There’s a new City Manager in town!
Dalhart City Manager J. J. Oznick survived his first week on the job, and he said that it was wonderful!
“Everyone was very welcoming and helpful,” Oznick said. “There weren’t any surprises. I did a lot of research before we decided to move here, and I really believed that Dalhart was going to be a better fit for my family and myself. This is a wonderful community, and the people are great!”
Oznick moved to Dalhart from Eastland, where he had also been City Manager, with his wife, Kristi, and daughter, Lilli. Kristi teaches fifth-grade math at Dalhart Intermediate School and Lilli is in sixthgrade at Dalhart Junior High School. The Oznicks’ oldest daughter, Emili, is working on her Master’s degree in Social Work at Tarleton University, and son, Jay, is a freshman at Dallas Baptist University studying Finance.
Originally from Quinlan, Oznick attended West Texas A&M University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Management and a master’s degree in Business. He spent 20 years of his career in Vernon, where he was Fire Chief for five years.
Oznick stepped into his new position at a critical juncture. Dalhart is currently without a Finance Manager or City Secretary and is about to begin a new fiscal year on October 1. (A City Secretary was selected from the candidates at the most recent Council meeting on Aug. 26, but will not begin her position in Dalhart until Oct. 15.) He is still meeting staff members and assessing the overall situation, but said that he believes things are positive. “We have a strong team, with good people,” Oznick stated.
His first concern is to get people to actually come to Dalhart. “We need to get people to turn left or right off the highway. I’ve probably come through here a hundred times and never left the main road until I came for my interview, then I was struck by what a nice little town this is,” he said. “We need to get people to see that.”
Oznick also wants the people of Dalhart to know that his door is always open. “People don’t need to make an appointment to see me,” he said. “I’m here to help, to serve the community and make this a better place. Manager I want this to be a place that the young people, after they finish school, can return to and make a living. They’re the ones that are going to make it better for all of us in the long run.”
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