By Brenda Erdahl
Among a handful of new faces at Maple Lake City Hall is the new City Administrator Scott Hildebrand.
Hildebrand joined the staff on July 29th and is working on getting to know the community by trying to meet someone new every day.
“This is a gorgeous community, and it has that small town feel that I’m comfortable with,” he said.
Hildebrand has been working in local government since 1996 and took on his first role as city administrator in 2016. His most recent position was with Landfall Village and before that the City of Pine City.
Hildebrand is originally from Southwest Kansas, and he earned his education at colleges throughout the Midwest. Being from a small town himself, he said Maple Lake is a natural fit for him.
He enjoys the hands-on role of small-town administrators and feels that kind of experience will make him a more well-rounded administrator. Larger communities tend to focus on the administrative part of the work, he said, while in a small town, he can take part in everything from processing permits to being hands on with the budget.
“In a small town you are never bored,” he said.