MoDOT hopes to have new district engineer by June

A new district engineer for the Missouri Department of Transportation's Southeast region could be hired by June, MoDOT director Pete Rahn said Friday.

The current engineer, Scott Meyer, will resign to take a job as director of facilities management at Southeast Missouri State University starting May 1.

"I hated for him to leave," said Rahn, who tried to convince him to take a new position with MoDOT in Jefferson City.

Rahn said he offered to promote Meyer to serve as an assistant to the MoDOT director and head up special projects.

"I was tremendously flattered by the offer," Meyer said.

But Meyer said he decided to take the university job so he and his family could stay in Cape Girardeau.

Meyer said he plans to keep working as district engineer at the Sikeston office throughout this month. "I think too much of it to leave early," he said.

Rahn said assistant district engineer Cheryl Ball will take over on a temporary basis once Meyer leaves.

Rahn said a five-member panel will be appointed to make recommendations for a replacement.

The panel will include a resident of the region as well as other staff members, including a district engineer from another region of the state.

Rahn said applications will be considered from current employees and those outside of MoDOT.

The panel will conduct interviews and recommend three finalists. Rahn said he'll make a choice from those three finalists and likely will accept the top finalist as recommended by the panel.

"I like a process that is very open," he said.

He said the hiring process has been used successfully in hiring two other district engineers since he became director last September.