County OKs more part-time workers for airport

Airport, barn roof, grant funding, and theme days on crowded agenda

Taylor County will be looking at more casual help at the airport to cover time when other staff is not available or additional hands are needed for larger projects.

At the June 14 finance and personnel committee meeting, members approved adding another on-call casual part-time position to the airport staff as well as making tweaks to the job description to potentially allow high-school aged people to apply for it.

According to airport manager Fred Ebert, the county has typically had two part-timers working there. He noted that one of them is 68 years old and is looking to spend more time on other activities. He said the additional people would not be any additional hours because they would only be called in as needed.

“We are not asking for any more in the budget,” explained human resources director Nicole Hager.

“We keep hearing the airport wants to cut back on hours. Why are we including a casual employee,” asked committee member Rollie Thums.

Ebert said the position they are seeking would average about five hours a week and be there when needed for the airport. He said that if the department were to decrease to having the manager go down to part time, having the third person would be necessary to flex hours to provide coverage when needed.

“This is raising more questions in my mind than answers,” said committee member Ray Soper questioning why they would need more help if the department was looking to cut its hours because of having extra time.

“Both guys could be gone at the same times,” explained committee chairman Chuck Zenner.

Ebert noted that they could choose to not staff it, but would likely miss fuel sales as a result. He gave an example of Sierra Pacific flying in that week and the county netting about $1,000 in fuel sales from it.

In the end, committee members voted to approve the casual part time position and to approve changes to eliminate the class B CDL and high school graduate requirements of the casual position. Ebert said the CDL is not needed if equipment is only being used on the airport property and the only time it is not is when it is being brought to the highway shop for maintenance.

New barn roof

Taylor County will use up to $90,000 in federal ARPA funds to replace the roof and make building upgrades to the dairy barn at the fairgrounds.

According to finance director Larry Brandl, the barn was built in 1979 and that in the time since then, he said there hasn’t been significant investment made in the building.

“The roof is giving some grief,” said buildings and grounds supervisor Joe Svejda. He explained that the building was built without eaves and during rain events the water runs down the walls leading to other issues. As for the roof, he said he felt the steel had exceeded its life and that it was time to replace the 200 foot by 60 foot roof.

He received a quote from Meyer Buildings for the project at a cost of $69,907 with the potential for time and material for any rafter repairs that may be needed.

At the same time as the county is looking to make roof repairs, Svejda said there were six access doors that need work on the building as well as other cosmetic repairs to ensure the building remains functional for years to come.

“It should have a good life yet,” he said.

Committee member Ray Soper questioned the recent federal budget deal to claw back unspent COVID relief funds from the state and if the county was in danger of having its remaining ARPA funds taken away.

Brandl explained that ARPA funds are different than the COVID relief money. “It is a different pot,” he said.

The county has about $140,000 in ARPA funds remaining prior to the approval of the barn project. The funds must be committed by December 31, 2024 and spent by December 31, 2026.

Committee member Rollie Thums questioned if anything would be done to address the eaves issue on the barn. Svejda said the total price included extending the eaves by two feet on each side as well as installing a skylight section along the ridge of the building to provide additional natural light to the interior.

Because the total being spent is under $100,000 the committee has the authority to approve spending the ARPA funds without it needing to go to the full county board.

In addition to being used during the fair, the barn is used for several other events throughout the year. In the fall and winter months, the county rents space in the building for camper and boat storage.

In other business committee members:

 Approved a change to the county’s employee handbook to clarify when the county would reimburse for lodging expense for those attending conferences. Hager had included an option for if the employee was part of the committee running the event and it is within 120 miles but committee members favored the option without that provision.

 Approved tapping into preparedness grant funds in the health department to pay for additional work hours in the emergency management department. Health director Michelle Cahoon explained they receive grant funds to do planning and that in review with the emergency management it was found there was significant overlap with planning done by that department. She proposed a plan to collaborate and only have one person work on the planning needed for both departments. The grant would cover 10 hours a week of emergency management director Dan Gellert’s salary allowing him to go up to 40 hours per week. In return Gellert’s work will free up at least five hours a week for the health department staff to do other tasks. She noted it will also save a little in the levy as it would replace where some of his current salary is coming from.

Zenner described it as streamlining county operations and praised Cahoon for bringing it forward.

The additional hours for Gellert’s position are dependent upon the grant program continuing. If the grant funding is reduced he would revert to his current level of 35 hours per week. The change begins at the first pay period in July.

 Approved creating a casual mental health counselor position for the human services department to cover until someone is hired. Suzanne Stanfley said they may come back in the future to ask for the casual position to continue to clear up waiting lists and backlogs in the department, but for now they are only asking to use this to fill a gap. She noted that it typically takes a while to find someone to fill the position and that not having someone there for counseling can lead to increased cost of inpatient care.

 Approved allowing the staff to have six theme- apparel days throughout the year as part of the wellness committee’s activities in regard to morale boosting. Taylor County has an employee dress code and allows such things as casual days for certain events. Human resources assistant Rachel Ogle explained they were looking at things like Green and Gold for Packers Game Day, ugly Christmas Sweater days, Brewersthemed days or work appropriate Halloween costumes during that season.

Thums expressed concern that he would not support something that would be divisive in the community. “There is so much controversy I am not going to support something that is divisive,” he said.

“We are not here to divide we are here to unite,” he said.

Ogle assured the committee that was their intent as well and that the theme days would be very generalized.

 Approved temporarily raising the pay for the highway department accounting assistant by $3 per hour retroactive to May 15 and allowing the employee to work up to 40 hours per week until a new accountant can be hired and trained with it ending on the first pay period in August. Highway commissioner Ben Stanfley noted there was about a $6.48 per hour difference between the two positions on the pay scale. The temporary increase is in line with what the county has done in the past when a staff member had to assume additional duties.