The City of Riverside is weighing it’s options for engineering services provided by outside firms.

City Administrator Christine Yancey says Riverside isn’t large enough to afford having a full-time engineer on staff, so they’ll continue to contract out engineering services. She says the city is unique given the size and number of projects they try to complete, “And we’re not flat, so we have some peculiar issues as far as we have a lot of steep terrain here and trying to meet ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) requirements is sometimes difficult to get everything (compliant) with the streets and sidewalks and storm water runoff.”

Yancey says given the variety and complexity of their projects it will be more cost-effective and beneficial for the city to hire a firm with multiple engineers who can specialize on specific projects. She says they’re drafting a request for qualifications letter to be sent out to potential firms in March with the plan to hire someone for fiscal year 2022 starting July 1. Riverside’s current engineering contract is with MMS Consultants of Iowa City.