Longtime Auglaize County engineer retires
Auglaize County Engineer Doug Reinhart can add “retired” to his title as he has officially stepped down from his elected position after serving for 37 years.
He takes pride in so much of what the county has been able to accomplish, including working with township trustees and having no gravel roads in the county.
“Somebody asked me, ‘Well how many gravel roads do you have?’ We haven’t had one for 25 years,” Reinhart said. “They were pretty amazed at that.”
Reinhart made his remarks at a retirement party held in his honor on Wednesday, where he mingled with fellow elected officials, friends, coworkers and family.
Logan Township Trustee Dave Krites said Reinhart would ride with him to travel the township roads and give him suggestions and recommendations for improvements officials could make.
“Doug has always been very helpful,” Krites said.
Moulton Township Trustee Larry Johns said Reinhart would come to township trustee meetings and would help them put bids together. He remembered Reinhart’s help in getting township roads widened to 20 feet — an improvement for agriculture vehicles that travel throughout the county.
Andrew Baumer was sworn in as county engineer earlier in the day.
“I can’t thank him enough for the mentorship and leadership over the last several years,” Baumer said. “He’s included me in a lot, and made the transition a lot cleaner and made me feel a lot more confident going into it.”
The status of the county roads and bridges under Reinhart’s leadership is remarkable. Baumer said.
Reinhart was president of the statewide County Engineers Association in 1991.
He served as co-chair of the group’s legislative committee, serving on that committee from 1992 until last year.
He said in some cases he would testify on a bill for the CAE.
“What affects us affects the other 87 (counties) also,” Reinhart said.
He most recently testified on House Bill 340, which revised drainage laws. That bill was passed with no nays and became effective in March.
“Few have done as much for the industry as Doug has; he has truly been a
steward for his constituents and taxpayer monies. They’ve been able to do some innovative things,” said Jennifer Schuey, former CEA director of operations and education.
Current Association President Dean Wringle said Reinhart will be missed.
“He is a wealth of knowledge, I hate to see him go,” Ringle said.
Reinhart said technology has dramatically changed how the engineer’s office operates.
They bought a computer in the 1980s to help with job costs and eventually sent some employees for Autocad training.
“Within a year or so all the drafting pens disappeared,” Reinhart said. Surveying also changed. “When I started surveying was a three person crew,” he said, noting now surveying can be completed with one person using satellite-guided technology.
“It’s five times as accurate,” he added. “The equipment it’s unbelievable. When I took over I think we had three tandem trucks and 15 singles, now we’ve got 15 tandems and three singles. We’ve really out grown this complex.”
Excavating equipment is twice the size of what it was.
“The equipment got bigger, but we got more efficient,” Reinhart said; staffing is down 15 percent from what it was when he started with the county.
There are the same number of bridges and roads to maintain in the county, but they’ve added 280 miles of ditches to maintain.
“We had to get efficient,” Reinhart said. “These guys are so skilled and so dedicated.”
Gordon Coates, a retired mechanic at the engineering department, worked for Reinhart.
“It was a pleasure working with Doug and he treated his employees real good. I had a severe heart attack and had to have open heart surgery and he made sure things weren’t pushed on me until I got my health back in shape.” Coates said. “I’m proud of what he’s done in this county over the years.”
Reinhart notes between plowing and construction work, a lot of his job relies on the weather.
“We are hanging our hat on the meteorologist making a proper prediction,” Reinhart said.
His wife,Trudie Reinhart said he was ending on a good note, but has a big “to-do” list ahead of him.
“I’ve never been to Maine,” Reinhart said. He wants to visit and eat some seafood. He also wants to visit Yellowstone National Park.