Smith settling in to new role as RO city administrator

Red Oak’s new city administrator is returning to her Red Oak roots.
Kyra Smith, who officially began her duties with the city May 31, was born and raised in Red Oak, but has been away for the last 20 years.
“I spent four years at college, but I didn’t come home often, because I was working as a youth counselor at a Lutheran summer camp in Ashland, Neb. I got to ride horses, and sleep in teepees. It was a fun experience,” said Smith.
After college, Smith said she moved to the northeast Nebraska/South Dakota area, where she worked at the University of South Dakota for 12 years as the purchasing property manager.
“The place where I lived was literally across the river from Vermillion, S.D. I always liked to tell everyone I would drive over the river and through the woods to get to work, because I literally did. I did all the bids for the buildings, and general repairs,” commented Smith.
During this time, Smith got her master’s degree in business while raising a toddler. She said she hopes to be working soon on a master’s in public administration and seeing what credits can transfer.
Smith, looking for a change, left the University of South Dakota and moved to Kansas, where she became the senior purchasing administrator for Johnson County, Kan.
“They are one of the richest counties in the nation. They had a $1.9 billion dollar budget that we worked with, which is a bit of a difference from Red Oak. I worked there for about four and a half years, and have built some great working relationships over the last 18 years that I’ve been in public education and local government,” stated Smith.
When the city administrator position opened in Red Oak, Smith, looking for an opportunity, saw a chance to not only be closer to home, but to make change in the community and see it forward. Smith was notified about the opening by her family.
“My family was keeping me in the loop because they were pretty eager to get my family moved back here as well, so they were the ones that told me about the opening,” Smith said.
Smith has currently settled in Red Oak, while husband Shane, who is also a Red Oak native, remains in Kansas preparing the house to sell and looking for a position in the Red Oak area. The pair has been married since 2022. Smith said the whole family is ready for the move.
“The girls are excited, because they can be closer to family, and Shane has family around here too.”
Smith said being able to return to her hometown and make a difference was a driving factor in deciding to apply for the city administrator position.
“The city definitely needed some leadership that was willing to move forward and see things get done, such as fiber internet and housing development,” explained Smith. “I see that they have a lot of those items in the works since I started, and I am in full support of those things, and I’m here to make sure that we’re doing it right and following things correctly, as well as being able to build a cohesive team here that works well together, among the staff, the members of the city council and the public. I see that is happening already and would like to make this the best place to work and live.”
Since Smith was competing against several other applicants for the position, she admitted being a little nervous, but she also believed in herself.
“I had the mindset that if it was meant to be, it would happen. I had actually applied for a couple of city administrator positions. It was fun, as well as nice to be able to come in and see everyone face-to-face, and find out from them what they envisioned from the new city administrator, and how they would have a part in the operations of the city, since they’re the ones out there putting boots to the ground while we’re here making sure everything is being compliant,” advised Smith.
Smith said the call to offer her the job came at an interesting time.
“It was exciting to get the call.  We were in California on vacation when it came through. We immediately started trying to make plans, and I had to prepare to tell everyone I worked with in Kansas that I was leaving. It was hard, because I had grown a very strong relationship with them. But I knew it was what we needed to do to be closer to everyone, as most of our family is located in Southwest Iowa,” Smith commented.
Smith said since May 31, she’s jumped in head-first into the new role and is looking forward to taking the burden off of the other staff who have picked up extra duties in the interim.
“They’ve been working as hard and as quickly as they can, and there was not a lot of cross-training. That’s definitely something I’m wanting to change, so if people are out sick, or want to take a vacation, they’ll have someone that can back them up and cover their position so they can be away without worrying what they’ll come back to. We had that coverage when I worked in Johnson County, and it was very nice to have that communication,” Smith said.
As she continues in her new role, Smith she’s focusing on a couple of areas.
“I’m looking forward to meeting with companies that possibly want to bring their business to Red Oak. That’s something I’d like to see grow. Also, I’d like to see fiber internet come in that will hopefully attract more businesses. Where I’m currently staying, the first three days we were here, the internet at the house went down every night,” stated Smith.
Smith had a special message to share with the citizens of Red Oak as she settles in as the city’s administrator.
“I’m learning a lot. I’m excited to get back to my roots in Red Oak and see how things can progress. I want to make Red Oak the city I remember when I was in school. There was always something going on it seemed like, I want to see something like that return. We’re also in the process of working on a City of Red Oak Facebook page and some other social media pages so we can get information out to people that way as well. We’ve got many exciting things coming moving forward.”