trades with union Millwright Local 1693 in suburban Chicago. He advanced to journeyman and worked on a variety of construction projects in Chicago and throughout Illinois, Indiana and Iowa until 2020.
He then worked in automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS) and robotics a traveling engineering specialist. That job took him to Japan and Canada, as well as throughout the United States.
Berry said it was his ability to communicate with the stakeholders he worked with that made his career a success. That ability “kind of comes natural,” he said.
“I was really passionate about doing big things,” Berry said, and he added that his ability to “make people’s lives easier” was key.
Then, last year, Berry decided to leave the company he’d been working for. “I was just ready for a change,” he said.
That turned out to be in Kewanee. Berry went through a consulting firm called MGT, which happened to be the company the city of Kewanee was using to help in its search for a public works director.
Berry said he had a minimum salary in mind when he met with then-City Manager Gary Bradley to apply for the job. Bradley offered a little more than he was looking for, so Berry accepted the job on the spot.
“It was really an exciting moment for me when Gary offered me the job,” he said.
He feels his union experience was a plus. Kewanee’s municipal workers are members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
Now, he said, he’s working to tailor his recommendations to what the City Council wants from the public works department.
