From Colorado to DC

When Josh Tetzlaff was getting his undergraduate degree in Business Administration -Economics, from South Dakota University, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do after college.
 
“Getting into city government was an accident,” he said.
 
During a shift at his part time job, he saw a newspaper article about a firm that was looking for people to do studies and research for  a downtown texas town, and he decided that it would be something he would be interested in doing.
 
Ever since then he has been involved in government.
 
During an internship with the City of Spearfish, South Dakota, while finishing his undergrad degree, Tetzlaff worked with both the City Planner and City Administrator, and at that point he realized what he wanted to do with his life.
 
He realized he wanted to work in local government.
 
“It made me realize that public service was something that I wanted to do and is something meaningful,” Tetzlaff said.
 
From there Tetzlaff earned a degree in City and Regional Planning,  at Clemson University, in South Carolina, where he got a culture shock after living in the state for two years.
 
After working in his first job in Wyoming Tetzlaff eventually landed a job in Colorado as senior planner for the  City of Brighton, Colorado.
 
Although, Tetzlaff has enjoyed his time working as a city planner through his first internship he knew that he wanted to eventually get into City Administration. This prompted him to enroll at the University of North Dakota this fall for Public Administration.
 
While Tetzlaff and his wife have enjoyed living in Colorado they knew that they wanted to move closer to home as their second child will soon be born.
 
Both growing up in small South Dakota towns, they knew that they wanted to find a town similar to where they grew up, in the midwest.
 
“We knew we didn’t want to move further from our hometowns,” Tetzlaff said, “we also wanted to be in a small midwest town to raise our family in,” he added.
After seeing the job posting for the Dodge Center City Administrator position, he jumped on the opportunity, as they knew it would be a great fit.
“I knew it would be a great fit for my career and family,” he said. “The close family values that places like Dodge Center has is something that was really attractive to us,” he added.
 
Tetzlaff explained that Dodge Center is in a great position in many ways especially for a small town.
 
One of these ways is that they have plenty of jobs something that oftentimes small towns struggle with.
 
Tetzlaff went onto explain that the next step now is coming up with ways to build a housing market that is suitable for anyone in any stage of their lives or whatever situation they are in.
 
This is especially important he explained for attracting people to live in the town, including those who already work there but can’t find housing to meet their needs.
 
Tetzlaff and his family are excited to move to Dodge Center and have already started the process of looking for a home to live in.
 
“We are ready for the next adventure in our live,” Tetzlaff said, “I love the work that I do,” he added.
 
Tetzlaff contract begins Jan.1.  He will be paid a salary of $89,000 per year.