McCool takes reins as Lewistown borough manager
Trending
LEWISTOWN -- Kathy McCool wasn’t looking for another job when she crossed paths with Lewistown Mayor Deborah Bargo at a Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs conference. She enjoyed managing Paxtang, but the conversation soon turned to the possibility of working in the community where she’d grown up.
McCool mentioned that if Lewistown ever needed a borough manager, she’d love the opportunity to do the job. Several months later, she received a phone call.
Monday, McCool was approved to fill the roll as Lewistown borough manager, a position in the community where she was born.
Educated in local schools, she brings experience in municipal government, public education and military service. Her hopes for the job begin with a straightforward objective: stability.
“My goal is to bring some stability to the borough,” McCool said, describing a need for processes and procedures that preserve the knowledge required to run local government. She wants the borough’s institutional knowledge to survive changes in personnel, allowing employees and future managers to build on established procedures.
A familiar place
McCool attended school in Strodes Mills before graduating from Lewistown Area High School. She remembers a thriving downtown from her childhood, followed by years of decline that changed the community she knew. She believes the community has made progress toward recovering some of that activity.
That connection to Lewistown’s past extends to Borough Council President Matt Moore. Moore and McCool once played in the same high school marching band. Moore played bass drum. McCool played clarinet and mellophone, and after Moore graduated, she served two years as the band’s drum major.
Their shared history reaches back decades, but McCool understands that her relationship with the council must be built on clearly defined responsibilities and mutual respect.
“You just have to know how to treat people,” she said. “I know what my role is in municipalities.”
The return also changes something ordinary but important in her life: the amount of time spent traveling to work. McCool most recently managed Paxtang, in the Harrisburg area, after serving as borough manager in Steelton. She enjoyed her Paxtang position and said she was content to remain there, even while hoping the Lewistown opportunity might someday arise.
The shorter commute has already returned about 10 hours a week to her schedule. But the opportunity to serve her hometown means more to her than the time saved.
“I’m just excited to be working for the community I grew up in,” she said.
Lessons in public service
McCool’s professional background includes work as a human resources director in the public school system and service in both the Army Reserve and National Guard. She has also completed the process to become a certified borough official through the Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs.
She described her working life as a career in public service. “I know you don’t make a whole lot of money at it, but boy, can I sleep at night,” she said.
Her military service taught her that authority alone doesn’t guarantee effective leadership. As a young second lieutenant, she learned soldiers were more willing to follow orders when they wanted to follow the person giving them.
“While troops have to listen to you and follow your orders by law, it makes it a lot easier if they want to,” she said.
McCool describes herself as a servant leader, someone who guides employees, removes obstacles and helps them do their jobs effectively. She believes that approach also requires a productive working relationship with borough council.
“I see my role as the manager to guide and to remove barriers so employees can do their jobs more effectively,” she said.
McCool is equally direct about the limits of her authority. The borough manager is an appointed administrative official, not another elected member of council. She can recommend actions, but the decisions rest with council, and she is responsible for carrying them out.
She said Lewistown’s council has treated her with respect. Her own responsibility, she added, is to offer sound advice, follow the rules and apply them consistently. When residents face questions involving borough codes, she said, enforcement must be fair and consistent.
Work that can’t wait
McCool has identified two immediate priorities: wastewater infrastructure and roadway pavement management. Both involve the services residents depend on whether or not they follow the details of municipal meetings.
Beyond those immediate concerns, McCool wants to strengthen the borough’s internal operations. Clearer procedures, she believes, can preserve institutional knowledge and reduce the disruption that comes with employee turnover.
She also sees a role for borough government in Lewistown’s ongoing downtown recovery. McCool recalled a period when downtown seemed busy and vital, then a decline that residents of her generation watched unfold. Today, she sees reasons for encouragement, including the community’s Main Street designation and the work of Downtown Lewistown Inc.
She praised the organization’s efforts and said the borough should work alongside the county, Chamber of Commerce, visitors bureau and downtown organization. Improvements, in her view, depend on those groups cooperating instead of pursuing separate goals without coordination.
Measuring success
Three to five years from now, McCool hopes to measure her success through the people working for the borough. Improved employee relations and lower turnover, she believes, would indicate a more stable municipal government.
She also holds a larger ambition: seeing Lewistown recognized nationally for the way it conducts its business. McCool pointed to the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, which recognizes organizational performance, as an example of the standards she would like the borough to pursue. For her, the important part is developing sound practices that employees can rely on.
“So when you have a baseline of consistency, then you can be more creative,” she said.
It’s an ambitious goal for a new manager who also has immediate concerns about wastewater and streets. But her starting point is smaller and closer to home: a council willing to work together, employees with the support to do their jobs and procedures that won’t disappear when personnel change.
Months after telling the mayor she’d love to manage her hometown, McCool has her opportunity. The challenges facing Lewistown won’t disappear because its new manager grew up here. But she knows the community, understands the responsibilities of the office and has made clear what she wants to accomplish: a borough government that can function effectively long after the people running it have changed.
“I’m just excited to be working for the community I grew up in,” McCool said.