Driver’s license office makes its move down the hall
Four changes were made to the Hamilton County Employee Handbook on Monday at the regular weekly meeting of the county Board of Commissioners. In a meeting chaired by Vice President John Thomas in the absence of Chairman Rich Nelson, the board heard from County Business Manager Pat Shaw regarding changes that had been suggested in recent meetings of the county’s handbook committee.
Shaw said the suggested changes had to do with altering the way work hours are recorded, changing the regular pay day (now that the entire county workforce in on a schedule of being paid bi-weekly), changing the start and end of the work week and changing the rules regarding hours that can be donated to the county’s catastrophic leave hour bank.
According to Shaw, the work week for county employees has historically ended at midnight Friday and the new week has begun at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday. Following the change the work week will now begin at midnight Sunday, which is traditionally the first day of the week.
No one in the room could recall when or why the work week was set to begin on Saturday, however some thought it might have been for the benefit of law enforcement officers.
With regard to the catastrophic leave policy, county employees will now be able to donate up to two weeks worth of hours into the bank for fellow employees, instead of just one week as was previously the case.
The changes were approved on a unanimous vote.
The only other business item on the day’s agenda was to dispose of surplus property from the Extension Office and Highway Department.
During the public participation section of the meeting, which was recently moved up to a position following the approval of minutes, Tina Oswald, who has been a frequent observer at the weekly meetings in recent weeks, addressed the board regarding the county’s conditional use permit policy where solar farms are concerned.
Oswald asked the board to place a moratorium on conditional use permits “where renewable solar energy is involved.” She said she had been researching what other counties have done in that regard and urged that the county change the land types that may be used for solar farms. She said it would lead to easier decision making if the county was presented with such a proposal.
Finally, at the end of the meeting it was announced that the state driver’s license facility which has traditionally occupied a space on the west side of the first floor of the courthouse on Tuesdays, has made the move to a new location. Shaw reported that the licensing is now being done in the County Veterans Service office, which is on the same floor but on the north side of the courthouse. The move was expected to take 90 days from when the county board requested it take place, but Shaw said the needed internet connection was installed and the move had taken place in time for last Tuesday’s testing day.
Veterans Service Officer Mike Irons does not use the office on Tuesdays, and the move will allow the space the driver’s license facility formerly occupied to become the office of County Attorney Douglas Dexter.