WINNSBORO – Winnsboro’s town council voted unanimously on July 2, to offer a two-year contract to Interim Town Manager Chris Clauson to serve as the town manager.
Clauson succeeds Jason Taylor who became Newberry’s Town Manager on July 1.
With 10 years of experience in local government administration, Clauson has served as the assistant town manager for Winnsboro since July 2021. Prior to that, he served Fairfield County as the community development director for just over three-and-a-half years under Taylor who was then Fairfield County Administrator.
“The Town will be in good hands under Chris,” Taylor said. “During the six years I’ve worked with Chris – three years at the county and three years here in the Town – I have found him to be an honest, intelligent, and capable manager. His institutional knowledge of the county and the town is invaluable, and it’s just been a pleasure to work with him.”
Clauson also served as the chairman of Fairfield Forward. Prior to coming to Fairfield, he worked for the Town of Chapin as zoning administrator and before that was with the Santee-Lynches Regional Council of Governments (the Sumter-based regional planning agency.)
Clauson holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Liberty University, a Professional Master of Business Administration degree from the University of South Carolina Darla Moore School of Business, and a Master of City and Regional Planning degree from Clemson University.
Prior to enrolling in college, Clauson spent six years in the United States Air Force where he served in North Carolina, Afghanistan, South Korea, and South Carolina.
Clauson said he will immediately focus on getting the town government’s staffing levels where they need to be – hiring a chief for the department of public safety, a finance director, an assistant town manager and a couple of important vacancies at the wastewater plant – and moving ahead on Winnsboro’s downtown revitalization effort that is already underway.
“Restoration efforts have begun to the Douglas building which the Town just purchased last month, and design work is underway for the Thespian Hall property which the Town will be closing on in the coming weeks,” Clauson says. “And then we have several others – the service station, the dry cleaners, and the former Chamber of Commerce building, that we’re purchasing and will start working on in the near future.
“The restoration at Fortune Springs Park is also ongoing,” he said. “Fortunately, we don’t need a lot of staff to manage that work since it’s being run almost entirely by the state. It’s expected to be finished by the end of 2025.”
Clauson will also be overseeing the potential upgrade of the Town’s wastewater treatment plant.
“Right now, we’re looking to expand the capacity to two million gallons per day from the current 1.6 million gallons per day just by moving the discharge location a couple of miles further down Jackson Creek, along with improvements on the plant,” Clauson says.
He says he’s looking forward to completing the projects and initiatives the Town has been working on for the last three years.
“Hopefully we’ll see the fruits of those labors soon,” he says.
Clauson and his wife Carla are the parents of three children.
