City Of Wenatchee Hires New Public Works Director

The City of Wenatchee has hired a new Director of Public Works.

On Thursday, the Wenatchee City Council unanimously approved Tom Wachholder to take over the position.

City Administrator, Laura Gloria, says Wachholder is well known to Wenatchee and brings a wealth of assets to the job.

"We have coordinated with Tom a lot in the past as a team because of our need to coordinate with other agencies within the region. But he has a great depth of knowledge and experience with utilities and construction. He really has all of the divisions that we have in our public works department well covered or has some experience with them. So he just came out on top as the leading candidate for the position."

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Wachholder previously worked as the projects development manager for the City of East Wenatchee prior to being the public works director for the City of Leavenworth.

Gloria says the City received about 20 applications for the position.

"We had a lot of very qualified candidates. We kept saying during the hiring process, 'gosh, we've got such a great problem with such a tough decision to make because we have so many talented individuals who've applied for the position'".

Prior to his stints with East Wenatchee and Leavenworth, Wachholder also worked for the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife and the Washington State Department of Transportation.

He replaces Rob Jammerman who is retiring after spending the past six years with the City of Wenatchee.

Gloria says Jammerman will be available to assist with Wachholder's transition in an unpaid advisory role.

Wachholder's will start his new job on July 15.