Skinner resigns as county engineer
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors is looking for a new person to head up the secondary roads department.
At a special closed session meeting on April 11, the supervisors accepted the resignation from engineer Brad Skinner with terms described in the resignation letter effective immediately.
Due to Skinner’s resignation, the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors entered discussions with the Cass County Board of Supervisors to discuss a temporary joint agreement for the services of Cass County engineer Charles Bechtold.
At the meeting April 23, the supervisors held a conference call with the Cass County Board of Supervisors regarding the joint agreement. The Cass County Supervisors asked for the details of what the need was for Montgomery County, and the proposed schedule for getting a new engineer hired in Montgomery County.
Supervisor Donna Robinson said they had put together an ad for the position so they could begin advertising right away.
“We are hopeful we will get some responses. The 28-E contract that was sent has a time-frame of six months. We discussed the situation with several representatives with the Iowa Department of Transportation. We have a project in September due for a bid letting that we have to have an engineer or interim engineer sign off on before we can do the bid letting. We put that time frame in just in case we did not hire anyone before that time. We’re hopeful that is not the case, but we don’t know for sure,” Robinson said.
Assistant to the engineer Barry Byers was in attendance and advised the Cass County Supervisors of some of the needs of the county.
“We would need signatures on our weekly pay vouchers, and working day reports. All that information would come from me or the other project inspector for the bridge projects going on,” Byers said. “That could be discussed over the phone, and I’m fairly certain they could be emailed for him to sign. A lot of the things could be done electronically. We would also need him to serve as a project engineer capacity if issues came up on the two projects we have going, basically to approve, disapprove, make recommendations, and approve extra work. A lot of that could be done over the phone too, unless he needed more information.”
Cass County Supervisor Steve Baier said due to the absence of engineer Bechtold, the Cass County supervisors would be unable to take any action until the April 30 meeting. Baier was also uncertain if the six-month time frame would be approved.
After the job is posted, Robinson said the deadline was May 24 for posting an application.
“We will probably still take applications after that date, but those who apply within that time frame will be more highly considered. We’re hopeful if we get applications within a month from now that in early June we could start an interview process,” commented Robinson.
Robinson added that they were not talking about a lot of time spent in the county, and that much could be done electronically.
“We do not want to impose on you guys. We just need to have someone do just the very basics to keep us in business,” said Robinson.
The Cass County supervisors proposed an agreement of 60 days sharing the engineering services, with the possibility of further negotiations if the time frame passed beyond 60 days.
The Montgomery County Supervisors said a 60-day time frame was acceptable. Robinson said the 28-E agreement would be adjusted to the 60 –day time frame and submitted to the Cass County Supervisors in advance of their April 30 meeting, and bring it back on their agenda on April 30 as well.
The supervisors also reviewed the job advertisement and description for the Montgomery County engineer’s position. The advertisement was approved.