The Guthrie County Board of Supervisors met Tuesday in regular session.
County Engineer Josh Sebern discussed staffing changes with the Board. He proposed promoting Evan Subbert to project manager with an increase in salary of $3 per hour and making Mike Pearey senior technician. He also wants to create another technician position. Sebern told the Board that he’s has 40 items that he’s currently working on and he determines and selects the different kinds of projects and then designs them or subcontracts the design work that he felt he couldn’t do his administrative duties as county engineer. He felt that by promoting Subbert, he could handle the project designs and Pearey could do the construction end of it. The start up cost for a new technician would be between $110,000 to $135,000.
Following the discussion, the Board agreed with Sebern’s plan and will make their final decision at next week’s meeting. The final plans would include an adjustment in salary for Subbert at $1.50 per hour raise this year and the other $1.50 raise would come in the next six months.
The Board then approved several farm tax credit applications as well as the certification for the wind farm tax increment financing as presented.
Finally, the Board discussed information from the regional mental health board. Supervisor Cliff Carney is the representative from Guthrie County on the board and he presented information about the new mental health advocate employee and the budget. Advocate Brett Michaels salary is suppose to be paid based on the workload in each of the five counties that he serves, including Guthrie County. The Board wanted further explanation about the county’s portion of payment and will meet with Mental Health Coordinator Ellen Ritter in a couple of weeks. The budget also includes an 11 percent increase and a proposal for four additional employees to work in each of the county school districts to help prevent possible mental health issues in the future at a younger age. The Board took no action on the proposal.
Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, Thursday’s Supervisor meeting is cancelled.