Steamboat Pilot & Today

Oak Creek — The top four candidates for the Oak Creek town manager job have ample experience for the position. All but one has agreed to make the trip to Oak Creek to interview for the position Jan. 3.

Raywood Leibensperger, who lives in Florida, has the farthest to come and won't be able to initially make a trip to Colorado, Oak Creek Mayor Deb Van Gundy said.

However, he will do a phone interview Jan. 3.

"If that's the gentleman that we're interested in, he said he'd make the trip for another interview," Van Gundy said.

A Deland, Fla., resident for the past nine years, Leibensperger served as the city clerk and treasurer for Lake Helen, Fla., which has a population of 2,700 people.

According to his resume, Leibensperger oversaw 24 full- and part-time employees, prepared annual budgets for the city and managed city investments.

He also stated to have 25 years of management history in retail stores and was the manager of the public works department in Longwood, Fla.

Gary Scott, from Timberon, N.M., has been that town's manager since 1996. His responsibilities include coordinating all general office, water department and maintenance activities. Scott prepared and presented budgets to the Timberon Board of Directors and represented the town at county and state functions.

Before that, from 1981 to 1995, Scott was an assistant maintenance superintendent and mechanical foreman for the Homestake Mining Company.

Greg Lanning hails from Laramie, Wyo., where he has been a transportation trainer since 1998. With that job, he teaches classes for the University of Wyoming on surveying, bridge inspection and maintenance, snow and ice control and a variety of other transportation issues.

Before teaching, Lanning was the director of public works for Green River, Wyo., a town of 13,000 people. He held the job between 1996 and 1998. He also has nearly two years of experience being the city administrator of Powell, Wyo., and more than 10 years of experience as an engineer.

The fourth applicant, Guy Pfalzgraff, is the only Coloradan in the group. Pfalzgraff lives in Delta, where he was the regional manager for The Training Advantage, which is a federally funded, nonprofit job-training service.

Pfalzgraff has been a city councilman for Delta since 1994, and in May, he received a master's degree in public administration from the University of Colorado at Denver.

"We're real excited with these applicants," Van Gundy said.

Originally, the town narrowed down the finalist field to five, but the fifth applicant bowed out because he didn't like the pay, she said.