County Council discusses new sirens and employee raises among other things

The Dubois County Council meeting was held last night.

Dubois County Health Department Director Donna Oeding presented the annual report to the council. She requested to add the position of a nurse currently paid by two grants to the the department budget and then use the grants to fill a part time clerical position. The salary for the position would be $51,000. The council gave her approval to add the position to the budget. Oeding also announced Alison Niehaus would be retiring.

The Dubois County Soil and Water district presented the council with a check for $3500. The department was not assessed rent for land used by the department. The assessment comes from the Natural Resources and Conservation Service and for an unknown reason they will not be assessing this year. The funds were allocated to the Soil and Water budget and the department felt the proper action would be to present the money back to the county.

The council then discussed the potential to purchase five more storm sirens for the county. The county would place them in areas that currently do not have sirens such as St. Anthony and Cuzco. The sirens would be activated by the 911 Communications Center. The cost of each siren is over $20,000. The council approved advertising for the purchase of the sirens.

Councilwoman Barb Mathies inquired whether a phone service would be more cost effective than installing the sirens at a potential cost of $125,000. She was informed the council had discussed that option in the past but it seemed to be cost prohibitive to implement. Councilman Greg Kendall informed Mathies she could inquire with the Dubois County Emergency Management about the potential program.

Attorney Bill Shaneyfelt is a deputy prosecutor for Dubois County who operates the child support enforcement program. Shari Spinner is the chief administrator for the child support enforcement program at the deputy prosecutor’s office. Spinner has been chosen to fill a position as a consultant for the state child support enforcement program in the region. As she is leaving the deputy prosecutor’s office, the office is requesting to create and fill a position to allow some training to occur before Spinner leaves the office. The council approved Shaneyfelt’s request.

The Council received the final draft for the County Tax Abatement program. The program matches the property tax abatement passed by the City of Jasper. The council approved the County Tax Abatement program. (Story here)

The council approved appropriations for the following items:

• $231,000 for a new ambulance and the final payment on defribulators
• $800,000 for the Dubois County Highway Department paving projects.
• $11,100 for the Auditor’s office to update computer equipment to work with the state’s payroll programs. Auditor Kathy Hopf stated she had already advertised for the $11,100 but then found out the department would be reimbursed $5000 of the cost after the upgrades were made.

Established a new fund called the Dubois County 911 Fund that was necessary for the 911 changes occurring in July.

The council discussed pay raises for county employees. Councilman Shane Lindauer inquired to how raises were allocated to employees. “I don’t understand this across the board (raise), why don’t department heads request individual raises for employees in their budget,” Lindauer asked.

He was told the department heads completed employee performance reviews and decided what raise each employee would receive.

Councilman Mark Brescher stated every employee gets the allocated amount with out any discretion to performance.

Kendall stated the council was not the governing authority on the matter; it was up to the department heads. The council only approves the max amount the department heads could give each employee.

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