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Fergus Falls Set to Save Hundreds of Thousands in Engineering Costs by Partnering with Local Company

By Derek Sidian Jun 4, 2025 | 2:40 PM

The City of Fergus Falls is partnering with Moore Engineering. (Derek Sidian, KBRF News)

Fergus Falls, MN – The City of Fergus Falls has decided to outsource its engineering department to Moore Engineering.

The decision comes after former City Engineer Brian Yavarow turned in his resignation earlier this year. During the city’s due diligence in finding a replacement, City Administrator Andrew Bremseth says staff was approached by Moore Engineering about a possible relationship to provide general and project engineering services.

Moore is proposing to do the city’s general engineering (day-to-day work) for a flat fee of $16,000 per month, or $192,000 annually. The current cost of providing the same services in-house, between wages/benefits, equipment and subscriptions, comes out to just over $633,000. As a result, Bremseth says the city would see annual savings on the general engineering side of around $440,000.

On the project engineering side of things, Moore has proposed a flat fee of 15% of each project, which would be calculated by using the average middle bid price. Currently, Bremseth says that the city sees their project engineering typically being between 20-25% of a project, in some cases up to 35%.

In addition to saving the city money, Moore will be providing Kyle Meyer as the official City Engineer, as well as a whole team of engineers dedicated to Fergus Falls. Bremseth says, “I mean, really, it expands the services that we’re going to be able to provide and makes us more efficient and gives us more resources, at a cost that’s a significant savings to the taxpayers.”

Before the City Council voted on the proposal, discussion was had discussing whether it would have been more appropriate for the city to send out a Request for Proposal (RFP). The City Council made the agreement official at Monday night’s meeting in a vote of 7-1.

As part of outsourcing all engineering work with Moore, the city’s engineering department has been scrapped, and three engineering employees were let go. However, Bremseth says Moore offered all three positions in their Fergus Falls team, and at least two have accepted.

Moore Engineering will officially begin work for the City of Fergus Falls on Monday, June 9th.

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