Matthew Steding, 34, of Ventura, officially began his duties, on Feb. 5, as the first city engineer that Clear Lake has seen in a few decades. Steding received his civil engineering degree from Iowa State University and until recently, was employed by Snyder & Associates, Inc., a civil engineering, planning and design firm in Ankeny, Iowa.
“They do a lot of land development projects for both private and public sectors. I worked in land development,” Steding said.
In his role as city engineer Steding described his job as overseeing all aspects of infrastructure that goes on in the city. He will be working with the developers that plan out the subdivisions, overseeing the design work, roadway infrastructure, sanitary and storm sewer, and everything that goes into the development phase. He said his position won’t be taking work away from anyone, but rather bridging the gap between everybody and taking a little bit of the load off of a lot of people’s shoulders because, “… there was too much work for everybody to handle,” he said.
Before being offered the job by Clear Lake City Administrator Scott Flory a little back story is needed. Through a string of fortunate events, Steding, who grew up in Steamboat Rock, Iowa and had relatives that lived in Forest City, would often visit this area with his family. “If we had an opportunity we’d come up to the lake and, I don’t know, there’s just something about Clear Lake that just always made me feel like home. Even though I wasn’t from here. It’s a crazy thing,” Steding said.
He said before he got his engineering degree and started working for Snyder & Associates he had a real estate license and he and his wife, Emily, who is an interior designer, had been buying and flipping houses. Always on the lookout for new properties, with the possible intention of getting into the vacation rental business, he found and purchased an old cabin in Ventura Heights. The couple were expecting their first child when he and his father, a concrete contractor for 46 years, began work on the property, which became The Fox Den, a custom, waterfront vacation rental.
Two years later the Stedings purchased another piece of property in Ventura with the thought of building a marina with 76 boat slips and kayaks for rent. That property and dream became Lake Dream Marine. By now Steding said they were expecting their second child, he was working remotely with Snyder & Associates, their home in Ankeny sold, the family moved into their unfinished house attached to the marina in May 2023, which put him exactly in the right place at the right time when the City of Clear Lake was looking for someone to design and oversee the Pickleball Court project in July 2023.
Steding said he was asked by his boss to gather the project information for Snyder & Associates to submit a formal proposal after which Flory took him on a tour around town. “Long story short, we got to talking and I don’t think he ever expected anything like this to happen, where somebody would be in the area, with young kids just in the school system, someone who’s gonna be here for the long term,” Steding said. “That’s when the opportunity presented itself. Scott said, ‘Hey, do you have any desire to think about an engineering position here at the city?’”
He said it didn’t take a lot of thinking on his part because he already knew his answer. “This is really surreal. I couldn’t have planned this any more perfect than how it worked out,” Steding said. “You don’t know how all the pieces are gonna come together and then you look at it and you’re mind blown. It’s just this crafted puzzle that fits in piece by piece…you look back and you can see it very clearly. That’s kind of the joy of life though, right? You have this end goal in your mind and if you want it bad enough, I think most people eventually get there, but it’s never a straight line.”
