Craig Meadows

CHRISTIANSBURG — Former Bedford city manager Craig Meadows will become the Montgomery County’s new county administrator after formally accepting the position during a closed meeting this afternoon.

“I’m very excited and very happy to be accepted by the supervisors,” Meadows said after the meeting.

Meadows, 48, is replacing former administrator Clay Goodman, who left in March to become county administrator for Roanoke County. 

Meadow’s contract begins Aug. 1, a Saturday, so his first day on the job will be Aug. 3.

Goodman’s salary at the time of his departure was $132,590. Meadows will earn $140,000.

Details were worked out down to the wire, ending with a 3 p.m. closed-door meeting of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors to work out Meadows’ compensation package and formally offer him the job.

Meadows attended a 5:30 p.m. news conference with his wife, Rhonda. Beforehand, he said their primary focus at the moment will be to find a place to live. Meadows said he has no idea where that will be, but knows that it will be “somewhere that has a house big enough to fit [the couples’] five teenagers.”

Supervisors have held several closed-door meetings to discuss the administrator search in recent weeks, but never publicly named any of the candidates or finalists.

Meadows had been city manager of Monroe, N.C., a city of 31,000 residents about 20 miles southeast of Charlotte, until February. The 2008 census estimates a population of 89,967 for Montgomery County.

According to a Feb. 5 newspaper article in The Enquirer-Journal, Meadows resigned after he was informed that the city council wanted to move in a new direction.

“We didn’t feel that he was focused on the things we wanted him focused on,” Monroe City Councilman Bob Smith was quoted in the article.

Smith added that he thinks Meadows did some good for the city and that he originally recommend Meadows for the position in 2005.

Meadows received a $140,000 severance package from the city of Monroe, according to the newspaper.

Shortly afterwards, Meadows served as interim town manager of Red Springs, N.C. before accepting the Montgomery County position today.

Meadows served as Monroe’s finance director and assistant city manager from 1991 to 1998. He moved to Bedford in 1998 and held the city manager’s job there until 2005, when he returned to Monroe as its city manager.

Bedford finance director Rosie Jordan, spoke highly of Meadows when she learned the news.
“Montgomery County, congrats to them,” she said. “They are getting a wonderful person and I think they will absolutely love working with Craig.”

Montgomery County’s supervisors say they are comfortable with their decision and look forward to working with Meadows.

“He’s got a real good personality for this kind of work, we’ve really did our homework,” said Supervisor John Muffo.

Muffo noted that Meadows’ Virginia management background is similar to Goodman’s, who served as the city manager of Buena Vista and town manager of Vinton before becoming Montgomery County’s administrator.

“I felt very comfortable with him and I think he’ll be an asset to the county,” Supervisor Mary Biggs. “I’ve heard nothing but positive.”