Town losing administrator to BHC

The Town of Greybull’s administrator and finance director for the past eight years has resigned.

Paul Thur informed Mayor Myles Foley on Tuesday, May 18 that he had accepted a job with Big Horn County to serve as its airport manager and land planning manager.  His hiring was approved and announced that same day by the county commission.

He said the idea of working around an airport is what appealed to him the most.

“I worked building and maintaining airfields in the Antarctic for more than 10 years, so I know I enjoy being part of airport operations,” he said.  “It certainly won’t be an apples-to-apples correlation between Antarctic airfields and Big Horn County airports, but it’ll be close enough where I am hitting the ground very familiar with airfields.

“The other appealing thing is that one of the focuses will be development of the airports. I have enjoyed the economic development part of my job with Greybull, and feel that I can help the airports get some development momentum.”

Thur’s first day with the county is June 1, but he doesn’t intend to leave his post immediately. To ensure a successful transition to his replacement at Town Hall, he’s offering to split his time between the two for the next couple of months.  He envisions spending four hours a day working for the county, the rest of his time “creating checklists for the new hire, doing turn-over and other normal tasking” while gradually tapering to an hour or two per day.

“I envision needing to spend several hours per week helping the town on Frontier Subdivision, the pool, and phase two of the sewer upgrades project,” he said. “I feel a responsibility to the town to ensure that nothing gets lost in the transition, nothing falls behind and Greybull continues to succeed.”

Reflecting on his eight years with the town, Thur said, “The thing that I am most proud of is that I was able to be a part of some major projects and efforts that have made Greybull a better place to live (levee re-certification, pool, Greybull Business Park, Frontier Subdivision, utility upgrades and general economic development). 

“My only regret would be that there were/are a few issues that arose that I could have handled a little better. I won’t name anything specific, but hindsight is always 20/20.

“I just really feel honored to have been able to be a part of making our town better. My motivation to make this a great place to live is still there, I’ll just be trying to improve the community via a different route.”