YORK – After exploring different options regarding the position of the county’s weed superintendent, the commissioners will be leaning toward filling that position with a full-time person who will also have duties at the courthouse and with the road department.
Upon the retirement announcement of Doug Deprez, the current weed superintendent, the commissioners looked at different options in filling that position.
State law requires that every county has someone working in noxious weed control.
“If this position doesn’t need to be full-time, I think maybe we could find someone with the roads department who would be willing to do it, along with road duties,” said Commissioner Kurt Bulgrin. “And I wonder if we could have the weed department be part of the roads department, so that could be achieved.”
“When we were talking with Cal (Friesen, head of courthouse maintenance), he said there were times that he would like to have some additional help,” said Commissioner Bill Bamesberger. “What if we go with a full-time person and then change up the job description to add other duties? We could add in jobs for the off-season – the weed superintendent could help with courthouse maintenance and also at the roads department during the slow time for weed control. That way, we could hire a full-time person. I think we need to go with full-time and then open it up for applications.”
There was some discussion as to why more help should be needed at courthouse where there are two full-time employees now in that capacity and there used to be one full-time with a part-time assistant. But it was also noted that “more things are being taken care of now,” and Bamesberger said Friesen is able to do more mechanical things that used to have to be hired out, “so we are saving money now.”
The commissioners agreed that between the three departments, full-time hours would be justified.
And it was noted that with the new addition to the courthouse, more maintenance work will have to be done in the future.
Over the course of the next two weeks, the commissioners are going to rework the job description for the weed superintendent and it will be put up for a vote at their next meeting. It is expected that they then will begin advertising for applicants.
