Perryville City Administrator Brent Buerck has been recognized in a Kansas City, Missouri, business magazine as one of the “50 Missourians You Should Know.”
Ingram’s Magazine, the leading business publication in Missouri and Kansas for 50 years, covers business, industry and economic development trends throughout the bi-state region.
The write-up provides a brief overview of Buerck’s educational background and career opportunities.
“Perryville native Brent Buerck had a plan: After earning a degree in criminal justice, he spent 13 years working with the Missouri Division of Youth Services and at-risk youth.
'I loved it, and my original plan was to retire early, get my doctorate and teach college." Funny thing about long-range plans: Things change. Buerck headed to Mizzou to work on his master's degree, and that's where he took on an interest in local government.
‘I saw this as an opportunity to work to make people's lives better,’ he says. ‘I saw it as a place where I could make a tangible difference and improve the world, or at least a very small part of it.’
'So, after securing that master's in public administration, and with a quiver full of diverse professional experience arrows-public policy, emergency and project management, human resources, and employee supervision — ‘I also knew I was at the mid-point in my career in state government, and if I waited too much longer, state retirement would get too close to leave.’
'In 2009, Perryville came calling, and the hometown fit was perfect in an unusually thriving community of 8,500 souls.
‘So many of the good things begin and end with our relationships and reputation,’ Buerck says of the city.
‘We work very hard, but we all pull in the same direction.... We don't look for 'easy' as much as we try to do what is best for our community, even if it is hard.’”
Asked how he ended up on Ingram’s Magazine’s “50 Missourians You Should Know,” Buerck replied, “To be honest, I have absolutely no idea. I asked the same question. I asked how they came across Perryville and southeast Missouri because it’s a pretty good distance away. [The reporter] said at the time he wasn’t certain how it happened. Maybe it was an alumnus that had suggested me. I really don’t know how to answer that. I have no idea how they found us.”
However the magazine found out about him, Buerck doesn’t feel worthy of the honor, but said the community he’s privileged to represent is.
“That’s what motivates everything we do — elevating our community. And if calling us out individually helps that, it’s OK, but that’s not the motivation. Individual accolades are far less important than lifting our community. Yesterday, I was at the Missouri LAGERS Annual Meeting, where Tracy Prost was represented and selected as the local government hero of the year.
“LAGERS represents 36,000 active employees and another almost 30,000 retired employees. And for Tracy to be represented is a pretty significant honor, and I’m proud of her and I’m proud of our community. At the end of the day, it’s all about how we can help lift our community.”
According to Buerck, he has worked for three mayors, and each of them has been consistent in what they wanted the staff to accomplish — to create a foundation the community could build on.
“I think that’s the things that we’re doing. We’ve been working on the Chester Bridge for decades. We’ve been working on the airport for every bit of 10 or 12 years. To finally bring those things to fruition sets our community up for future growth and opportunity that a lot of smaller communities don’t have. The mayor called about three weeks ago, the last time it rained. If you remember, we got like four-and-a-half inches, and it was intense rain. It came hard and fast and the first thing he did was ask the staff if we had any sewer in basements.
“It wasn’t that many years ago, we would have had 10 or 12 calls in the morning after something like that, maybe more. And the board said, ‘Look, this isn’t OK. What happens one of us happens to all of us. So, to see that the things that we’ve been doing quietly behind the scenes that nobody thinks about sewer until it’s in their basement is working. I think that’s incredible and that’s the story. Most people won’t even realize it happened, but if we do our job right, they shouldn’t even know.”
