New Riverside City Administrator Christine Yancey is excited to get to work.

Yancey started in Riverside on July 1st. This is the first time since the summer of 2015 Riverside has had a city administrator. The city council agreed that with the growing community, they wanted to bring in somebody who can help manage the city. Since the last census, the city of Riverside’s population has grown 3.4%. Yancey brings with her 17 years of experience in city government working in cities like Mount Vernon and Lisbon.

Yancey tells KCII News she’s excited about the future of the city, “There is a lot of potential. We’re looking at the downtown area, what we can do to bring that area back to life. There’s one residential development going on right now, then I think there are several others slated for development. There’s a lot of potential here.” Yancey adds that one of the priorities for both her and the city is to control the growth and to not overwhelm the local schools, “One of the things we talked about too, is making sure the schools are on board. Because anytime you have [growth] you want to make sure they have the capacity for whatever may come.”

Yancey says she’s very happy with how people have welcomed her to the community and invites anybody with questions or comments to reach out to her at City Hall in Riverside.