New finance officer a familiar face to many

Contributed story/photo. By Sarah Ebeling, Editor, The New Era Newspaper
sebeling@ncppub.com

Jans now in second month of new position

With almost two and a half years experience on the job as the deputy finance officer, Adam Jans seemed like the perfect fit as Parker’s new finance officer.
Jans began his new position the first of the year, taking over the reins from Jeanne Duchscher who retired the end of December.

Jans said that before working for the city, he had been a sales manager for Dakotaland Homes in Sioux Falls. But, Jans said, numbers and finances have always been “his thing.”

“I have always been a numbers person and always liked working with numbers. I have always wanted to be a loan officer or a finance officer,” said Jans.

But when the opportunity arose to work for the city, Jans took it. He said part of his influence was knowing that his grandpa had been the Parker School’s business manager years ago and his great uncle had been the city’s finance officer decades ago.

“And I have always wanted to be in this line of work,” said Jans.

Jans has been a lifelong Parker resident, along with his parents Renee and dad Darrel (Goose), who recently passed away. Jans now lives with his fiancee and two daughters in town and said he is loves being in Parker and loves his job.

“But, the hardest part is that I know the majority of everybody in town, so when you have a disgruntled citizen, doing my job makes it hard when you know everyone in the city,” he said.

“And when I have to do one of the challenging parts of my job, such as shutting off utilities or fielding phone calls because of parking tickets, I want people to know that it is nothing personal between myself and the citizen, I am simply doing my job,” Jans continued.

The best part of his job comes back to Jans’ love of numbers.

“Bank reconciliation. I want to see how much more money the city has at the end of this month compared to the end of last month and balance to the penny,” said Jans with a laugh.

“My other favorite part is visiting with the residents of the city,” he said.

Besides the day to day activities that Jans deals with at work, he also oversees every aspect of the city including employees, day to day finances, city improvements and so much more. The city has approximately 1020 residents, mails out 588 utility bills every month.

Jans said that anyone that has any questions or issues with anything concerning the city is encouraged to stop by or call the city office and let their concerns be heard said Jans.