Engineer to help with roadmap to county growth

Dalondo Moultrie The Seguin Gazette

So often, residents talk about the exploding growth in Guadalupe County.

It is nothing new as community leaders work to manage the growth and recently hired additional help in the cause.

“We have a lot of growth coming into Guadalupe County,” said Clay Forister, the new Guadalupe County engineer. “Part of why they brought me on board was having expertise in bigger counties and helping with the growth coming on. We welcome change but nudging it in the direction we want instead of letting it run us over.”

Guadalupe County Commissioners Court recently approved Forister’s hire as engineer and approved his official bonding and oath at its Feb. 1 meeting.

Forister started working Jan. 31 with Human Resources housekeeping and making rounds to meet other county employees, he said.

“I can say Guadalupe County has a lot of really good people,” Forister said. “I consider myself a fine judge of character and I can say we have some really good folks. I can’t think of another job where I have been more welcomed starting on day 1.”

Commissioners Court approved the new engineer’s salary at $175,000 annually, County Judge Kyle Kutscher said. County officials had tried for a couple years to fill the new position, he said.

The initial salary offered was $125,000 annually and the county got just a few nibbles, Kutscher said. The court interviewed a few people but they didn’t work out.

Some were at the ends of their careers and probably not ready for all of the work the new job would entail, the judge said.

They increased the starting salary to $130,000 and still had little interest. The final increase helped them find their candidate, Kutscher said.

“We knew it was going to be a tremendous amount of work so we wanted somebody we knew was ready to take on a lot of responsibility,” he said, adding that the salary is competitive with those of other county and municipal engineers. “Engineers in the private sector make considerably more than that.”

The county judge said Forister will be responsible for permitting duties the county fire marshal once handled.

Also under Forister’s purview is overseeing the operations of the county’s Road and Bridge and Environmental Health departments, Kutscher said. Putting the departments under one roof will streamline processes for the county, he said.

Guadalupe is a fast-growing county with a tremendous amount of development and a need to review many platting and drainage plans, Kutscher said. Forister will be bring his engineering experience to help.

He will serve as a voice for the county on the region’s Metropolitan Planning Organization, where technical expertise is sorely needed to secure more money for local projects, the judge said.

“We’ve needed a technical committee member for a long time,” Kutscher said. “We’ve had to rely on other volunteers, TxDOT help, assistance from neighboring communities. It’s been good, but it will be beneficial to have someone from Guadalupe County in an engineering position on the MPO.”

Forister comes with a background in engineering.

He grew up in Dripping Springs and graduated in 2000 with a degree in civil engineering from Texas A&M University. He worked in consulting before getting into county government, Forister said.

“One of my last projects in consulting was the Loop 410/Highway 35 Interchange on the south side of San Antonio,” he said. “I was deputy project manager on that. I had some project management experience.”

He then lived in Needville — where his wife and two daughters currently resides at least until the end of the current school year — and worked as the assistant county engineer for Brazoria County, Forister said.

He oversaw massive projects for that county.

“We did a Brazoria County expressway project that was about a $100 million project. I was the contact on that,” Forister said. “When I left, I was managing the $142 million courthouse project.”

He was in the Marine Corps Reserves and the Army National Guard, but pointed out that he never went overseas in his duties.

Forister is completing his third term as a Needville City Council member but moved into a home here just outside of Seguin, he said.

He has come from larger counties, but likes what he sees in Guadalupe County government leadership and staff, the county engineer said.

“I would be remiss if I didn’t also say the leadership of this county, in my opinion, has done a very good job of positioning us well for the growth that’s coming,” Forister said. “I look around and the way we do business, if I were in a vacuum, they’ve done things the way I would’ve done it. So it’s a great fit in that perspective.”

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