HUDSON — Sitting on the floor of Jeremiah Davies’ office on a Monday morning in March was a street sign from one of Hudson’s intersections. It had blown down in a recent windstorm, and a resident brought it to City Hall.

“Infrastructure,” Davies said wryly.

The street sign was just one thing, and the high winds that led to it sitting in his office were unusual. But overall, dealing with Hudson’s aging infrastructure is Davies’ top priority as city manager, a job he took over on Dec. 8. 

Davies said his goal in handling infrastructure is to be proactive rather than reactive. He started out by asking: “What are our priorities? What are the absolute necessities that we need to be taking care of?”

One of the top items on the list is replacing lead service lines in the city’s water system. The state of Michigan has mandated that all lead service lines be replaced by 2040, and about a month ago the city started working with the Get the Lead Out initiative, or GLO, through the Environmental Protection Agency and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.

Another major area of concern is sewer lines. The city is using cured-in-place pipe lining, a method that allows existing lines to be strengthened and repaired rather than having to dig them up and replace them. Maple Grove Avenue is the current focus of that effort, with work on that street’s sewer lines slated to finish this summer.

At the wastewater treatment plant, a $250,000 project is underway to put in a new boiler, which is needed for the treatment of the sludge that’s filtered out of the water. That should be installed by June.

Roads are a major focus too, with many of the city’s streets in poor condition. One thing Davies has been working on is coordinating with the Lenawee County Road Commission to see if efficiencies can be gained by coordinating plans when the road commission is working on a county road that crosses into the city, such as Munson Highway, which the county is working on this year.

Davies is also working with Lenawee Now on economic development, and talking with developers about housing in the city, since housing is such a crucial element in whether companies will want  to locate in an area. 

“We’re limited with housing here, so we’ve started to talk with developers because we do have some available parcels here in the city,” he said.

He’s also been talking with Sen. Gary Peters on the federal level, and with State Reps. Jennifer Wortz and Nancy Jenkins-Arno at the state level. Hudson is in Wortz’s district, but Jenkins-Arno’s district is adjacent and she is from the Hudson area. 

Hudson is coming out of a difficult time, including some major financial problems several years ago that led to the city parting with its former manager. Davies credits his immediate predecessor, Charlie Weir, with doing a good job of “righting the ship,” and he counts himself lucky to have had a transition period with Weir providing advice as he got used to the job. 

An Adrian High School graduate and Marine Corps veteran, Davies has a bachelor’s degree from Siena Heights University — business administration, with a concentration in finance — and a master’s degree in sports management from Adrian College.

He was most recently the city of Adrian’s parks and recreation director, a job he held for three years, and before that he worked for Adrian Public Schools. 

Davies’ connections with his former colleagues in Adrian have proven useful as he takes over Hudson’s top city job. He’s consulted several of them about things that are in their areas of expertise, and the staff of Hudson’s wastewater treatment plant recently toured the Adrian plant with Adrian utilities director Will Sadler. 

An informal monthly meeting of city and village managers that takes place in Lenawee County administrator Kim Murphy’s office has also proven to be a valuable resource, he said.

“I take the approach that if I don’t know the answer to a question, I know somebody who does,” he said.

Because Hudson is much smaller than Adrian, Davies ends up wearing a lot of hats. But a smaller size has advantages too. Because his office is within earshot of the municipal building’s front desk, he can hear when people come in with problems — such as when a resident brought in that downed street sign — and gets a chance to engage with them and learn more about the community.

Davies said his goal as city manager is to “continue to make Hudson a great place to live, a great place to thrive.”

Since becoming city manager, one priority has been been getting to know the Hudson school district. A strong school district is crucial for a small town, he said.

He’s also been meeting with groups like the Kiwanis Club and the Chamber of Commerce to get acclimated. 

“There’s a lot of good momentum here,” he said.