By Mari Radtke
For the Board members of O’Brien County Conservation members July has been spent conducting interviews with potential employees. In all, 3 days were taken up to interview 9 candidates. On Thursday July 22 barely a quorum of OCCB members attended a special meeting to finalize 3 of those selections.
The board chose Chris Van Beek and Joe Feekes to fill 2 Conservation technicians. The board also selected Travis Scott to fill the vacated Director’s position. Long time director Terry Boltjes retired in October 2020. He was replaced by long time operations manager Brian Schimmer. Schimmer quit the position in May without notice. The technician positions were created by OCCB following the en masse departure of the O’Brien County Conservation rangers. Citizens questioned the need for Conservation to employ 5 full time, year round law enforcement officers.
Travis Scott comes to O’Brien County from his Conservation position at Black Hawk County. Scott has filled that position for five and one half years. Prior to his position with Black Hawk County Scott filled a similar position at Decatur County, Iowa located south of Des Moines on the Iowa/Missouri border. He spent the first 5 years of his career with Decatur County. Scott describes Decatur County as “very rural with 2 small campgrounds and a couple other small spots.” While living and working in Decatur County Scott was also a member of the fire department. Director Scott does have his basic fire certifications. He explains that the topography in Decatur County is very different from O’Brien County and said that during certain conditions the volunteers would keep a full staff of fire fighters at the station around the clock. “We would answer about 300 fire calls a year there,” he said. Scott also went through the law enforcement academy in 2011.
Scott moved to Black Hawk County to work in Conservation there. He said it was a much bigger place. There was a lot more to do. “There were times I would have over 200 campers at a time,” he said to emphasize the difference between the two experiences.
Scott first learned of the O’Brien County opportunity at www.mycountyparks.com. He said it interested him so he came to O’Brien County and camped and looked around. He is acquainted with former staff members from O’Brien County so he says he talked with them, too. Scott liked what he saw and heard, so decided to apply.
Scott was selected to fill the director’s position. This is his first venture at the head of an organization, but he feels ready. In his young life each move has been toward an advancement of some kind.
When asked if he preferred the law enforcement or the conservation he replied, “Conservation side of it; the education side of it, just getting out and doing the maintenance work in the field and learning about the history of the area and things like that.” He affirmed that he started looking into the history of the area already. He said, “I’d like to get to know the area a little better before I can really dig in.”
Scott’s starting place is to get the team together and learn and just move forward from there. “I can’t say I have a definite plan yet because I haven’t started yet, but it’s gonna be discussions with the board and see what direction we want to go. But for now I think everyone’s done a phenomenal job with the parks and that’s gonna be my main focus is having some discussions with the public and getting out in the campgrounds talking to people and seeing what we can improve on,” Scott explained about developing his plans for going forward. He describes the camping facilities of O’Brien County as “top-notch,” saying the campgrounds have been well cared for.
It was also decided at the Thursday evening meeting that Scott would make the ultimate decision with the board about future hiring to OCCB.
He recognizes that he has a lot to learn about his new undertaking.
Scott grew up in Livermore, Iowa, north of Fort Dodge. He comes to the area with his 2 Weimaraner dogs. He is looking for a place to call home, centrally located. He begins August 9, 2021.