Just one month after Herndon said good-bye to its town manager, Ed Moore, it will have to do the same to its public works director, Albert “Ron” Colan.
Town Manager Stephen Owen, the man who replaced Moore as town manager, must select a replacement for Colan, the man who replaced Moore as public works director, when he leaves on Feb. 28. The merry-go-round that is Herndon town government keeps spinning.
“Ed Moore’s a tough act to follow, I should know, but clearly Mr. Colan has proven up to the task. He will be missed,” Owen said. “Though I haven’t known him long, a few things clearly stand out. He’s a consummate professional and the management team loves him. By all measures, he has done a great job since Ed [Moore] left the same position a few years ago.”
While many residents might not know his name, they know his job. From trash collection to building inspections and from the Alabama Road improvement project to the recently purchased land for the future Cultural Arts Center, Colan has played a pivotal role in the day-to-day maintenance and future development of Herndon for the last 11 years.
FROM THE SUPPORT staff to the garbage collectors, Colan admires Herndon’s unsung heroes. Colan will miss them most. The outgoing director arrived in Herndon 11 years ago after 30 years with the Army Corps of Engineers, including a stint as public works director for Ft. Meade. For his first eight years in Herndon, he served as a deputy director to Moore.
“The reason I made the military a career was the soldiers,” Colan said. “The great thing about this job were the shop workers — they were the soldiers of this organization and this town. I thoroughly enjoyed working with them every day. We really developed a special relationship — they are the heroes of the town. We really have some strong horses around here.”
He will miss the camaraderie between himself and the town’s shop workers. Colan will also not get to see the completion of three projects that he has helped shepherd along: the cultural arts center, the new police station and phase IV of the Herndon Recreation Center. However, he won’t miss everything about his job. “Oh, I won’t miss the politics of this job,” he said. “It comes with the territory, but the politics almost did me in.”
In the last snowy days of his reign as public works director, Colan’s army of about 100 employees has been put to the test. With record snowfall, Colan’s cadre of workers has worked around the clock trying to keep Herndon’s paved arteries clear and safe. “He’s going out on top,” said Owen. “The work they have done to clear these streets is to be commended. I know he has been out there in the snow all weekend long.”
A HISTORY BUFF, born in the nation’s capital but raised across the Potomac in Arlington, Colan said he looks forward, after retirement, to a becoming a volunteer guide at the Manassas Battlefield Park. Colan will lean on his experience as a Civil War re-enactor to help him on the battlefield. For almost seven years, Colan, the retired Army colonel has been suiting up, along with 2,000, and sometimes as many as 20,000, other reenactors, in the Confederate grays about once a month for the 49th Virginia. “I just love being a private,” the retired colonel said. “It’s a great way to teach the young people what went on. It’s a living history. It is very historically representative and it really endorses Virginia’s heritage which as a Virginian is my heritage.”
A graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, Colan, like his predecessor Moore, came to Herndon after three decades with the Army Corps of Engineers. “Despite our similar backgrounds, I had never met Ed before I came here to interview,” Colan said. “But, we spoke the same language, though.”
With his working days dwindling, Colan is looking forward to the next chapter in his life. He and his wife of 38 years, Sophia, are staying in the area. Three of their six grandchildren are here and Colan says he has big plans. “I’m going to be a professional grandfather,” he said with a smile. “I know I also have to keep busy and I promised my wife that I won’t sit around.”
COLAN IS PROUD of the work he has done as director, but he is quick credit his predecessor, the Town Council and especially his staff. “I’ve got the greatest bunch of men and women here that anyone could ever want to work with,” he said.
Under his watch, Colan oversaw the construction of the downtown municipal center and Fortnightly Library. “That’s what I am most proud of,” he said, pointing out his office’s second floor window towards the remodeled downtown. “Of course, that was a sleepless task.”
Colan makes it clear that he is not taking credit for Herndon’s new downtown landscape. It was a vision of the town's elected officials to return government to downtown Herndon, he said. “It was our job to see that vision through to the end. This was the end of 20-year operation, so to have even a small role in building it, was a great reward.”
As the search for a replacement goes on, the Town Council is planning to honor Colan for his 11 years of service to the community at the Feb. 25 council meeting. “I really hold Ron in high regard, the town is definitely going to miss him. He was a key part of our leadership team,” Mayor Richard Thoesen said. “He has always exhibited the highest integrity and he is such a hard worker.”
Unlike the town manager position, the town council does not select the public works director. With the help of a search committee, Owen will have the final say on Colan’s successor. Applications for the opening were due on Saturday and Owen thought there were about a dozen legitimate candidates for the position. He hopes to narrow the list to three final candidates before the interview process. “Whoever it is, they will have to step right in and hit the ground running,” he said.
While the responsibility falls to the newly appointed town manager, the mayor and members of council will be watching closely when a final candidate is selected. “Mr. Colan did a very good job and I am sorry to see him go, but retirement is good,” said Councilman Dennis Husch. “I know it will be difficult to fill his shoes. It’s an important position, and I have confidence that Mr. Owen will make a good selection.”
The mayor said the selection of a new public works director is critical. “The public works department is swamped. I think Ron has a very heavy docket and the only way to improve is to try and find ways distribute the workload,” Thoesen said. “I think it is important to find ways to ease the burden on the director and his staff.
Colan agreed. His advice for his successor was simple: “delegate.”
“You have to distribute the effort amongst the employees both for the town’s benefit and the employee’s benefit,” he said. “That’s not always an easy lesson to learn.”
Challenges are out there for the Colan’s successor, not the least bit is the director’s laundry list of responsibilities. Unlike many municipalities, like Vienna that splits up traditional public works tasks, Herndon centralizes it all under one roof and one director. “We do it all here, from birth to death,” he said. “From building construction to building inspection.”