New county engineer to oversee $7M project
New Yuma County Engineer Chris Young came on board just in time to head up one of the region’s longest-awaited projects — a $7.5 million storm retention basin in the city of Yuma’s Smucker Park.
It may not be as sexy as building a road or bridge, but getting this endeavor underway will be the culmination of a quest that began almost 40 years ago, as the need for it was first identified by the city in a 1980 study.
Bids for the project are scheduled to be opened July 26, and Young said there’s been a lot of interest from local contractors.
“It’s going to be a fun project; there’s lots of complex structures that have to be built, and the embankment, which is really classified as a dam because of its size, so there are different things you have to do with regulatory agencies, from that standpoint,” he said.
But the park’s location on Avenue A between Yuma Regional Medical Center and Kofa High School means the expected nine months of construction are likely to cause some traffic issues.
“It’s obviously a close partnership with the city of Yuma and the high school, and there’s a lot of concerns with traffic control and the hospital, emergency vehicles getting through, so we have to take a hard look at that and minimize any interruptions,” he said.
“The project’s duration is so long, it’s not something you can do when school’s out of session,” he added,
Besides being the director of the 22-employee engineering department, Young also leads the Yuma County Flood Con
trol District, which is overseen by the county Board of Supervisors, covers the entire county and collects a property tax, but legally is a separate entity from the county.
The district is also finishing up a major storm drain project serving a residential area of the Foothills around 36th Street and Cassidy Drive, addressing some long-standing drainage issues in that area.
The flood district’s yearly assessment of projects that should be done at some point includes about $91 million of work, while its fund balance is about $21 million, he said.
“So half the battle is prioritizing those projects. You have to get them in line, and then look for any grant opportunities, federal funding opportunities, that kind of thing,” he said.
His last job before coming to the county was with the city of Glendale as principal engineer for field operations, which mostly concerned how projects were carried out after the design process was done.
“My true passion, that sounds kind of corny when you say it, is actual engineering design project management, and that’s what I wanted to get back into. Glendale is a great place to work, it’s just that this is where my area of interest is, true engineering,” he said.
Early in his 22-year civil engineering career, Young worked for the city of Yuma, during which he met and married a woman who grew up here and has wanted to return ever since they left for the next rung on his career ladder.
Now, his stepson works for the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office and is married with a daughter of his own, and the stars have aligned.
“I think it’s a good fit for everybody here. I’m excited, I’m jazzed,” he said.
He said the county job, which he started in midJune, offers a wide variety of projects to work on, plus the opportunities and challenges of working with agencies inside and outside the county.
“The focus is on delivering these projects on time, that’s a biggie,” he said.” We try to stretch the dollars as far as we can, without compromising quality. You know, everybody wants it now, they want it fast, they want it cheap. It’s hard to combine all of those things, but that’s what we try to do.”
And he’s hoping the public won’t have to hear about his department too much in the future.
“Best-case scenario, you don’t need to know about it, that means we’re doing a good job of what we’re doing: building roads, repairing roads, signals in a timely manner, when they’re constructed,” he said.