New North Huntingdon manager brings varied experience

An experienced city manager from West Virginia with Pittsburgh area roots will serve as North Huntingdon’s next township manager.

Harry Faulk, city manager for Clarksburg, W.Va., will start his new role May 2. He will earn $106,000 a year, with a six-month severance agreement. Township commissiners voted unanimously to hire him.

North Huntingdon has been without a manager since Jeff Silka left in November for a similar role in Cumberland, Md. Michael Turley, assistant manager, has served as interim manager since.

Faulk said he looks forward to the challenge of being township manager. It is an opportunity to get back to the region, he noted.

He graduated from Point Park University in Pittsburgh with a degree in public service and earned a master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh.

His grandfather, also named Harry Faulk, had been superintendent at Elizabeth Forward and McKeesport school districts.

Faulk, a native of Fairmont, W.Va., has been Clarksburg’s manager since April 2020, taking over that city’s administration in the midst of the pandemic. He previously served in Allegheny County as manager or assistant manager in Elizabeth Township, Green Tree, Heidelberg and Munhall.

The commissioners said they had several good candidates who applied for the North Huntingdon position.

Commissioner Virginia Stump said Faulk stood out with his overall experience and he did well in his interview.

“We were pretty much all in favor of our final candidate,” Stump said.

Faulk had been a paramedic and volunteer firefighter in West Virginia for 13 years before graduating from Point Park.

Commissioner Jason Atwood pointed out that his experience as an emergency responder in a municipality with seven volunteer fire departments “brings an extra level of expertise to the table.”

Faulk had the background and experience for the position and “set himself apart from the other candidates,”said Zachary Haigis, board president.