County’s new engineer asks for patience as he learns, they staff up crew

Dallas County has a new county engineer.  

William Bridges started with the county about two months and is out learning the county and meeting the people. 

Bridges is originally from Georgia. He went to school at Auburn University and after graduation worked some 26 years in the Escambia County engineering department before coming to Dallas County.  

“I look forward to the challenge and look forward to meeting the people and learning the county,” Bridges said. “Hopefully I can do a lot of good here and keep the momentum going.”  

Bridges is not planning to make sweeping changes unless there is a problem. He also said he understands the challenge of keeping the infrastructure repaired but doing it with in the budgetary constraints.  

“It’s a money deal like in any county and hopefully we can stretch the dollars as far as we can.”  

Bridges asked the citizens of Dallas County for one thing, patience. “When we are working on a road or what not please be patient. We are trying to improve all of the roads of the county. We’re trying to stretch those dollars.” 

Another challenge is getting a qualified workforce, he said.  

“We have openings in the county, and it’s been difficult finding qualified people to fill those openings,” he said. “And you got more roads than you got money so you can’t fix them all. But this commission is trying to do the best they can.” 

The county is looking for experienced equipment operators and road construction workers. If you are interested, he said call the Dallas County Human Resource Department and get an application to fill out and return. That number is 334-877-4803.