During the Oct. 6 board meeting, Wadena County Highway Engineer Joel Ulring announced his resignation, effective Oct. 23, 2009.

Ulring tendered his letter of resignation to Board Chair Dave Schermerhorn on Sept. 30, but asked that it not be made public until the board meeting, when Ulring would be present to answer questions.

After hearing Ulring's request to resign, the board voted unanimously to accept the resignation with regret.

Ulring told the board that he had accepted a position in Anchorage, Alaska, where he can pursue his interest in cold climate engineering. There he will work for a consultant who has a contract to study soils engineering and to design foundations for local projects.

There was a stunned silence in the commissioners' room when Ulring made his announcement. Several people in the room said later that they deeply regretted Ulring's decision to leave Wadena County, but they understood his choice to leave the position where he could no longer carry out his work effectively because of opposition from two of the commissioners.

Ulring has been the target of intense criticism from Commissioners Rodney Bounds and Ralph Miller since they were sworn in as commissioners last January. Bounds and Miller disagreed with his ideas and demeaned his work and his plans for the Highway Department's activities. On more than one occasion, Bounds accused Ulring of presenting incorrect cost figures and not telling the truth.

Most recently, Ulring's plans to consolidate highway department garages was dealt a severe blow when commissioners voted 3-1 to reverse an earlier decision and reopen a garage in Verndale, dropping plans to house one county truck in the City of Staples truck garage.

Ulring is an internationally respected civil engineer who has worked in Minnesota for most of his professional career. He is chair of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the Technical Council on Cold Regions Engineering of the American Society of Civil Engineers. In 2007, he was invited to travel to Finland to give a pre- sentation at the Tampere ISCORD symposium on the use of geofoam in cold climate highway and bridge construction.

Ulring became the Wadena County Highway Engineer in June 2006. He holds a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from South Dakota State University in Brookings. After college, he worked for seven years in the private sector doing materials testing and soils exploration for engineering companies. Then he decided to leave private industry and work in the public sector.

"I like serving the public,"

he said in a 2007 interview. "I think it's important to

be sure that we spend the people's dollars wisely."

Ulring's experience includes three and a half years as the county engineer in Murray County, ten years as a staff engineer with St. Louis County and the past three years at Wadena County.

Ulring spent part of his childhood in Staples, graduating from Staples High School. His wife's family still lives in Staples, where his daughter is a senior in high school. Ulring will commute to Alaska during the winter months, and plans to move his family there after his daughter's graduation in 2010.