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Dalton enjoying challenges in first few months as assistant city manager

Staff photo by Clay Schuldt Chris Dalton sits in his new office as Assistant City Manager for New Ulm. He said he’s excited to join the New Ulm community.

NEW ULM — On April 4, Chris Dalton became New Ulm’s new Assistant City Manager. He is the first employee to fill the position since 2011.

In addition to serving as assistant city manager, Dalton takes over economic development duties for the city and his work is cut out for him.

Dalton’s first week in the office saw the surprise closing of Elkay Manufacturing. In a short time he needed to figure who to contact in Minnesota’s Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) and determine if the city need to fill in any gaps. Fortunately, Elkay had setup job fairs and contacted state representatives to help with employee transition but it could have been worse.

Dalton said it was sad that Elkay was leaving, but on the positive side New Ulm now has a relatively new building in the industrial section of town.

“If there is another company that wanted to come in they could,” he said. “They wouldn’t have to spend a year or two building.”

There is no average day for the Assistant City Manager, especially when the emphasis is on economic development. Dalton compared his work as an economic developer to customer service. If a business owner calls, he is there to help in anyway possible whether its through building site selection, permitting process, or incentives.

“I want to be a one-stop shop for business owners,” Dalton said.

He believes the biggest need he sees for New Ulm is filling downtown. With Herberger’s closing there will be new opportunities.

“We want people to come downtown,” he said. “There are opportunities through the Chamber to fill those spots.”

He also want to see the Airport Industrial Park fill up. Dalton said if one business falls into place another follows suit like a positive domino effect.

Dalton has high hopes for New Ulm and he has enjoyed his first three months in New Ulm.

“I have yet to have a bad experience dealing with the community,” he said.

He is now starting to settling into a new home with his wife Austin and 14-month-old son Jaxon.

Dalton is a California native. He was born in San Jose and grew up in Salinas near the Monterey Bay area. He attend California State University of Long Beach, where is where he started his career in city government.

Dalton got interested in city government while trying to find a college job.

“I went to a temp agency and they asked me what my ideal job would be,” he said. At the time he said mail room clerk because he could deliver mail and do homework in between deliveries.

The temp agency found him a position with City of Long Beach as the publications clerk in the economic division.

Dalton was not there long before he was organizing tax seminars for the city. He described it as a “trial by fire,” but it gave him experience with economic development and city government.

Through the job he learned about the different departments of city government and he found it interesting.

Dalton eventually graduated in Business Administration with a concentration on Marketing. After college he continued working for the City of Long Beach, but went from Publication Clerk to Community Information Specialist.

He later moved to the City of Santa Ana and became the Economic Development Manager. In Santa Ana he worked on a State Tax Credit program called the Enterprise Zone. It was one of California’s only incentives to attract businesses.

Dalton was motivated to move after deciding to become a homeowner. In southern California, he was priced out of the housing market. At least $80,000 was needed for a downpayment. Dalton’s wife agreed that buying a home in southern California was unrealistic.

“We both love traveling and we were both thinking we need to get out of California,” he said. Once their son was born they realized they needed to either save money to afford a downpayment in California or find a home elsewhere.

Dalton began searching open positions in government and after two weeks found New Ulm was searching for an Assistant City Manager.

After sitting down with his wife and reviewing housing prices in New Ulm they both agreed this was a place to start their family.

Moving to Minnesota from California was not a huge culture shock. Dalton had initial concerns about adapting, but said the biggest thing he had to get use to was the closing times of businesses. A lot of businesses in southern California are 24 hours or at least open extremely late.

Dalton has handled the extreme weather quite well. He arrived the first week in April and then on the second weekend New Ulm was hit by one of the worst blizzard the city has seen in 27 years.

Dalton said when it started snowing he went to the grocery store and got enough food to remain indoor for the whole weekend.

The near constant rain New Ulm has seen in the last few weeks is also a change since southern California is rain free most of the year, but Dalton has enjoyed the change.

“When it does rain southern California many people act like its the apocalypse and forget how to drive,” he said. In Minnesota, things are much calmer. Dalton said he intentionally took a drive during the last storm just to wash his car.

Dalton is excited to be New Ulm’s Assistant City Manager. This is the line of work he sought for his entire professional career and he intends to remain in it for the long haul.

Dalton is still meeting with people and trying find the pulse of New Ulm. Throughout the rest of the summer Dalton hopes to meet with as many local businesses as possible to figure out what they need from his office.

“Everyone I have spoken to has been super friendly,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed being in this community. They are all appreciative of me talking to them.”

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