Dinwiddie joins county planning department

RBC — The new face in the Rio Blanco County Planning Department isn’t all that new.
At least to the area.
Mike Dinwiddie joined the planning department in December, but he’s been living and working in the county for several years.
“I came here in ’99 and left for a couple of years, but came back as soon as I could, because I love Rio Blanco County,” Dinwiddie said. “I love its people and the wonderful country we can get out and enjoy with our family and friends.”
Most recently, Dinwiddie had worked at Mountain Valley Bank. His new title with the county is impact fee technician.
“Mike will be doing the calculation and tracking of the impact fees,” said Jeff Madison, director of the planning department. “For those projects that do not have a specific fee attached, Mike will work with the company to do the independent fee calculations. He will also spend a portion of his time working with the companies to do the in-county worker counts, so that the county gets proper credit for severance tax returns to the county and towns.”
Madison said Dinwiddie’s position is paid for by a 1 percent administrative allowance in the impact fee statute, passed by county commissioners last year.
The new position within the planning department has been in the works for a while, Madison said.
“We started discussing it when we were doing the impact fee meetings and resolution last spring,” said Madison, who also serves as the county’s impact fee administrator and natural resources specialist. “I quickly saw that time needed to do the fee calculations was going to be beyond what we had available. I added the request for the position to the budget discussion in October, and it was approved with the budget in December. The commissioners wanted (Mike) to start a few weeks before the first of the year, so he could be up to speed for the new year.”
Besides his day job, Dinwiddie said, “My weekend job and ministry is being the pastor of The Church at Meeker.”
Dinwiddie is enjoying his new role with the planning department.
“I am very excited to join the other employees of Rio Blanco County, as it has been a great place to work,” he said. “It makes it easy to come to work when you enjoy the people you work with.”