Jasper County may have found its new engineer

The board of supervisors think they have found their next county engineer.

Upon receiving resumes from a number of candidates, the Jasper County Board of Supervisors scheduled interviews with two candidates. However, supervisors only interviewed one candidate after the other cancelled his closed session. Even after interviewing the one prospect, supervisors feel they found the right person.

Jasper County Supervisor Brandon Talsma said it’s a “pretty hot market” at the moment and appreciated human resources director Dennis Simon for putting an engineer update on the agenda. Talsma was impressed with the candidate, whose name was not released.

“I think he’s the guy we’re looking for,” Talsma said.

Although the candidate doesn’t have that much experience with the Iowa Department of Transportation nor the most experience working with government budgets, Talsma said that stuff can be learned and he seemed like the type of guy who could learn it. His fellow supervisors agreed.

Doug Cupples, chair of the Jasper County Board of Supervisors, said he’s one of the most well-rounded candidates that applied. Cupples said he’d be “more than happy” to extend a job offer to the candidate and go through the process. Talsma said contract negotiations need to be finished in-person.

“This is probably one of the most important positions that we hire for,” Talsma said. “I just feel that it’s important that if it gets to the point where we sit down and discuss contract negotiations, it needs to be done personally … But I do think we need to have Dennis reach out to him and … present him a letter of intent.”

On June 17, the Jasper County Board of Supervisors went into closed session to speak with the candidate.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com