By Abby Zieverink

County of Grande Prairie

New County Director of Public Works transitioning into role

Jan 14, 2022 | 12:59 PM

Ryan Konowalyk has spent roughly two weeks in his new role as the Director of Public Works for the County of Grande Prairie.

He is taking over the position from Dale Van Volkingburg who is retiring at the end of May 2022.

Konowalyk says he is grateful he is able to learn the ins and outs from Dale before his retirement.

“As opposed to getting thrown right into the deep end, you get to come into the waiting pool, and then by next week it will be full out into the deep end,” he explained.

“It’s a good opportunity for me to have somebody mentor you through the first few weeks and try to absorb as much as you can from that person. I certainly don’t have the depth of knowledge in the local area as Dale does, so that’s the biggest benefit selfishly for me, is to try and be like a sponge and absorb as much as I can.”

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Growing up in the Peace River and Grimshaw area, Konowalyk suggests he knows the municipalities in the northwest region quite well and is eager to be working for the County of Grande Prairie.

“It’s a very stable organization, very professionally run, the Reeve and councillors, the CEO all the way through the manager level to the staff level, I’ve had nothing but good experiences in my past,” he said.

“It’s not a far move for our family, my wife’s father lives in the area and my family Is back in the Peace River-Grimshaw area and it was kind of good timing for a role like this as opposed to having to make a more major move, we really like this part of the province and the timing just kind of fit perfect on this one.”

Previously, Konowalyk had been the Regional Director for the Peace Region with Alberta Transportation.

He explains it’s been eye-opening coming from the provincial government side to the municipal government side.

“I come from the provincial government side and before that, I was on the private side so this is a little bit new to me but definitely a good team in place to help me learn the ins and outs.”

He believes his experience on the provincial government side will tie into one of his main goals for the county.

“There are some files that would tie to the province that I would be passionate about from the county side, projects like Highway40X and Highway40 twinning.”

As far as other goals, Konowalyk says he believes he will be adding to that list in the weeks to come.