Lancaster County engineer is down 9 workers, says hiring freeze is delaying road projects

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Lancaster County engineers headed to the county board on Thursday to voice frustrations about a hiring freeze.

Pam Dingman, head of Lancaster County Engineering, said she is down nine workers.

And Dingman said the shortage is already causing setbacks.

“You can only work people so hard for so long,” she said. “My big concern as the county engineer is if we had a catastrophic event.”

County workers are stretched thin, and pressure is mounting, with projects slowing and frustrations growing.

The department oversees about 1,400 miles of roadway and dozens of bridges within Lancaster County.

“We really do design and project planning a year ahead of time,” she said. “The lag from not having those positions filled will be something we will experience a year from now, with the trouble getting things to the field to get them constructed in a timely manner.”

Without enough workers, the repairs could take even longer, raising safety concerns.

“We know that in the county that if we defer maintenance, if we wait to do the maintenance, later, it’s always more expensive and can be catastrophic,” Dingman said.

She said it’s not only about the roads and bridges, but what happens with unexpected weather like last week’s blizzard.

“If we had flooding or a really big windstorm and it was important for us to get all of our people out in the field, addressing the issues with that storm, would we have enough staff to take care of that and meet the needs of the county?” she said.

After meeting with the county board, Dingman said she’s still frustrated.

The board has allowed Dingman to begin interviewing potential workers, but they could not start before July 1, which is when the new yearly budget starts.