Town officials and employees in Milliken gathered Wednesday to mourn the loss of Bruce Williams, the town administrator, who was killed a day earlier in a traffic accident.
Williams, 59, was driving a Toyota 4Runner on Tuesday afternoon along Colorado 60 east of Johnstown, in Weld County. Two Johnstown/Milliken RE-5J school buses stopped at a set of railroad tracks that cross the road, and Williams, apparently not realizing the buses had stopped, slammed into the back of one of them, Johnstown Police Chief Reggie Mayes said.
“He was apparently killed instantly,” Mayes said.
The three occupants of the school bus Williams hit – a child, the bus driver and another adult – were treated for minor injuries and released, Mayes said.
Milliken Mayor Linda Measner said she learned about the accident Tuesday evening.
“He was great,” she said of Williams. “He had kind of a quirky sense of humor. He had ideas that were the sort of thing we need in this town.”
Williams began as town administrator in November. Measner said what made him stand out among the other candidates wasn’t his résumé, though he certainly was well qualified.
“We’re just a small town, but he was very enthusiastic about coming to work for the town,” she said.
Once in the job, Williams began making plans for economic development in Milliken, a fast-growing community of about 5,500 in Weld County, to help distance the community from past budget problems. He began talking with neighboring towns about forming intergovernmental agreements to help shape the growth.
“He was like a powerhouse,” she said.
Prior to working in Milliken, Williams spent 15 years with the town of Superior, Mayor Andrew Muckle said. Williams worked his way up, eventually becoming town manager for about 11 years.
“He cared for people and believed in the concept of public service and municipal government,” Muckle said. “He could have done other things, I think. But he believed in that.”
Measner said Milliken employees gathered Wednesday morning at the town hall to talk about Williams’ death. After the meeting, the town closed its offices, but Measner said grief counseling would be available to anyone who needed it.
“In the short time that I knew him and worked with him, I came to respect his expertise and his ideas and to trust him,” Measner said. “I was looking forward to working with him. I was hoping it was going to be a long-term arrangement.”
Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 720-929-0898 or jingold@denverpost.com.
