City’s public works director leaving Newton
By Daily News Staff
David Stewart has overseen a lot of big projects in Newton during his 6 1⁄2 years as public works director.
The Newton Municipal Airport terminal and hangar project, the synergy project demolition of Maytag’s former downtown property and, of course, the Iowa Speedway represent three of the larger projects in Newton’s history. In particular, the infrastrucure surrounding Iowa Speedway made for a challenging project. The city had to race ahead with plans at breakneak speed to have everything ready for the opening race in September 2006.
“I think we may have broke some records with that project just trying to build as much infrastructure as we did,” Stewart said.
Now Stewart is leaving Newton for a new challenge, taking on the Pubic Works Director position in Hazelwood, Mo.
Hazelwood is a little bigger than Newton with a population of 25,000, but the real difference will come likely from its proximity to St. Louis. As a suburb of a big city, Hazelwood doesn’t have a landfill or an airport to manage, like Newton does.
“Newton’s certainly unique in that not only does it have the full service infrastructure, but it has a landfill,” Stewart said. “You kind of have a wide range of responsibilities here.”
While there’s no landfill or airport to manage in Hazelwood, that community offers a few responsibilities that Newton doesn’t have, like big city traffic.
“Traffic jams in Newton aren’t quite what they are down there,” Stewart said, adding that it has been an honor and privilege to serve the community.
