photo by: City of Eudora

Kevyn Gero

As the city of Eudora gets ready to grow outward, it has looked inward to fill its top City Hall position.

The Eudora City Commission on Monday agreed to hire Kevyn Gero as the community’s next city manager. Gero, a former city of Lawrence administrator, has been the assistant city manager in Eudora for about two years, and has been serving as Eudora’s interim city manager for the last six months.

“Those six months in our interim role really cemented it for us,” Eudora Mayor Tim Reazin said in a brief interview with the Journal-World.

Monday’s city commission meeting provided some reinforcement about Gero’s tenure. The city announced that it has received a $21 million RAISE grant, which is part of the federal infrastructure. Gero has played a key role in the city applying for and receiving that grant, Reazin said. The grant will fund major improvements along the southern section of Church Street, which is a heavily travelled street that runs in front of the community middle and high schools.

Prior to joining the Eudora city staff, Gero had worked for more than nine years in Lawrence City Hall. She had served as a management analyst in the city Municipal Services and Operations department, and also played a key role in obtaining accreditation for the Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical department.

Reazin said Gero’s past jobs gave her broad experience in areas such as transportation, utilities, and public safety.

Her next job likely will involve a big dose of growth management. Eudora, a town of about 6,000 people in eastern Douglas County, is less than 10 minutes from the 4,000-job, $4 billion Panasonic battery plant that is under construction in De Soto. The plant is expected to put new growth pressure on Eudora. Reazin said one of Gero’s first tasks will be to hire a full-time city planner.

Gero is replacing Barack Matite, who left Eudora in late January to become the deputy city manager for the Washington, D.C. suburb of Rockville, Maryland.