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12A I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com
Wednesday, August 8,2018
FROM 1A
Budget
above the desk of each clerk, as
well as one near the vault where
money is kept, one in Stewart’s
office and another one in the
back hallway. The only camera
currently in the office is pointed
at the doorway where customers
enter.
“I think it would just be good
to have especially around proper
ty time when we have a lot of
money in our office, a lot of
times cash,” Stewart said.
She presented a quote for
$9,180 for the cameras.
Presentations were also made
by the superior court, drug treat
ment court, human resources and
probate court.
The superior court’s request is
$16,297 more than last year’s
due primarily to the addition of a
fifth judge, a position that Clint
Bearden was appointed to in
December. Drug treatment court
presented no change, asking for
the same $199,194 that was allo
cated last year.
Human Resources Director
Danielle Yarbrough asked for a
new position in her department
as well as training and supplies
for the new person if granted.
“The Society for Human
Resource Management recom
mends one HR person for every
100 employees,” Yarbrough said.
“As you can see by our current
numbers we are sorely under
staffed.”
The county has 442 employees
currently, with 41 vacancies and
27 frozen positions. There is cur
rently one person in the HR
department aside from
Yarbrough.
“If we were running at full
staff, we would have 510
employees,” Yarbrough said. “We
keep saying that the employees
are our greatest assets, we just
want to continue to provide them
great service. Even if we had two
additional positions we would
still be understaffed.”
Probate Court Judge Jennifer
Burt asked for a new part time
clerk and an overall increase in
her general fund of $7,040 from
2018.
Presenting requests Tuesday
were the public defender’s office,
the office of elections and voter
registration, the extension office,
the finance department and pub
lic works.
Public Works Director David
McKee had the most extensive
presentation and the highest
increases. He is in charge of the
public works administrative bud
get as well as the roads, GIS and
transfer station budgets.
His main increases came in the
roads department budget, with an
overall increase of $74,907
requested over last year’s budget.
McKee asked for two new full
time positions in addition to
combining three part time posi
tions into two full time positions.
His intention is to create a
four-man team of a field supervi
sor, two operator Is and an oper
ator 2, who would be primarily
responsible for mowing. The
crew would be mowing 40 hours
a week during the six to seven
month growing window, and dur
ing the non-growing season the
crew would switch equipment
and start cutting back limbs as
well as assisting with cleaning up
right of ways during inclement
weather, McKee said.
McKee said that having a full
time crew specifically focused on
mowing will allow the rest of the
public works employees to work
on other complaints. Based on
phone calls the public works
office has received over the past
two years, 30 percent of com
plaints have been about mowing
and sight distance, while 25 per
cent have been about gravel
roads and another 25 percent
about potholes or asphalt. Other
complaints include road signs,
dead animals and drainage.
“It really bugs me greatly that
we react to most everything that
we’re doing. It is very difficult to
schedule personnel and manage
personnel and equipment when
we’re reacting,” McKee said.
“For example, this week we’re
paving, we’re finishing up some
of our LMIG work, getting ready
to move over to Biscayne subdi
vision. Yesterday I received eight
mowing complaints. Out of the
eight, seven of them were sub
stantiated. What do we do? We
pull somebody off of a crew, we
send them over there to mow it,
or I go do it, we pull someone
from the transfer station that
needs to be hauling solid waste,
and we go do that.”
Commission Chairman Billy
Thurmond said that having the
crew specific to mowing will be
beneficial because the other pub
lic works crews will be able to
get more done on the roads, and
the department will have to bid
out road work less.
“If he is able to do a mile, two
miles, three miles, because he’s
not having to shift people around
in the production phase of that,
there’s a huge savings to this
county,” Thurmond said.
McKee also asked for an
increase in the transfer station
budget, which is funded by reve
nue in the solid waste fund. He
asked for an increase of
$122,052 for two full time opera
tors at the transfer station, among
other items.
Also asking for more person
nel was Brad Morris with the
public defender’s office. Morris
asked for two additional person
nel to create parity with the same
department in Hall County,
which has 13 employees com
pared to Dawson County’s four.
If allocated, the new positions
would create an annual invest
ment of $120,900, according to
Morris.
Today, hearings will include
magistrate court, Dawson
County Family Connection, the
Good Shepherd Clinic and the
sheriff’s office.
All hearings are held begin
ning at 9 a.m. in the second floor
assembly room at the Dawson
County Government Center. The
public is invited and encouraged
to attend.
Schedule
Wednesday, Aug. 8
9 a.m. Magistrate
9:45 a.m. Family Connection
10:30 a.m. Good Shepherd
Clinic
11 a.m. Sheriff
Thursday, Aug. 9
9 a.m. Coroner
9:45 a.m. Facilities
10:30 a.m. IT
11 a.m. Clerk of Court/Board
of Equalization
11:30 a.m. County Manager/
General Government
Monday, Aug. 13
9 a.m.Tax Assessor
9:45 a.m. District Attorney
10:30 a.m. Park & Rec
11:30 a.m. County Attorney
Tuesday, Aug. 14
9 a.m. Juvenile Court
9:30 a.m. Chamber of
Commerce
10 a.m. Keep Dawson
County Beautiful
10:30 a.m. Arts Council
11 a.m. Library
11:30 a.m. Health
Department
Wednesday, Aug. 15
9 a.m. Senior Center/Transit
9:45 a.m. Planning/Marshal
10:30 a.m. Fire/EMS/EMA
Thursday, Aug. 16
9 a.m. Fleet
9:30 a.m. NOA
10 a.m. DFACS
10:30 a.m. Humane Society
11 a.m. CASA
11:30 a.m. Board of
Commissioners
! victory has a nice ring to it.
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