County tweaks highway pay to stay competitive
The Taylor County Highway Committee on Tuesday approved increasing the premium pay for highway employees.
Highway commissioner Ben Stanfley said he had done some comparison with other counties in the west-central district to see about increasing premium pay to keep the county more competitive with what the market is. He said several counties have different pay scales for positions and pay employees that rate year round whereas Taylor County has a base pay for employees and pays extra only while the employee is performing a specifi c task.
Stanfley recommended increasing premium or extra pay for certified employees conducting bridge inspections from $3 per hour to $5 per hour while conducting the inspection. Equipment pay would increase from $1.50 per hour to $2.50 per hour for employees while assigned as the operator of a piece of equipment. The work crew leader pay for employees assigned to oversee a project or function would increase from $2 per hour to $4.50 per hour. Premium pay for employees in the shop assigned to work on matters more complex than routine maintenance would increase from 50 cents per hour to $3 per hour. Night shift premium pay would increase by 50 cents per hour.
Stanfley said for the equipment pay, he averaged out the number of hours each piece of equipment was operated for the past three years and came up with 6,000 hours. He said at an extra $1 an hour, that comes to an increase of $6,000. Stanfley said last year the county spent 200 hours on bridge inspections ($400 increase) and had 1,750 hours for crew leaders (approximately $4,400 increase). He said night shift pay would be an additional $920 for a total cost increase of $13,573, but noted that some of the increase would be covered by the state or other counties when they contracted with the county for painting services. Stanfley said with the retirement of three employees and their replacements hired at a lower pay level, there is a savings of approximately $15,000 to cover the premium pay increases.
Stanfley said he was proposing the pay increases because it was something the county could do now and was within the budget. He said it would make the highway department more competitive in the market, noting there are many private companies who are constantly hiring. Stanfley said he wants to keep the highway department employees happy and to make the department more attractive to talented people when it comes to hiring.
The proposed pay increase now goes to the county’s personnel committee for final approval.
After a brief discussion and approval of the proposed 2022 Highway Department budget of $4,647,631 to be sent on to the county’s finance committee, the committee approved the proposed 2022 equipment schedule. The schedule called for purchasing two new quad axle patrol trucks and plow equipment at a cost of $296,000 each, a new paint supply truck and equipment transfer for $133,900 and $30,000 for betterment and unanticipated expenses for a total of $755,900.
Stanfley said part of the agreement with the state, the county would increase its capacity to apply more brine to the state highways and the two plow trucks would “go a long ways” toward meeting that goal. He said even though the paint supply truck has never been driven in the winter, the highway department was beginning to experience electrical problems with the vehicle and would like to trade the truck out for a new one.
Stanfley said projected equipment revenue for 2021 is estimated between $505,559 and $550,702. There is $348,000 in reserve funding carried over from the previous year for an estimated total of $853,559 to $898,702 to cover the cost of the equipment purchases.
The committee approved a bridge aid request from the town of Taft to replace culverts on County Line Road.
Stanfley said the first request was to replace two 36 inch by 46 foot galvanized steel culverts which are rusted out on the bottom and replace them with two 36inch by 50 foot plastic culverts. He said the cost would be $11,382 with the county paying half or $5,691.
Stanfley said the second request was to replace a 36 inch by 46 foot galvanized steel culvert located a short distance from the other culverts. He said the bottom of the culvert was also rusted out and proposed replacing it with a 36 inch by 50 foot plastic culvert. Cost would be $8,444 with the county’s share being $4,222.
The committee also approved submitting a request for disaster damage aid to repair a washout culvert on CTH N, onehalf mile north of CTH D. Stanfley said the repair cost is estimated at $20,164 and the Department of Transportation would reimburse the county for 75 percent of the installation cost.
