Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Kyle Alger could have gone into any engineering field, but through an assortment of decisions, he chose civil engineering.
Those decisions also brought the 32-year-old to Warsaw as the city’s engineer.
Born and raised in Utah, Alger also completed his higher education there. He started out at Weber State University, earning an associate’s degree, and then went to Utah State University for its engineering program. At USU, he focused on civil engineering.
“Like most freshmen in college, I kind of bounced around with a few ideas. My dad is an electrician, I worked with him a bit growing up, so when I first went to school I thought electrical engineering, I’ll go that route. A few classes in, I realized I was really interested in more like aerospace type stuff, so I thought, ‘OK, maybe I should become an aerospace engineer.’ So, I started looking at classes focused toward that. And by the end of my freshman year, I’d gone through Physics 1 and I had a really good physics professor that I liked and he did some stuff mechanical and civil engineering oriented, working for an amusement park there in Utah, so I kind of started looking at the civil branch and mechanical branch,” Alger said.
After researching both, he realized that civil engineering was predicted to have a bit of a drought in the workforce over the next decade, while mechanical engineering was projected to have a surplus of folks. He liked both fields, but chose civil engineering because it had the most job opportunity prospects going into the future.
“So far, I would say I feel like it was a really good match. In hindsight, I feel like I made the better choice. Not just because it’s the route I stuck to, but I really do enjoy it. Between the different branches, water management, geotechnical, structural engineering, I enjoyed all of it,” Alger said.
When he got out of school, he ended up more on the water and utility side of civil engineering.
“I came to Indiana after graduation to work for NuCor Steel up in Waterloo. They do the pre-fab building systems. Great company. Really good experience. I worked for them for a summer, but it just wasn’t a great fit for me and my family’s lifestyle, so my wife just encouraged me to look for a few different jobs in the area when we lived in Fort Wayne, and that’s how I ended up getting picked up by Fort Wayne City Utilities,” Alger recalled.
He had met his wife, Paige, at Weber State University. When Alger started school, Paige was already further along than he was and she was ready to start her degree in the dental hygiene program there. After they had their first child, he took a gap semester to raise their youngest while Paige started her program. In the fall, he started picking up classes again part-time while she finished up the dental hygiene program.
They now have two children with one on the way.
Alger worked at Fort Wayne City Utilities about four years.
“When we moved to Indiana, originally, my wife and I both kind of wanted to be somewhere that was a little more country and a little less suburb. Fort Wayne is great, but at the time - 2022 or 2021 - the housing market was in its crazy spiral where it was definitely a seller’s market, not a buyer’s market. We just had to get our foot in the door somewhere so I could start working out in this area,” he said.
They found an affordable house in northern Fort Wayne and it was a great place in a great community in a great town, but it wasn’t what they were hoping for.
“Ever since we moved here, we’ve been looking for something a little more in the country and we eventually were able to find it out here in Pierceton,” Alger said.
They’ve lived along Ind. 13 in Pierceton for about 2-1/2 years now. His drive from their home in Pierceton to his work in Fort Wayne was about 45 minutes. While the drive was fine, he’s “definitely” grateful to be a little closer to home.
While proximity was one of the reasons Alger made the job change from Fort Wayne to Warsaw, he also had college professors who were city engineers.
“Utah State University has a bunch of kind of small country towns surrounding it, so a lot of them were also small town city engineers. They were always kind of relaying information of what it’s like to help offer consulting for an entire municipality. It interested me. So I kind of had my eyes peeled for similar opportunities since I moved to Indiana, and when I saw the opportunity open up here so close to home, I thought I’ve got to try it,” he said.
His first day on the job as the Warsaw city engineer was April 6. It’s been a little like he thought it would be, but there’s also been some differences.
“Never having worked in a position like this before, there’s definitely been a learning curve as there is with any job. It’s really exciting, in that I like being in on so many different prospective projects. Not just stormwater, but (Public Works Director) Dustin (Dillon) has pulled me in on some streetwalk, some street stuff, even stuff as easy as just sidewalks. The other day I was looking over some of A & Z’s drawings for a roundabout that they’re looking to do at Husky Trail. So anything from more complicated to more simple, it’s nice to be able to get in on a wide variety of stuff,” Alger said.
He’s working with the sewer and storm team at the wastewater treatment plant, helping them to design stuff. He’s working with the parks department on an issue at Central Park.
“So a lot of different things, from stormwater, wastewater, environmental management type of stuff all the way to streets and sidewalks. It’s definitely a lot more than I was able to do just at Fort Wayne. Don’t get me wrong, Fort Wayne was great, but I do enjoy being able to do more than just stormwater,” Alger stated.
He considers himself kind of an in-house consultant for any of the department heads with whatever civil-related project they do.
“Now, I’ve got my emphasis, like I said my background is in water management, storm and sewer, primarily, so that’s the sort of projects that I myself feel comfortable putting my stamp of approval on. When it comes to transportation, structural engineering, I know enough to help scope out a project, to maybe be another eye of review when consultants come through, but on projects like that, I’m primarily looking to get a consultant in-house to help. But definitely acting as like a liaison and project manager as needed on those projects,” Alger said.
Though he’s kept busy working on a number of projects, he hasn’t felt overwhelmed.
“I feel like Warsaw - since I’ve been here - my initial impression is that it’s growing. It has really good ambitions to grow, but it’s still small enough to where ... it’s sized well enough that for the time being, just one in-house engineer is enough to corral all the projects that they get,” Alger said. “As it grows and changes, I’m sure that will evolve, but for now I would say it’s all manageable.”
He said the city’s department heads are “really great folks all around” and he feels blessed in being able to have good folks to work with on all the different projects and help them out with whatever their needs are.
In his free time, Alger considers himself an outdoorsman.
“I really appreciate the lakes here. We bought a Jon Boat this summer. My son and my daughter will go fishing out on the lakes, kind of in the North Webster area. I like hiking, I like camping when I get the opportunity. Love to travel and just go and be out in nature,” he said.
