(File photo/meadowlakeNOW Staff)

By meadowlakeNOW Staff

Role filled

City engineer hired in Meadow Lake

Jul 27, 2022 | 5:00 PM

The City of Meadow Lake has a new city engineer.

Shane Richard has taken the post, following council ratifying the hiring during this week’s council meeting. This fills a role that was vacant for nearly a year, since Rocky Chowdhury, the previous city engineer left last July for an opportunity in British Columbia.

Mayor Merlin Seymour told meadowlakeNOW that the city has been on the hunt for a qualified replacement who will be at home in the community, which they finally have found. He noted that city manager, Diana Burton, conducted the interviews with candidates, councillors asked some questions regarding their candidacy and the references for Richard were very positive.

“Nothing to but good things about his work ethic and knowledge,” he said. “Just going by the recommendation of our city manager and the interview process, we felt this was the best choice.”

After the departure of Chowdury, a new engineer had been hired in December, but they left suddenly soon after. The recruitment, Ravenhill Group, helped the city in the search over the past year.

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Seymour said the amount of projects going on monthly in Meadow Lake require this guidance of this position. In addition to upcoming work on a skate park and the walking path from Lions Park to Flying Dust First Nation, the city will have to address numerous road upgrades and a new arena that awaits grant approval.

“We did have an asset management coordinator doing a lot of the engineering work, but he moved away about a month and a half ago,” Seymour said. “With the amount of work being done throughout the city; street repairs, patching, looking after water and sewer distribution, [it’s important] we have a qualified engineer on staff that can do the work right from here, rather than having to bring outside help in.”

Originally from New Brunswick, Richard is coming to Meadow Lake from B.C., where he was a senior civil engineer and project manager with AECOM in Burnaby. He also has seven years of experience from Edmonton, where he was also a project manager.

While not present for council, Seymour said Richard is already on the job.

“He’s started his position and is getting up to speed on everything that’s going on.”

Hiring and firing of all out-of-scope staff is handled by the city manager, with the ratification of council.

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cjnbnews@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @meadowlakeNOW