Ron Seaman leaving, South Heidelberg needs a new manager or two

by Steve Reinbrecht

South Heidelberg Township Manager Ron Seaman started working for the township in May 2003 after a career in Berks County government.

Now Seaman, 63, is returning to county government, and an office in Reading, to be Berks County’s chief administrative officer, the county's top non-elected post. The three Berks commissioners voted Thursday to appoint him.

After 13 years, Seaman will leave the township offices Aug. 12 and begin work for the county Aug. 17.

“These types of things don’t come along more than once in a lifetime,” he said

His exit means the township is stuck looking for a new manager. Or maybe two.

He said supervisors are considering hiring two administrators. One would manage public works – roads, storm management, parks. The other would take care of finances and day-to-day operations.

In the meantime, office manager Shelly B. Keehn will be in charge.

Berks County’s chief operations officer, Carl Geffken, left in March for a similar job in Arkansas.

Commissioner Kevin Barnhardt, a township resident, said the job opening came up informally in a conversation between him and Seaman. When Seaman said he was interested, Barnhardt and the two other commissioners decided to choose him or eliminate him before starting a search.

“It became pretty clear early on he was the guy,” Barnhardt told me.

Seaman’s county salary will be $95,000. He earns about $85,000 a year with the township.

The Census puts about 5,500 people in South Heidelberg in 2000 and about 7,300 in 2010. Berks County has about 415,000 residents.

Since taking the job in South Heidelberg, Seaman helped start a recycling program and municipal trash collection, cutting trash bills in half, he said, and reducing trash-truck traffic.

He arranged the sale of the former township building at 150 N. Galen Hill Road to the Caron Foundation for $1 million, and oversaw the move in June 2012 into the current building on Mountain Home Road.

He’s proud of the recreation program, which had 250 children on playgrounds this summer.

And the police department expanded to eight officers. The department’s new chief, Barry Whitmoyer, a township resident, started July 1.