Lee County welcomes new planning and zoning director

LEESBURG — After six months of searching, Lee County has welcomed county resident and engineer Matthew Inman as its new Planning, Zoning and Engineering Director.

As Planning and Zoning Director, Inman assumes the role left vacant when Bob Alexander left the position last fall to become City Manager of Leesburg.

According to County Manager Ron Rabun, Inman was a natural fit for the position and was the ideal candidate to not only fill the role as planning director but to take on additional responsibilities as the county looked to integrate multiple departments under one umbrella.

Because Inman is an engineer, Rabun said his new role can include the work traditionally done by a county engineer, a position Lee County did not have, which meant county leaders previously would have to contract with outside firms for certain projects.

“He’s an engineer and that’s important to us,” Rabun said. “We have a lot of heavyweight projects, road projects and drainage issues in the county and having someone like that gives us an added dimension of skill.”

Rabun said that it also made sense to move building inspection under Inman’s direction as well to create a synergy around development. As Rabun sees it, development is the key term in that begins with planning and zoning, moves through construction and then the final product is inspected.

“Development is a process and planning and building is the same business really,” Rabun said. “We reorganized the department to be planning, development and engineering.”

For Inman, who has worked extensively with the county over the years while employed as branch manager for the Lee County office of EMC Engineering Services, Inc., the opportunity to go to work for his home county was a once in a lifetime opportunity he felt he had to take.

“This is a great opportunity for me to serve,” said Inman. “I care a lot about this community and I feel this position is a way for me to better impact this community.”

Inman is no stranger to community service, having been active with the Lee County Chamber of Commerce for several years, including currently serving as board president.

In addition to his activities with the Chamber, Inman also serves on the Chehaw Park Authority and is a member of the Lee County Youth Baseball board of directors.

Inman feels his connection to county activities through consultation work he did while at EMC puts him in a position to get right to work on the county’s needs.

“I’m in a very unique position in that I have worked with the county in the past on many things and served as a consultant, so I have a good idea of what is going,” said Inman. “It’s nice that when I started I already knew everybody and am familiar with things.”

Educated in engineering at Middle Georgia College and the University of Georgia, Inman feels his education and his past work experience, which began with a small firm in Valdosta after he graduated from UGA, has prepared him for the Lee County role.

“I was in Valdosta for about 10 years and I got a lot of my experience working for a very small firm there and got to work on every type of project,” said Inman. “It was great experience for this job just because I did such a broad range of engineering.”

Inman furthered his on the job education during his time with EMC and also developed management and communication skills.

He also feels that those skills will help him assess where he needs to place his focus and formulate the best course of action for his team.

“The biggest priority is getting our hands wrapped around what is the biggest priority,” Inman said. “The first month on the job is going to be figuring out which areas need the most help. From my standpoint there was nobody in this chair for six months, but the county didn’t stop for six months. We’re just trying to figure out what challenges we’ve got and what areas need the most attention first; get kind of a game plan or a plan of attack.”

Another priority for Inman is bringing together different county departments that in the past had worked independently from one another. Inman feels that by effectively bringing those different departments together, it will allow for greater communication and efficiency.

“We kind of combined, made all the departments under one umbrella, everything that has to do with development,” said Inman. “Many times in the past if there were issues with things it was from lack of communication because of all the different departments. Hopefully this will make things more cohesive. That’s a big priority, unifying the different departments and getting them working more as a unified unit instead of individual departments.”

“I’m excited to join this team, and it’s not as if I have to come in and fix something, because nothing’s broken” said Inman. “It’s already a great team and I just want to plug in and help where I can and do my part to help continue making Lee County a great place to live, work and do business.”

“Matt’s an impressive young man,” said Rabun. “He’s got experience and he’s a smart professional and he’s a ‘can do’ guy.”