SYCAMORE – A Sycamore area native and former assistant director of the city’s public works department has stepped into the director role following the previous director’s retirement in December.

Matt Anderson, former assistant public works director for the City of Sycamore, said during a City Council meeting on Monday he wanted to express gratitude and thanks to the selection committee and to department staff for their support.

“I’m humbled and it’s an honor to serve the community that I grew up in and I’m really looking forward to the new role,” Anderson said.

Maggie Peck, the city’s human and administrative resources director, said after the meeting that Monday was Anderson’s first official day. Similar to how city police look at vacancies, she said, the city did an internal search for candidates to be considered for the public works director position.

“They came with a wide array of candidates internally,” Peck said.

Anderson’s new salary as public works director is $109,550, Peck said. His previous salary as assistant public works director was $97,988.

The update comes after former public works director Fred Busse retired on Dec. 23 after being with the city’s public works department for more than 30 years. City Council members and other city officials recognized Busse for his retirement during the Dec. 21 council meeting via Zoom.

During the Dec. 21 meeting, Busse said there were only about a dozen people working in the city’s public works department when he started in 1984. That number now is up to 27, and the department’s been in its current building for the past 18 years.

“It’s really incredible to think that Sycamore has doubled in population and more than doubled geographically, as far as what Sycamore is or what we see, and to be able to still keep the welcoming hometown feeling that everybody has come to love here in Sycamore,” Busse said at the Dec. 21 meeting.

Though Busse wasn’t born and raised in the city, he raised his family in the city and will always consider Sycamore his home, he said.

“I am proud to have been involved with what Sycamore is today.”