MPW.69 / 2017 In a Day’s Work by Michael Cali
Photographer
Michael Cali San Diego, Calif.

Team Cliff & Vi

Story Summary

Debbie Feeback came to Eldon, Missouri with the goal of leaving it better than how she found it. Over a year ago she was hired as the new city administrator. Well liked by her staff, Feeback is known to roll up her sleeves and do whatever is needed to keep the city running. “She is a decorator, economic planner, grandmother, mother, wife, teacher and ‘storm cleaner-upper,’” said city waste water employee Josh Willis while helping Feeback plant flowers in front of the city’s Y Building — a nick name for a city administration building off Route Y. He recounted the time when Feeback drove in to town during a storm to help clear debris from roads. She had to brave the weather because she lives 30 minutes away with her mother, husband and two granddaughters that she raises — 3 and 12 — at the Lake of the Ozarks. “I am trying to move to Eldon,” Feeback said. She lamented that she has been so busy that she hasn’t had time to seriously shop for houses. The life of Debbie Feeback is hectic and one would be hard pressed to find a moment when she is not on one of her three cell phones but she says that it is all to improve the city. “Right now it’s mostly work with family slipped in when I can,” she said. It is not her ideal situation but she hopes that eventually the city’s circumstances improve and she can reverse that equation.