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By Carey Reeder | Staff Writer

The Chilton County Commission approved pursing a new county engineer at its special called meeting on Jan. 31. The commission approved unanimously to pursue hiring candidate number one pending the approval of a contract between the two parties.

Candidates had been interviewed by a panel put together by the human resources department with no commissioners on the panel. From there, that panel recommended two candidates to a panel consisting of commissioners Joseph Parnell, Allen Williams and Randell Kelley in the final steps of the hiring process. The commission panel conducted the interviews on Jan. 30.

“We felt like, and the state law says we do, that the (county) engineer answers to the commission,” Vice Chairman Kelley said. “We felt like we needed a say in who to hire … Both of the candidates were impressive, and I do not think we could have gone wrong with either one. We just felt like one had a little bit of an edge on the other.”

The commission called around the morning and early afternoon of Jan. 31 to references of both candidates to get recommendations. Both were highly recommended by their peers, according to Kelley.

“Any time you make a decision like this you hope you make the right one but you will not know until three or four years down the road,” Kelley said.

The new county engineer will be announced after the contract between themselves and the county is reached.