City engineer urges staff hires and consultant use as $6M DRI, $13M project and Crane Street bridge loom

City Engineer Chris told the budget workshop the engineering department is understaffed for the workload expected in the coming year and recommended a new assistant city engineer role plus a stormwater control officer to handle reporting, inspections and MS4 stormwater compliance.

Chris said hiring a junior professional engineer is challenging because the city cannot always offer the design experience needed for a professional engineer (PE) career path; instead the budget proposes an assistant city engineer title that “does not require a PE” and provides more flexibility for hiring. He also said a stormwater control officer currently sits in the sewer budget but would work closely with engineering to handle new MS4 requirements.

On capital projects, Chris outlined a busy year ahead: roughly $6 million in Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) funds scheduled to be spent next year and a separate roughly $13 million project to be bid by year end. He also highlighted Crane Street Bridge as a major upcoming, multi‑year project and pointed to ongoing paving and paving‑adjacent work on Union Street and Central Parkway.

Councilmembers expressed concern about single‑person dependency in engineering. One councilmember told Chris he was worried the department relied too heavily on his institutional knowledge and urged the city to prioritize succession and redundancy. Chris said the department relies on a roster of term agreement consultants (traffic, structural, electrical, mechanical, architecture) that are used to fill capacity gaps, but emphasized that more in‑house staff would provide continuity.

No vote accompanied the discussion; the city engineer’s staffing and capital priorities will proceed through the council’s budget deliberation process.