The Clear Lake City Council, at a special session held Nov. 29, agreed to create a City Engineer position to reduce outside project costs and to relieve the strain on other departments.
City Administrator Scott Flory admitted that he had resisted the idea of hiring a civil engineer for over 12 years until a chance meeting, and long conversation, with a young civil engineer made him see things a little differently. He said he saw that the city has an opportunity to add a city employee to cover civil engineering services that are currently being contracted out. Flory said the Emerald Edge apartment project was a perfect example.
“There would be quite a bit of money we would pay in outside consulting to review plans on that and then present them to our Planning & Zoning Commission,” said Flory. He added that as the city gets busier with building projects the list of plan reviews keeps growing.
Then, when the city gets involved in projects, like the street resurfacing projects, they have to hire inspectors. “We’re paying a significant amount for that person to be out there a certain number of hours and watching the project on our behalf. There’s definitely an opportunity there to bring those things in-house, and this position could really pay for itself, just in offsetting our outside costs on those things,” Flory said.
Flory said that hiring a Civil Engineer would also allow city employees to do the jobs they were hired for. Flory used a time where Public Works Director Jeremy Korenberg had to oversee and report on a city sewer project. “This gives an opportunity to free up Jeremy’s time to be the Public Works Director and give him the ability to mentor, guide, and manage the folks that we have in the Public Works Department, versus getting called into all these construction projects and reviews and things like that,” Flory said.
The Council unanimously approved creating the position and the job was immediately posted on the city’s website.
by Mary Loden
The Clear Lake City Council, at a special session held Nov. 29, agreed to create a City Engineer position to reduce outside project costs and to relieve the strain on other departments.
City Administrator Scott Flory admitted that he had resisted the idea of hiring a civil engineer for over 12 years until a chance meeting, and long conversation, with a young civil engineer made him see things a little differently. He said he saw that the city has an opportunity to add a city employee to cover civil engineering services that are currently being contracted out. Flory said the Emerald Edge apartment project was a perfect example.
“There would be quite a bit of money we would pay in outside consulting to review plans on that and then present them to our Planning & Zoning Commission,” said Flory. He added that as the city gets busier with building projects the list of plan reviews keeps growing.
Then, when the city gets involved in projects, like the street resurfacing projects, they have to hire inspectors. “We’re paying a significant amount for that person to be out there a certain number of hours and watching the project on our behalf. There’s definitely an opportunity there to bring those things in-house, and this position could really pay for itself, just in offsetting our outside costs on those things,” Flory said.
Flory said that hiring a Civil Engineer would also allow city employees to do the jobs they were hired for. Flory used a time where Public Works Director Jeremy Korenberg had to oversee and report on a city sewer project. “This gives an opportunity to free up Jeremy’s time to be the Public Works Director and give him the ability to mentor, guide, and manage the folks that we have in the Public Works Department, versus getting called into all these construction projects and reviews and things like that,” Flory said.
The Council unanimously approved creating the position and the job was immediately posted on the city’s website.
