A new community development director has moved in at Mineola City Hall and she is anxious to get started.

City Administrator Mercy Rushing announced Holly Herring has been hired as Mineola community development director. Herring began her new job last Monday and attended the city council meeting where she was introduced.

Rushing noted there was great interest in the position and any of the top few applicants would have been great.

Herring, from Boerne, Texas, has a bachelor’s degree in communications from Texas Tech University. She worked in Houston for RPS Group as an HR specialist and public relations and “her employer had nothing but good to say about her,” Rushing said. The previous employer said that she was responsible for starting a successful fundraiser that has continued and grown. She also worked for Orion International in Austin as a production assistant.

Herring and her husband Jason, and their son who is now a toddler, moved to Mineola about a year and a half ago to be near his family. Herring’s husband has Cowburners Food Truck.

“She is very bubbly,” Rushing said.

Rushing noted there were 23 applicants and the chairman of the Main Street Board, Jason Ray, she and the city’s human resources person, Sherry Vann, narrowed the number down to seven to be interviewed.

“I’m excited,” Rushing said. She noted the new community development director has a great deal of experience with advertising and marketing. Her background also involves website designing.

The new community development director will be responsible for marketing as well as for several of the city’s boards including Main Street, Tourism, the Landmark Commission and the Historical Museum Board.

“I look forward to the things that we can do in the future and look forward to working with you,” Herring told the council last Monday.