Rock Island County OKs short-term engineering agreement, seeks state consent to appoint Shane Larson

Rock Island County’s Public Works & Facilities Committee approved an agreement to use Hutchison Engineering for interim county-engineering services and voted to request state consent to appoint Shane Larson as acting County Engineer.

County Administrator Jim Grafton told the committee the action is needed because “the State requires that we have an acting County Engineer to sign off on all of our plans so, we will utilize the services of Hutchison Engineering to provide those services until we replace the County Engineer.” J.D. Schulte and Shane Larson described how the agreement names Larson as the acting County Engineer so he can sign plans, permits and other documents IDOT requires. The committee moved and approved the agreement and the request for consent; the clerk recorded the voice votes as carried.

Larson summarized his qualifications and current work responsibilities with Hutchison Engineering and said he will make regular appearances at the committee’s meetings while serving in the interim capacity. The committee’s action is a short-term administrative step; the county will continue recruiting for a permanent County Engineer while Larson fulfills signing and oversight duties permitted by state guidelines.

The committee recorded the motion (moved by David Adams, second by Richard Morthland) and later approved the formal resolution asking for state consent to name Larson (motion by David Adams, second by Bob Westpfahl).