Carey Smith, who has been acting as the City of Georgetown’s interim administrator since June, concluded his duties Thursday after spending nearly a week with new Administrator Chris Carter.

Smith’s final task was the hiring of a director for the newly created Department of Public Services.

In September, council agreed with a recommendation made by Smith to combine the city’s Water and Sewer Utilities and Department of Public Works into a Consolidated Department of Public Services.

Jonathan W. Heald has been hired to head the new department.

Heald is currently an assistant program manager with Fluor Intercontinental FGG in Greenville.

Previously, he served as lead engineer for Fluor Intercontinental in Afghanistan. He also served for three years as senior project engineer with McGill Associates in Greenville.

 His municipal experience includes two years as the environmental engineering administrator for the City of Greenville. He also served for six years as utilities Engineer and assistant city engineer for the City of Bloomington, Indiana.

He is a graduate of the University of South Alabama with the Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering. He is a registered professional engineer in the states of South Carolina, North Carolina and Indiana.

When he begins in Georgetown, Heald will oversee Georgetown's public water utility, public works and fleet management operations. Other responsibilities include project management, capital improvement planning and serving as City Engineer for building and plan review.

Heald will begin work later this month.

A memo to council states while the actual services provided by the two departments are clearly different, the service population, the skills and abilities of personnel and the reliance on heavy equipment, some of it similar in use, make it likely that they could operate beneficially as divisions under the new Department of Public Services designation.

The creation of the new position, Public Services director, could provide a stronger management presence to these divisions and the technical expertise needed to lead this department effectively.

By Scott Harper

sharper@gtowntimes.com