The City of Great Bend organized an Engineer Selection Committee after former engineer Rob Winiecke resigned last July. The committee was unsuccessful with finding a staff engineer they wanted to hire so the committee began to think outside the box.
City Administrator Howard Partington tells us the committee is recommending entering into a contract for on-call engineering services.
Howard Partington Audio
After interviewing three engineering firms, Great Bend selected Professional Engineering Consultants from Wichita. PEC does have experience with on-call engineering with other cities including Valley Center, Haysville, and Wellington.
Great Bend will pay PEC a retainer fee of $800 per month and design separate contracts with the engineering firm for bigger tasks such as the water line replacement project.
Howard Partington Audio
Great Bend anticipates the on-call engineer will save the city a significant amount of money by avoiding having to pay a high salary to a staff engineer whether he or she has a project or not.