New public works director hired

Pend Oreille County chooses from deep candidate pool

NEWPORT – Seven months after Craig Jackson, Pend Oreille County’s last public works director retired last August, the county has hired a new public works director, Carole Richardson of Newport.

“We had a lot of good candidates,” Pend Oreille County commission chair Brian Smiley said.

He said the commissioners interviewed six candidates and brought in two for final in-person interviews, where some public works staff were involved. “She was our first choice,” Smiley said.

Richardson will be paid $180,000 annually. She starts April 2.

Richardson is the principal at Plangineering, LLC., which does strategic planning and consulting for governments and nonprofits and is headquartered in Newport. She’s been doing that since 2013.

Richardson, a public engineer, has more than 30 years of experience.

Before Plangineering she was principal engineer with David Evans and Associates in Spokane from 2009-2013. Richardson worked for KMPO Transportation Planning as an engineer, for the City Engineer for the City of Astoria, Oregon and Northwest Area Manager for the Oregon Department of Transportation.

Pend Oreille County has had several public works directors over the last decade.

Sam Castro worked eight years, from September 2010 to June 2018.

Craig Jackson took over in October 2018 and worked until July 2021.

Mary Jensen worked from April 2021 to April 2022. George Luft served as interim Public Works Director from April 2022 to February 2023 and Jackson returned in March 2023 and worked until he retired in 2025.