City engineer hired in Ronan
Megan Strickland
Ronan City Council hears about the benefits of hiring a city engineer.
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RONAN – Ronan City Council hired Shari Johnson to be city engineer Thursday in hopes that she will be able to help the City of Ronan acquire more funding for infrastructure projects.
Public Works Director Dan Miller said Johnson will be paid $1,000 per month for two or three hours of work per week.
“We believe it will help us start pursuing some of these projects that keep dropping off the table,” Miller said. “She’s familiar with funding sources. There are so many projects we keep getting hopscotched across for water and sewer because there are towns that are more shovel-ready.”
Mayor Kim Aipperspach wanted to put Johnson to work as soon as possible, so she could begin shaping up what might be possible for the City of Ronan to receive from the upcoming legislative session.
“The legislature is going to start soon and the sooner we get (her) onboard, the more we are going to get out of it,” Aipperspach said.
Miller said if Johnson is successful in landing funding for a project, then fees for Johnson to engineer that project will come from project funds. The salary was already written into the city’s budget, so Miller expected minimal fiscal impact for the hire.
Johnson’s website says she specializes in identifying and unifying specialists for a projects. Johnson has 15 years of experience and is a graduate of the Alcoa High Performance Leadership Program, CDR Associates Mediation Program and Harvard Negotiation Program.
Councilmember Cal Hardy said he hoped to see Johnson come before the council with projects.
“If we really get someone like she is — not just interested in being a fly-by-nighter, but to come and give some sort of progress report so that we know that she’s still working on the storm drain — then we can maybe get some bang for our buck,” Hardy said.
