As Pulaski County officials consider restructuring the county’s Maintenance Department, its current director is stepping down. The resignation of Mia Salyers was accepted by the county commissioners Friday. She’d served as maintenance director for the past two years.
Commissioner Maurice Loehmer said he’s gotten several compliments on the custodial part of the department’s operations, but more direction is needed. “I feel that when we have it the way this is, that person needs to be an expert on about 10 different things,” he said, “and we take part of this and have some descriptions and expectations, so there’s not disunity on what is expected by the different offices.”
He suggested shifting snow plowing to the County Highway Department, having jail inmates help with mowing, and possibly having local schools be involved with planting flowers. “So there’s a lot of possibilities when it comes to yard work,” Loehmer noted, “and the lawn and flowers needs to be completely separate from the maintenance of this equipment, building maintenance.”
Last week, Commissioner Chuck Mellon presented a restructuring proposal to the county council that would involve adding a qualified maintenance person at a rate of $25 per hour and eliminating two part-time positions. For now, the commissioners have appointed Francis Czech as interim maintenance director.
Meanwhile, Council Member Rudy DeSabatine has apparently been dealing with many of the county’s maintenance issues. He told the commissioners Friday that he made a temporary fix to an abandoned restroom in the courthouse. “It was brought to my attention that it stunk pretty bad in the basement, and I think I’ve remedied that problem,” DeSabatine said.
The commissioners also agreed to hire his company, DeSabatine Brothers Excavating, to fix some sewage issues at the Recycling and Transfer Station. The sewer line currently runs under the entire building, making it susceptible to freezing. DeSabatine recommended installing a smaller septic system on the other side. “Once we get it out of the building, a piece of cake to install,” he said. “There might be some minor complications getting through the building and all that kind of stuff, but anyway, I’m going to guess between $3,000 and $3,500, we could probably put a small system in there that would remedy – you know, those people are in there for like eight hours a day. They’ve got to have a bathroom. They’ve got to have something.”
He felt it would be simpler than connecting with Winamac’s sewer system about 400 feet away. County Attorney Kevin Tankersley said the work didn’t have to be bid out due to its size and that DeSabatine’s involvement wouldn’t be a conflict of interest.
