By Eric Betz | Arizona Daily Sun
After a year and a half under the guidance of Interim County Manager Mike Townsend, Coconino County has finally found a permanent hire. And she is no stranger to the interim tag herself.
Since her retirement from full-time, permanent city government work several years ago, Cynthia Steelhammer has been filling in for cities while they search for a permanent manager. She spends time in between gigs with her family and young son.
She says the arrangement had worked well for her, but now she’s ready to stay in one place for a while and thinks Coconino County is the place she’d like to call home. In fact, it isn’t too much different from the rural Minnesota area where she grew up.
“Everybody who’s ever listened to Garrison Keillor knows everything there is to know about my family,” she said.
Her favorite place to spend time as a child was on her grandparents’ farm, which was also home to her horse. She is the oldest of four sisters and a brother and the oldest daughter of an oldest daughter.
She says one of her greatest challenges will be helping the county find a way to cope with its aging and drastically under- funded roads — all 930 miles of them. About 460 miles worth of road are county-owned, but the rest are property of the Forest Service or tribes, even though the county manages them. Paying to maintain and improve those roads will be a challenge, as the state and federal governments have stripped away tax funds that once helped rural counties.
“There absolutely, positively aren’t enough resources to do what needs to be done,” Steelhammer said.
She added there are tough choices to be made ahead and she plans to help lay out the options for the County Board of Supervisors.
