The Pulaski County Council will be taking steps tonight to make sure money is available to pay part-time employees. A shortage of full-time EMS employees at the beginning of the year took a huge toll on the department’s part-time budget, according to EMS Director Bryan Corn. “Staffing was kind of rough there for a while,” he told the county commissioners last week. “We had quite a few full-time openings that we had to utilize part-time staff to fill that, to essentially keep the 911 trucks going, keep the 911 trucks in service.”
Corn says he’ll need another $50,000, to continue paying his part-time employees through the end of the year. “I’d like to take $10,000 out of our On-Call line item and another $5,567 out of our Office Staff line item, and put that into the Part-Time Staff budget,” he explained. The rest of the money would come from an additional appropriation.
The county commissioners agreed to the transfer and additional appropriation last week. Tonight, Corn’s requests will go to the county council for further consideration. Council members are also expected to finalize an additional appropriation request of just over $30,000 for the Maintenance Department’s Part-Time Help budget, after that money had been cut during last year’s budget process.
Other unresolved issues that may be discussed during tonight’s council meeting include a proposed bond resolution for the Monterey-Tippecanoe Township Public Library. It would allow the library to borrow up to $475,000 for building improvements.
Last month, council members were also asked to consider updates to the county’s salary matrix to bring it in line with the new set of “Matrix Rules,” which themselves were supposed to clarify the existing matrix. However, they wanted to discuss the proposed changes with the county’s attorney before approving them.
Tonight’s Pulaski County Council meeting starts at 7:00 EDT at the Pulaski County Highway Garage, following a joint session with the county commissioners at 6:00.
