{"id":54622,"date":"2013-04-30T23:27:02","date_gmt":"2013-05-01T05:27:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/phillips-takes-reins\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T16:13:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T16:13:52","slug":"phillips-takes-reins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/phillips-takes-reins\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillips takes reins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Phillips\"
Phillips<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Heather Alvarez can take a deep, cleansing breath.<\/p>\n

When town administrator Tom Yennerell left in December for a job in Henniker, N.H., Alvarez stepped in to fill his shoes, on top of her responsibilities as clerk and treasurer.<\/p>\n

Alvarez admits the last four months have been a stretch. But if feedback from the Mancos Town Board of Trustees is any indication, she\u2019s done a fine job.<\/p>\n

Mayor Rachael Simbeck took a moment at last week\u2019s board meeting to officially recognize and thank Alvarez for her work. The trustees, town staff and citizens in the audience applauded.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Alvarez passed the torch to Andrea Phillips, who moved here from Columbus, Ohio, last week to fill the administrator post.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be taking directions from the Board of Trustees \u2013 they set the policy, and I\u2019m responsible for carrying it out and overseeing day-to-day operations of the town,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Phillips\u2019 resume shows 10 years of public-sector experience. Most recently, she worked for seven years as a budget management specialist for the city of Columbus. Prior to that, she was a policy analyst with the Ohio Schools Facilities Commission, which advocates for better school buildings.<\/p>\n

The Mancos job isn\u2019t Phillips\u2019 first spell in Colorado. She studied political science at the University of Colorado-Boulder, graduating in 1999. As a student, she visited the Four Corners and camped at Mesa Verde National Park. Phillips later finished a dual master\u2019s degree in public administration and city and regional planning at Ohio State University.<\/p>\n

Columbus boasts a population of 800,000 people, but Phillips says she understands and appreciates small-town living from her youth in Granville, a quaint hamlet 35 miles from the city.<\/p>\n

Phillips and her husband, Matt Besecker, have purchased a house in Mancos, which they share with their miniature schnauzer, Omar. They enjoy hiking, camping and otherwise exploring the outdoors.<\/p>\n

Phillips beat out two other applicants with local roots. Sherri Dugdale, assistant to the Durango city manager, is a Mancos resident. Mark \u201cMac\u201d Myers, also of Mancos, served as district attorney for the 22nd Judicial District after Jim Wilson\u2019s death, and retired from law in 2011.<\/p>\n

A selection committee interviewed all three finalists in February and opted for Phillips.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to be here. It\u2019s a beautiful area. My husband and I are looking forward to meeting residents. I\u2019m excited to get started working,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n

lukeg@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

administrator hails from Ohio<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[13,83],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-54622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-mancos"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54622"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63143,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54622\/revisions\/63143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54622"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=54622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}