Clearwater City Administrator Kevin Kress announced this week he will be leaving the city for a position as city administrator of North Oaks, effective Nov. 21.

“I found out last week and let the mayor and council know,” he said earlier this week.

Kress said he has told the council in the past if he ever left it would be because of a position closer to home.

“If I was going to go after anything, it had to pretty much be right out my back door and a quality community,” he said.

North Oaks, once a part of White Bear Twp., is 10 minutes from his home.

“It was a very tough decision,” said Kress. “We have a good council and a great staff. It’s nothing that was going on here that made me want to venture out. It just happened that it was right there.”

Kress was hired by the city in March of 2015. Since then Clearwater’s parks and trails have undergone a major facelift.

“I really enjoyed everything we’ve done here. All five parks got new equipment. We even got a bonus park - archery park,” he said. “Pretty much every street in the city is new now, so there is very little street project work to do.”

There have also been new businesses located in Clearwater since Kress took office - Kwik Trip, Heritage Bank, Blaine Brothers Trucking as well as an increase in new homes built.

The city is currently working on a stormwater system along Co. Rd. 75 and a watermain extension under I-94. A proposed apartment building project on Main Street should be coming before the planning commission in the next few weeks.

“Those projects will be a challenging task for anyone who fills this position,” said Kress. “But anybody they get will have some experience there.”

The annexation agreement with Clearwater Twp. should be finalized when the council votes on the revised language at the Nov. meeting. And the council should be hiring a finance director shortly.

“For the most part we hammered out all the difficult projects,” said Kress.

Tuesday morning, the council held a special meeting to go over the process to find a new administrator.

The city will post the position and an interview panel will narrow down the list of candidates. That panel will include Deputy Clerk Deb Petty, Public Works Supervisor John Schmidt, Fire Chief Ryan Pridgeon, Mayor Andrea Lawrence and Councilman Wyne Kruchten.

“They’ll probably pick two or three finalists and bring them in the following week for an interview,” said Kress. “Ideally, they’ll get someone here by Jan 1.”