Nichols, 48, covers a lot of ground in a short amount of time. In a half-hour, he talks football, public policy, tradition, civil engineering, growing up in small-town Massachusetts, project management, making that first leap from the East Coast to the West, becoming a published author, flight schedules out of Midland, respecting heritage and history, baseball cards, proofreading, sustainable growth, the Red Sox and fighting fires.
He’s full of surprises, floats effortlessly between topics, is eager to get know the community and eager for the community to get to know him.
But it’s the fire helmet that sticks out.
“This was from the City of Goodyear, (Ariz.),” Nichols said. “I was a deputy (city manager) there. It was my first time managing a fire department. When I left, all the firefighters got together and purchased the hat I used to wear and they autographed it for me.
“Part of my approach in my job is that I feel it is important to connect with all of the employees. I don’t want to be that guy who works in that office. I do my best to work in the field with employees from time to time.”
Nichols went on to explain that he worked in nearly all of the fire stations in the city during his time in Goodyear.
“I’d do an overnight shift with them, respond to calls at 2 a.m., certainly not putting out a fire, but sweeping glass out of the road if it was an accident or helping direct traffic. Whatever I could do to assist them in their jobs.
“When I left, they gave me the helmet and a plaque from the firefighters’ union. I keep them in my office now as a reminder of the importance of making those efforts. I’ve found it really helps bridge any disconnect there may be between my position and everyone else.
“It’s important that all of the employees understand I appreciate what they do. The best way to demonstrate that, and understand what they do, is by doing it with them. There is no job that is unimportant. No job that doesn’t hold value.
“Being in the field, you can share time and have open communication. I look at the field as their office. When I’m on your turf, we can chat and you can tell me about your family and hobbies and we can share conversation. I’m not a fan of just having people report to my office wondering what I might want.”
It’s a practice he plans to continue in Douglas County.
“I have worked my way up the ladder throughout my career,” Nichols said. “I have worked with good and bad bosses and in good and bad situations. I’ve been where all of the employees in this organization have been in one way or another and I try to remember what bothered me so I don’t do it to them.
“I look at my job here as making everyone else’s job easier.”
Nichols grew up in Chicopee, Massachusetts, the self-proclaimed “Crossroads of New England” before moving to Boston where he attended Northeastern University.
“The culture where I grew up was one of ‘You live here, you grow up here, you stay here and you die here,’” he said. “That’s just the way it was. I really broke the mold by leaving.”
He started out in electrical engineering at Northeastern, which had a co-op engineering program, meaning students took on structured work experience out in the real world along with their academic courses.
“It was a great way to do it because I discovered I hated the electrical jobs and was able to switch in time to finish my degree in civil engineering. That turned out to be my real niche.”
Nichols wound up working for a small consulting firm in Connecticut out of college.
“I was very happy doing that,” he said. “My goal was to maybe one day become a project manager.”
As time went on, though, he started to feel stagnant where he was.
“I was in my mid-20s and just felt like I was in a rut,” he said. “I decided to go look for something else and wound of landing a position with the City of Olympia, Washington.
“I’d never been further west than Pennsylvania. It was on the other side of the world as far as I was concerned.”
While in Olympia, Nichols worked under what he called an “incredible mentor” in the director of public works.
“He inspired me to No. 1 seek out some level of leadership and try to influence an organization positively,” Nichols said. “I wound up going down the path of public service you might say by accident. But once I was there, I was influenced by a very positive role model and it kept me going down that path.”
That path eventually led him through Goodyear and to Las Vegas.