Travis Blosser shares a part of his vision as incoming Fairmont city manager in Q&A

Mar. 4—FAIRMONT — Travis Blosser has entered into negotiations with the City of Fairmont to settle on his contract to serve as its next City Manager. He agreed to sit down to a Q&A with the Times West Virginian to provide insight into how he'd serve the city's residents in his role as manager. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

TWV: Thank you so much for doing this. What is the thing that you are most excited to bring to Fairmont as city manager?

Blosser: I'm oozing passion to serve and engage with the community and take it to heights that it's never been before. I've just worked around local government, especially municipal government over the last decade here in West Virginia. I've seen what cities are doing, the successes they're having, I see the difficulties they're having, and the things they're trying to do to move past those. That has made me an optimist about what Appalachia has. Cities in the state have struggled, some that still do, but opportunities also lay before them. I'm excited to bring all of that experience to Fairmont.

TWV: What are some areas that you want to work on the most?

Blosser: I think the downtown core is extremely important. I don't just want to see the storefront with the little store downtown. While that is extremely important, the floors above need to be filled as well and have activity in them. I think that's important. But generally, my expectation is to come in, have conversations with department heads, as well as city staff and city council and start being out and engaging with the community and finding out what the community wants as well.

While my job is to implement policy coming from City Council, I'm also well aware citizens play a large part in this process, too. Improving our relations even further with Fairmont State, Pierpont, I think are huge.

TWV: What do you want your impact to be at the end of your tenure?

Blosser: If I'm thinking about 10 years from now, I want Fairmont to be in the position that every community in the state is looking at Fairmont and saying, 'We want to be like them. We want to be doing what they're doing. We want to see the investments that they're seeing, we want to see the economic growth that they're seeing. We want to have a community like they have.' I actually got asked that question by department heads in my interview process. That was my response. I want to see the city assert itself in the region, and be that community that everybody is looking at to be like.

TWV: What makes the role of city manager important?

Blosser: I think the role is not to play politics. It's to be steward of the ship that's continually pushing politics to the side. The job of city manager is also not to be parked behind a desk, the job of city manager is to be out in public. To get that public criticism at times when you need it. And get that public encouragement when you're working on certain things. By talking to the media. I do know there are some managers that are in tune and let the council speak and nod along. I think that's very important. Those folks are the elected folks. But I do think as the manager you are in a high level position that has a significant amount of responsibility to both City Council and the public. I think it's important that the public have access to the manager as much as they have access to elected officials.

TWV: How do you rebuild trust with residents who are unhappy with the city manager selection process?

Blosser: I think part of that is being out there in the community, being responsive, letting people beat up on you when they need to, because some people just need to make sure someone is listening to them. Every community you've got folks that bring forward issues and have problems. Sometimes people get in their head and write off those folks' issues and concerns. There was an issue with a particular person who was that person in the community. All the staff came to me and said, 'listen, they're the person that's always got a problem. They never end, even when you fix their problem.' I think that becomes problematic, because if I would have taken that path, I would have ignored an issue that when we fixed it, we heard from like six different residents in the neighborhood that called us and said, 'Hey, thank you guys for fixing that issue." So I think that's how you rebuild trust. Listening and hearing people out.

TWV: Will you make yourself available to the press?

Blosser: 100% I will. There's certain things in any governmental scenario where there's certain things you can't talk about, but I have never felt uncomfortable telling the press, 'Hey, that's not something I can really talk to you about right now. But when I can, I will.'

I'm excited to be home. I'm excited to bring a decade worth of experience, whether that's managing a small city in Shinnston, West Virginia and being city manager, utility manager and finance director all wrapped into one or, being city manager at Weirton and managing budgets north of $20 million. I'm excited and thrilled to get that opportunity to bring all of that back home.

Reach Esteban at efernandez@timeswv.com