The Courier of Montgomery County
Michael Garcia, Staff writer
Magnolia officials appointed a new city engineer to help with the area's booming growth.
City officials budgeted for an engineer for the last two budget cycles, but started looking to fill the role for over a year, officials said. Tim Robertson officially started June 1, with an annual salary of $195,000.
The use of outside engineering firms has cost the city an excess of $1.5 million a year, whereas the hiring of Robertson would greatly reduce that cost, said City Administrator Don Doering.
"We're not saying he would do all the engineering, but he should greatly reduce what we're outsourcing," Doering said. "Basically, we've gotten to the point that we've had so much engineering work because of the rapid growth, it just made good sense to have and employee as an engineer."
The city now works with AEI Engineering of Baxter and Woodman Co. and will continue to work with the firm for larger projects, said Mayor Todd Kana.
In December, city officials stopped issuing building permits for new residential and commercial development projects in response to concerns that the city's water supply couldn't keep up. Residents said they felt having a city engineer on staff could have prevented the moratorium.
With Robertson's hiring, officials are looking to move forward in a productive way, Doering said.
The new hire could save residents money, Kana said.
"Having this in-house engineer, there could be situations where we can actually take care of something quicker in certain circumstances that otherwise might take longer having to outsource," Kana said. "I think in the long run, it's going to save citizens a lot of money, which is important, but also...improve everything on our end and improve our efficiency."
Robertson did engineering work for the city during his time working for O'Malley Engineers before the company was acquired by Strand Associates Inc., the city's former engineering firm.
Prior to being hired as the city's engineer, he worked in construction for the last eight years.
"It's great to be here," Robertson said. "This was kind of an opportunity that I was not looking for. It kind of fell on my lap...there's a lot of challenges in a job like this, but I am really pleased about what I've seen so far. Magnolia is growing by leaps and bounds and will continue over the next couple of decades. It's a challenge and I'm here to help."