NEDERLAND — When Chris Duque first came to Nederland as city manager he was met with the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. 

But that wasn’t the last natural disaster or near disaster Duque has seen in his tenure in Nederland. There have been other hurricanes, a drought, ice storms and more. 

Then there was COVID. 

But there’s been a lot of good and a lot of progress to be noted by Duque who has announced he will leave his post as city manager in the summer.

Duque informed city council recently that his employment with the city will end in the summer. He said it has been a distinct privilege and honor to have served as Nederland City Manager for the last 16 years. 

“I am proud of what we have accomplished with millions in street/drainage improvements, significant investments in the utility infrastructure, increasing our public safety staffing, addressing City facilities and parks, launching numerous community events, the responses to numerous natural disasters and emergencies, and significantly reducing the municipal tax rate,” Duque said.  “However, my greatest sources of pride are the team of City employees, the efforts to enhance our relationship with other local governmental entities and non-profit organizations, and bolstering our engagement with the community.”

Duque said the decision to leave was difficult and one made with lots of thought and conversation with family — and family is the reason for his departure.

The father of three has one child who will graduate in May and will be going off to college and he and his wife have family members who have had health issues. Currently, they are five hours away from their parents, and on several occasions, Duque was unable to be there for a parent in the hospital. 

“It kind of made us realize we’re too far away from family,” Duque said. “When we moved here 16 years ago we didn’t have family here and that’s been difficult.”

Knowing the challenge of recruiting a new person for the position of city manager is something on his mind. This is why he informed city council in advance knowing they will be looking for new leadership. He also notified senior staff as well.

The next step for the city is to find a new city manager. To do this a firm has been tapped that was used to replace the city’s finance director some years ago. He is currently waiting to hear the firm’s proposal then there will be a sit down talk with the council where details such as job postings, what things do they want to emphasize, what do they want to target, etc., he said.

The proposal could be ready for the Jan. 27 meeting. 

The change will be bittersweet. When he was speaking with city council he said he came to realize Nederland had been his and his family’s hometown for the longest. 

Duque discussed what makes the city attractive.

“Nederland has some very noticeable advantages; people want to be here,” he said. “Nederland, you know, is very much small town, USA and I like that. I like how that feels and I think most of the people that live here know that. It’s got a great school district, great organizations to help people. I’m always proud to say that I live here.”

That sentiment crosses over to disasters where people go out of their way to help others they don’t know.

“We’re going to do fundraisers. We’re going to do this, just to help strangers. And the help and support we’ve gotten from the community, through all of that has been just amazing and unfortunately, you have to go through a disaster to see that,” he said of the community. 

Nederland, he added, is a great place to live, a great place for your kids to go to school and a great place for your business.

As he looks to his departure in the upcoming months he also looks to assure employees that changes in leadership will not negatively impact them. 

In addition, there are a number of major projects in the work including water plant upgrades, a new emergency management site and improvements to the recreation center for accessibility.