Denton County’s commissioners are having a hard time finding a county engineer. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised; they had a pretty hard time deciding they wanted one in the first place.

The county is currently spending something north of $200,000 a year for engineering services by an outside firm. The county commissioners had been talking for some time about hiring a full-time county engineer, but consensus was elusive. Commissioner Cynthia White was chary about the whole idea. It seemed to her to harken back to the days of the unified road system that had caused no little controversy in the past.

But support for the idea grew, and White herself was defeated in the recent Republican primary by a candidate who pushed the county engineer idea.

The commissioners finally decided to advertise for an engineer, but they didn’t quite go the whole hog. They created the position, but they didn’t give it department head status.

(Amy Phillips, the county’s human resources director, has tried to get the job raised to department-head status, but the commissioners have balked so far.)

That, and a couple of other factors, seem to be working against getting a county engineer in the barn. A headhunting outfit has been hired, but it has produced exactly zero candidates so far. Other candidates have cropped up, but the county can’t seem to close the sale.

The Record-Chronicle’s Dan X. McGraw reported this week that one candidate has begged pardon and removed himself from consideration and that another has expressed concern that the position isn’t listed as a department head.

Other impediments seem to be a general shortage of qualified engineers — or at least of qualified engineers who are looking for jobs at the moment — and the advertised salary for the position — about $81,000 a year.

It is hard for most of us to contemplate an $81,000-a-year job going begging, especially in this economy, but the market drives the price, and the market for qualified, experienced engineers apparently starts somewhere above $81,000 these days.

It is beginning to look as though the commissioners will have to revisit their original thoughts about just what they want in a county engineer, what status they are willing to give him and what they are willing to pay.

The market is a cruel master.