Michael Griffin

Earlier this year, the City of Athens ended its search for a city planner, but now the hunt will be on for a new city engineer.

City Engineer Michael Griffin told The News Courier he has accepted an offer to work for the City of Madison.

“They have an engineer who has been there for years and is well respected in the community, and from what I hear runs a very good department,” he said. “It’s a good career option for me. Madison has a lot going for it, it’s a great community and has a great school system. I love Athens. It wasn’t an easy decision.”

Mayor Ronnie Marks told the Council that Monday’s meeting was Griffin’s last with Athens.

“I want to publicly tell Michael how much I appreciate his years of service with the City of Athens and wish him the best,” Marks said. “Any time he gets sick of Madison, he can come back. Good luck to you, and thank you for everything that you’ve done.”

Griffin said the city began advertising his position the week before the meeting,” so hopefully they will find somebody soon.” He said he has worked for the City of Athens for about three years now.

Griffin came from Baldwin County and worked in the private sector before coming to work for Athens.

“I worked a lot of contracts with the city, and they pretty much said ‘hey, you’ve been doing all our contracts…’, and I moved into this position,” Griffin said.

He said he loved his time working for the City of Athens and loves the city and people. Griffin said he will continue being a resident of Athens.

“It’s a great city with a bright future ahead of it. It’s a good place to be,” he said.