By Paula Pyzik Scott

Jamie Hall wrapped up his “third career” working as the Village Administrator for Ada on Friday, June 22. If you can’t imagine Hall letting grass grow under his feet in retirement, you’re right. He is already talking about a fourth career driving school buses.

Countless discussions with Hall and covering twice-monthly Village of Ada council meetings have taught me that the role of Village Administrator is a little bit like being the Icon editor: the breadth of assignments is wide, you get to know just about everyone in the community and the only way to really disengage is to get out of town. Hall confirms that when out to dinner in Ada he’s usually greeted with “I’m sorry to bother you, but….”

At council meetings, Hall has favored large three-ring binders to keep close at hand the details needed to answer council member questions about projects past, current and future. At the June 19 Ada Council meeting, Hall discussed several large projects associated with $750K in CDBG grants received in September 2023. “Everything is finishing up nicely,” told the Icon. “We’re in pretty good shape.” 

Hall has been able to take several weeks to provide orientation for new Village Administrator Amanda Sears, who comes to Ada from the position of Administrative Secretary for the City Of Fremont, a position she held for almost 3 years.

Hall became Ada’s Village Administrator in February 2014 with experience in two sectors, commercial mechanical contracting and the retail garden center business. He says he grew up in the family contracting business but an oil crisis and recession led to that company being closed. Hall was connected by his first marriage to the DeHaven family and would work at the Lima garden center for 30 years. It was his father-in-law Norm Rex, a former Ada mayor, who suggested that Hall apply for the position of Village Administrator, which became his third career track.

Hall credits the garden center with giving him experience with budgeting, buying, managing staff and–the biggest thing–customer relations. “I think that the ability for me to step into the customer’s shoes and try to understand and to resolve things” was the most important growth he brought to the Village; “I think that people being able to come in and have a good conversation is huge.”

Asked how the work of running the Village gets done, Hall reflects, “The dedicated employees that we have…. If we had a mission statement it would be we’ve got to look out for each other’s back. We want everybody to succeed.” He continues, “With that, we were able to have continued growth.”

While council meetings are open to the public, they are often held with just the media present. Hall reflects, “Residents really don’t realize the energy and effort that our council puts into all these decisions [on Village policies and projects].... Everything has to go through council. I always appreciate it when they challenge the administration. We come up with an idea, and they’re going to say, why do we need this? Or how are we going to pay for this? We’ve had really good buy in with the council and the Mayor [Dave Retterer] stops in here every day.” He laughs, “I hate to say it, but it takes a village.”

What’s next for Jamie Hall? He answers, “When I walk out of here at about 3:00, I’ll start thinking about that.” One thing, though, is clear to Hall: “I owe my family a lot. I was in a situation where I walked out the door at 2:00 in the morning because of a line break or I didn’t make it home until 7:00 at night because I was busy at the office. [My wife] Valerie has been nothing but supportive. Ethan and Nate, my two boys, they understood, and so I think I really need to focus on my family and thank them and reward them for letting me do what I had to do.”