New administrator finds warm welcome in Steele County

Remember Bil Keane’s Family Circus cartoons, the ones with the dotted lines that show a child’s winding path home?

Asked how she got into government work, Steele County’s new top administrator Renae Fry said, “that’s probably a pretty good visual.”

On the job four months this week, the life-long Minnesotan graduated from University of Minnesota and Mitchell Hamline School of Law. Then, she said, she faced an important question: “Now what do I want to be when I grow up?”

That question led her to North Hennepin Community College, where she started teaching paralegal courses, then moved in the program director position. She left in 2015 after 24 years with HCC, having spent the last five as Dean of Business, Technology, and Career Programs.

“I thought, there’s gotta be something else out there I could do,” Fry said, that would incorporate all of her skills and experiences, including four terms on the Columbus, Minnesota city council.

A career coach she consulted suggested looking into government administration.

Fry took another bend in her path with an administrative position in Sauk County, Wisconsin, then returned to Minnesota to take a city administrator position in North Branch, her last post before coming to Steele County.

She believes government is where she’s meant to be.

“What I like to do is solve problems,” she said. “There’s a lot of diversity in government. It allows me to work across a broad spectrum of needs and concerns and opportunities. I look at it like a puzzle, bringing people and resources together, and then finding a solution to that need we’ve identified.”

Before applying for her new job, Fry said, she did her research.

“Steele County has a lot of stability,” she said. “There’s rich history. It's not a county in flux.”

It’s also a kind of “mirror” of North Branch, where she worked for nearly seven years. That city is also located along the I-35 corridor, in a largely rural area. As someone who grew up in the Twin Cities, she also found it appealing to have easy access to that area.

“My family has a farming background,” Fry said. “I felt like this would be an easy transition for me.”

Over the past few months, she said, she’s observed a county with a “vibrant economy,” a stable commercial and industrial base, retail businesses, lots of activities and open spaces. She’d been told about the Steele County Free Fair, which takes place every year in August, and described it as a “real gem and a nice way to celebrate the area’s success and growth.”

What has impressed Fry most, though, is the people.

“I was pleasantly surprised by how welcoming people are,” she said. “With any new job, there’s always that awkward period of adjustment, but I felt welcome from the day I started.”

That goes not only for county staff and elected officials, but also folks in local government, community and business leaders. Seeing “the value and strength in collaboration,” Fry is making it a priority to meet and engage with local organizations to see “how we can work together to serve the needs of the county without fighting for those limited dollars.”

Having worked in Wisconsin for a 31-person board of county officials, Fry finds working with Steele’s five-member cadre “very refreshing”.

“They’re all respectful, professional, genuinely interested,” she said. “They study the issues and seek clarification. All five do work behind the scenes to make sure they understand the issues.”

Serving on a city council, Fry added, “helps me to give them the information I would want to have. Having had that previous elected experience, I think, serves me well.”

Fry was forced to dive in to the deep end of the pool from the start. She hired on just as county officials started their budget process; the preliminary budget and tax levy had to be approved by the end of September. The county had several large construction projects underway and was in the process of hiring a new assessor, a new engineer, and a new human resources director.

“Those are critical leadership positions, so I had to make sure I was informed about where those searches were at,” she said.

From her first county board meeting, Fry also heard from residents who may be affected by the East Side Corridor project. The proposed north-south route on the east side of Owatonna, in the hopper for years, is expected to ease traffic congestion along main city roads. Those who live along one potential route have been airing their concerns at county and city council meetings for several years.

Fry said her role “is about making sure they understand the process. Every project, and particularly one with the significance of the East Side Corridor project, seems like it’s moving fast, but this has been in the process for 20 years plus. It’s one step at a time.”

She hopes to help people feel “a little less stressed about waiting for data to come in. There’s a process, we just need to follow that process.” And while she understands residents’ frustrations, Fry said, officials do hear them.

“We need to let the process reach its logical conclusion, and then look at the things we need to do to address these concerns.”