County commission votes to end county engineer's position

A move to keep the county engineer on the county payroll in the next budget year was shot down Tuesday.

The county engineer’s position was removed from next year’s county budget as a cost saving measure but the engineer himself says the move will actually cost the county money.

Dan Rothwell, who was hired to the 78 thousand dollar a year position in 2006, provided a report to the board showing the value of the work he did over the past year and what that work would have cost if the county had to hire a private firm to do it.

Mister Rothwell estimated that his work would have cost the county nearly 270 thousand dollars – making his paycheck quite a bargain.

Commissioner Noah Lockley agreed and made a motion to retain the engineer next year but the motion died for lack of a second.

Commissioner Cheryl Sanders said the budget has already been worked out in workshop and she doesn’t want the issue coming back up before the public budget hearings in September.


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