The Fremont County Commissioners announced last week that a resolution had been reached regarding planned payroll changes for county employees in April. At the February 22nd board meeting Sheriff’s Sergeants Trace Hall and Don Pinover said they were speaking for a number of employees who would be negatively impacted by a one week delay for the mid-April paycheck intended to allow the Finance Office and Payroll Clerk more time to handle payroll. They said despite three pay periods in April a paycheck that would postpone a week’s worth of pay would create a hardship on many employees. The deputies said a proposal to permit pay advances with employees then paying the advances back over several pay periods would still leave many of them short.
At the March 8th board meeting Commission Chairman Ed Norden said the commissioners had met with elected officials, department heads, and the two deputies in an informal meeting on February 28th to explore options. Norden said an idea suggested by Sheriff Jim Beicker and supported by County Assessor Stacey Seifert to permit employees to cash in accrued vacation or ‘comp’ time was a favorable idea. Norden said permitting that option along with the pay advance option to be repaid over a longer period of time met with consensus approval from everyone in the room at the meeting. Norden said the result was that the mid-April payroll adjustment would move ahead as planned but employees would be given three options. Those would include: to accept the adjustment as is, to cash in up to 40 hours of accrued vacation or ‘comp’ time, or take a payroll advance with the money to be paid back by the end of the year.
The commissioners last week also voted to set a public hearing on April 12th at 10 a.m. to take comment on changes to a proposed amendment to the county’s zoning resolution dealing with contractor’s yards. Chairman Norden said since that issue was tabled last November the board took into account the public comment received at the first hearing and recognized that contractor’s yards in residential neighborhoods would have to be dealt differently in Lincoln Park compared to Penrose or Copper Gulch. Planning Director Bill Giordano said in rewriting the amendment the commissioners focused on regulating a total number of vehicles connected to a contractor’s operation, the number of acres on the property in question, and using options of setbacks and fencing to lessen the impacts on neighbors. The commissioners noted that the reason for the amendment is not to impose stricter regulations but to help bring many current uses into compliance since lots of contractor’s yards in residential neighborhoods now violate county regulations. A copy of the new proposed amendment is available for inspection on the Fremont County website at www.fremontco.com.
The amendment also addresses regulations dealing with small wind energy systems on private property. The commissioners said the small wind energy systems regulations are intended to allow homeowners to install several small wind turbines for personal use on their property as long as they cause no serious conflicts with neighbors.
In other business the commissioners:
- Reappointed Tim Payne and Rich Thatcher to three year terms on the county’s Board of Zoning Adjustment;
- Approved an agreement to initiate a UMB purchasing card program with the first uses to be a pilot program within the Fremont County Department of Transportation;
- Approved an application for a Shell Fleet Plus Card program changing the way county employees will handle charging fuel purchases at local Kwik Stop Shell convenience stores;
- Set public hearings on April 12th for a permit for the Eight Mile Ranch Kennel southeast of Highway 50 and County Road 3A on Eight Mile Hill and for an A.T. & T. Wireless communications tower on RE-3 School District property at Cotopaxi.