Airport committee to give coordinator leeway on casual staff

It will be up to the airport coordinator to determine the hiring of casual workers and how much they will work.

“I don’t want to see it get abused,” said committee chairman Chuck Zenner at Tuesday’s committee meeting.

The response came in to a question from Airport Coordinator Patrick Colwell about compensating those who assist at the airport, including former airport manager Fred Ebert, who has made himself available to answer questions during Colwell’s transition into the position.

“I personally feel if someone is helping they should get some kind of compensation for it,” Colwell said of those who have assisted through the transition.

Under county policy, casual employees are those without a set work schedule. They are approved by the committees and department heads and there is a pay scale that was set within the county handbook for wages to be paid. Human Resources director Nicole Hager said the major restriction would be that it could not exceed the department’s budget for temporary help.

Zenner said he would like the existing casual employees to be taken care of before hours are given to other people.

“The bottom line is the budget at the end of the year,” Zenner said.

In regard to the budget, committee members began their review of the department budget before it goes to the county’s budget committee in early October. The budget as presented includes about a $25,000 decrease largely from a change in wages compared to the current year’s budget. However, it was noted that the airport committee may want to apply some of that savings to go toward replacing the metal roof of the maintenance hangar at the airport.

Committee members delayed action on adopting the budget until September 26 in order to get estimates for the roof work.