Frank L. Myers says he’s ready to hit the ground running in his new position as Crestwood’s city administrator.

“I’m excited about the opportunity. I think my experience and skill set uniquely fit the community of Crestwood and the issues that it’s working through at this time,” he told the Call Friday.

The Board of Aldermen voted unanimously during a Jan. 17 closed session to name Myers the new city administrator, Mayor Roy Robinson told the Call.

During the Jan. 10 Board of Aldermen meeting, Robinson announced that Myers was his choice to become city administrator.

At that meeting, aldermen tabled consideration of Myers’ appointment until they could interview him during a closed session.

“… I had several aldermen interview me one on one, and the entire board interviewed me in closed session … It was a very thorough evaluation of my background and experience,” Myers said of last week’s closed session.

The new city administrator said he was pleased with the board’s unanimous vote.

“Certainly you like to be going in a situation where everyone is comfortable with you and feel you’re a good fit for such a re-sponsible position. The Board of Aldermen went through a process of asking me a wide variety of questions, and I felt they did a very thorough due diligence about my back-ground and experience …,” he said.

Myers succeeds Don Greer, who had served as both city administrator and po-lice chief since December 2002.

Aldermen voted in August to approve Greer’s returning to his full-time duties as police chief and discontinuing his city ad-ministrator duties when a new city administrator is hired and begins work.

Myers, 46, currently serves as vice president of marketing and local government services for the Kilduff Co., a retail development and consulting firm in Mequon, Wis. He holds a bachelor’s degree in or-ganization development Ottawa University and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Kansas.

Myers will paid $85,000 and will receive $5,000 for relocation expenses. He said he will not receive a car allowance, but “the city will be making available to me a car from within its existing fleet.”

Myers has 22 years of experience in local government, including 17 years of service as either a city manager or administrator, in-cluding, most recently, in Trotwood, Ohio, and Matteson, Ill.

He recently was a finalist for city manager posts in Clawson, Mich., and Mar-quette, Mich., but believes Crestwood is a good fit for him and his wife, Carolyn, a college professor.

Their son Mark is a honors student at Michigan State University, where he is in the James Madison School of Public Pol-icy.

Myers was present last week when aldermen voted unanimously to place a 20-cent tax-rate increase on the April 4 ballot that, if approved, would be used to retire the city’s indebtedness.

“Certainly the community has to get beyond its existing debt issues, short-term debt, and I believe this proposal addresses that debt issue, and I know the Board of Aldermen wrestled with the length of the time that 20 cents would be in effect and elected to go with seven years,” he said.

Noting that aldermen had been wrestling with the issue for some time, Myers said, “They had some very constructive dialogue and unanimously settled on 20 cents for seven years, and I believe with it properly being sold to the public, it has an ex-cellent chance of passing.”