County approves raises for employees, deputies

By Luke Brantley
Staff writer
HAMILTON — The Marion County board of commissioners met on Monday morning, Dec. 11, and voted to approve a few raises for county employees.
The first raise is a one-time pay raise that will give each full-time employee $300 and each part-time employee $100.
The other raise increased the salaries of Marion County sheriff deputies by $1.50 per hour.
The commission also voted to enter into a lease with Larry Townley to lease property that adjoins the Marion County District Four shop.
The lease will be a 10-year lease agreement that will cost the county $2,600 for the first year with 3 percent annual increases, which will be paid out of District Four.
Craig Vice was hired with the Marion County Solid Waste Department with a starting pay of $14.75 with a 90-day probationary period.
Donna Pollard was hired as a dispatcher for the sheriff department, and her position will also start with a pay of $14.75 per hour with a 90-day probationary period.
Dana Rogers retired after 27 years as a dispatcher, and Pollard will be taking her place.
The commission also approved the purchase of a new garbage truck, which could take the county over a year and a half to obtain based on the time it takes to order a new one.
County administrator Scott Hunt gave an update on renovations to the court house and the estimated cost to complete them.
Hunt said that modernizing the heating and air conditioning would be a “substantial.”
“We talked about doing some stuff, and we’ve had some estimates about a couple of different options about what we need to do, at least about heating and air,” Hunt said. “We also have the ceiling issue. Those are both over $350,000. Want to talk back with our engineering firm to get a better handle on what we might have to do right now and see if we can do this in a multi-year phase of it.
“Then there’s going to be some other aspects to it.  Right now, we probably need to focus on getting the basics of heating and air taken care of and getting duct and the ceiling stuff taken care of, and then worry about the big stuff and part and plan for that a couple of years down the road.”