As the City of Winchester’s engineering tech, Daron Stephens covers a lot of ground.

“I’m responsible for all demolitions, both residential and commercial, that the city does,” he said. “I manage all types of construction the city does.”

He responds to stormwater complaints. He works with Kentucky Utilities officials about installing street lights. He issues grading permits for construction projects.

He checks construction and development sites to make sure the required silt fences are in place and runoff won’t affect the current stormwater plan.

He’s also constructing the new security entrance to Winchester City Hall. And he projects the agenda during the Winchester Board of Commissioners meetings.

It’s a lot for the two-and-a-half year city employee. Stephens said the job description felt like it was written for him.

“I grew up in a construction family,” Stephens said. “My dad’s side of the family, they’re all carpenters. My dad’s a jack of all trades.”

After starting at Eastern Kentucky University to become a police officer but it didn’t work out.

“After three semesters, they asked me not to show up for the spring semester,” he said.

Stephens said he started working with his grandfather in the trades and eventually earned three associate degrees. He spent more than a decade working at Bluegrass Station before getting laid off along with 375 other people.

Stephens said he was working with his grandfather again when a relative shared the city’s job post on Facebook. Stephens said the job seemed tailor made for him.

Stephens spends a lot of time working with the public and explaining the city’s processes.

“People aren’t used to the bureaucracy and why it takes as long as it does,” he said. “I spend a lot of time explaining to the public why we can or can’t do something. That’s been the biggest adjustment — having to explain why we do it in a way they can understand.”

Stephens also helped create a new ordinance for the city which requires utilities who cut city streets to repair them exactly as they were before. It also establishes a committee between the city and utility representatives which would ideally allow then to coordinate on repairs or upgrades. Hopefully, he said, two projects could be completed while only cutting the street once, or possibly moving projects up before the city plans to repave the streets, he said.