The Pulaski County Commissioners have agreed to support the Building and Health departments’ requests for additional help. Building Inspector Doug Hoover told the commissioners Monday that he’s going to once again ask the county council to move Building Department Assistant Karla Kreamer from part-time to full-time status.
“We want to clean up Pulaski County,” Hoover said. “Let’s just start with one thing: abandoned cars, cleaning up trash. And I can’t do it all. I need help. I need somebody in the office and helping out, and she can help both ways.” Hoover reminded the commissioners that they had agreed to the expanded role for Kreamer last year, but at the time, council members wanted more information, before giving it their final approval.
Similarly, Director of Environmental Health Terri Hansen plans to ask for a new part-time employee for the Health Department. “In 2015, through no fault of the Health Department’s, our budget got cut one entire employee,” she explained. “We went from four full-time people to three and we absorbed that job and I can’t do it. My nurse can’t do it. She’s busy. She took up all the preparedness. I took up the environmental, and our registrar is doing all the book work.”
Hansen said the new employee would work two days a week to help with food inspections and preparedness paperwork, giving Hansen more time to deal with environmental and housing complaints. She added that at this point, there is money in the Health Department’s budget for another part-time employee.
Both requests are expected to go to the county council next week for further consideration.
