Ribbon cutting for engineering firm

As more and more development continues to the Sidney area, new businesses continue to move here as well.

Specialized Engineering Solutions, housed on the second floor of the Security First Bank building held its official ribbon cutting ceremony Wednesday. SES is a mechanical, electrical, plumbing and technology engineering firm which provides engineering solutions for justice, government, commercial, educational, worship, healthcare and laboratory facilities.

The Sidney office is currently home to one worker, Ben Schmitt, who was born and raised here.

Although the company is based in Omaha, it has recently done a lot of work in the Sidney area out of its Ogallala office which opened around two years ago. This lead to a lot of trips back and forth to Sidney.

"It was just kind of a natural progression to have an office here to be more responsive and attentive to our clients out here and it saves everybody money and saves everybody time," Schmitt said. "We wanted to kind of reinvest in a community that's been investing in us."

The company eventually hopes to have a full productions staff here, including a designer and perhaps another engineer. Right now the company is working with Sidney public schools on improvements to west elementary and the middle school. The company is also working on a large school addition for Perkins County High School in Grant, as well as a hospital addition there.

"It's really exciting," Schmitt said. "Its actually been more of a smooth and seamless transition than I expected."

Schmitt lived in Omaha for 10 years and moved back to Sidney in November.