Pulaski County Commissioners Change Highway Department Hours Again

Pulaski County Commissioners Larry Brady, Vice President Terry Young, and President Tracey Shorter
Pulaski County Commissioners Larry Brady, Vice President Terry Young, and President Tracey Shorter
Pulaski County Commissioners unanimously agreed to let county highway department employees work four 10-hour days from April through October. Commission President Tracey Shorter and Commissioner Terry Young voted last month to change the department to a traditional eight-hour-a-day, five-day-a-week schedule. New superintendent Mark Fox says his employees were still working four 10 hour days on March 25 when they were called in to plow snow.

“Working our 4 to 10 work schedule, we only came in an hour early, which works out to $422 in overtime that was paid out that morning. If we were working 8 to 4 like our current schedule is, it would have been $1,265 in overtime that morning. By working four 10’s just in one morning we saved $843,” Fox explained.

Fox says an issue has already arisen with one vendor over the eight-hours-a-day, five-days-a-week work schedule.

“It’s going to create an issue when we go to spraying our dust suppressant. They normally schedule us for two days because of our hours. It’s going to add a full extra day to get that job accomplished, which is possibly going to cause us to encumber some more costs,” said Fox.

Fox says the shortened work day is also creating problems for some of his employees.

“One of our grader operators, a section of a township that he normally would be able to grade in our 10-hour shift, because of the travel time he was only able to get done half of what he could do in a 10-hour day because of the lost time of having to travel back sooner than on a 10-hour schedule,” Fox said.

Pulaski County Highway Department employees will return to an eight-hour-a-day, five-day-a-week work schedule this fall, unless the commissioners decide otherwise.