Peru Police and fire chiefs named interim public works superintendents

You’ll see a couple of big changes in Peru’s public works and electric departments over the next year.  The first change has been the appointment of Police Chief Doug Bernabei and Fire Chief Jeff King as public works co-superintendents. 

They are Mayor Scott Harl’s appointments.  All but one alderman, Dave Potthoff, agreed to it Monday night.  King and Bernabei won’t be paid extra and both say they’re confident they can do the job in the interim.

They replace Sean Mikos who just ended a brief employment as the public works superintendent and city engineer.  Mikos was the first in-house engineer in years and Harl says he’s not sure if they will hire another one.

Harl says they need to begin looking for a new superintendent while keeping in mind they will soon need to hire a new electric department superintendent.  Current department head Jim Potthoff is retiring next summer.  Harl says the search for an electrical engineer is going to be tough because of the pay and the scarcity of people going into the field.