The city of Springfield found its next public works director — and it’s someone with a lot of experience in local government.

Springfield has hired former Effingham County administrator David Crawley to run its public works department. The city offered Crawley the position late last week, and he accepted.

“I think that he will be very valuable to the city of Springfield due to his knowledge and experience dealing with leaders of organizations in the community,” said City Manager Brett Bennett. “He doesn’t have to learn each respective government boundary, services provided, location of infrastructure, and already has an understanding of who our major customers are. It’s going to eliminate a large portion of what would typically be a significant learning period. He can hit the ground running.”

The city got approximately 15 applications for the position, which became open when Matt Morris left to be the project manager for the Effingham Industrial Development Authority.

Crawley was named county administrator in August 2008 after serving as zoning administrator and assistant county administrator. He began working for Effingham County in 2003 following a stint as senior wetlands biologist for Kern-Coleman and Company. While there, his duties included natural resource planning, mitigation planning and monitoring, wetlands delineation, GIS land planning, protected species surveys and environmental planning.

Crawley holds a bachelor’s and a master’s in biology from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington.

Crawley resigned as county administrator May 21 under pressure, accepting a separation agreement that included one year’s salary of $90,000 and health insurance benefits.

He also was given his accrued vacation, sick leave and administrative leave time.