Just eleven days after Junction City’s new City Manager was hired, he was starting his first day.

Gerald Smith started Monday and said that his first couple of days has been spent, “reading and getting familiar with the contracts and agreements the cities committed to and getting up to speed on projects and programs that are currently underway.”

From what he has already learned he did say that he believes the city is heading in the right direction,” Communities around the country are in a similar boat, some far worse than where Junction City is.”

The focus and the commitment represented by the City Commission to move forward was an attraction for him,” Clearly they were about moving forward and willing to work collectively to address the problems that the cities confronted with right now.”

Over the next thirty days or so Smith plans to continue to learn about the city and it’s day to day business. After that he will begin putting his own touch on things. Smith said that he is a firm believer in working with the community and plans to reach out to the residents. “I believe that we need to reach out to the community and we need to talk to them. We need to get a feel, we need to get a pulse of the community to find out exactly what their thinking is and whether or not we’re on the right track. If we’re not then we have time to get back on track.”

Smith is the successor to Gerry Vernon who took over as the City Administrator in Mission, Kansas in June.