Allen County courthouse employees who missed two days of work last week because of the blizzard will be paid for one day and will make up the other with a vacation or personal leave day. Other employees, about 80 of the county’s 100, will be permitted to take a day off during the next six months.
Commissioners, meeting Tuesday morning, decided that was a fair approach, after surveying several other counties who faced similar decisions.
It was a good choice to close the courthouse when roads were at their worst last week, said County Clerk Sherrie Riebel.
“If we had opened the courthouse, some employees would have tried to get in,” which would have led to safety issues, she said.
Iola and area schools were closed three days, Tuesday through Thursday, while roads were cleared, a task Bill King figured cost the county nearly $22,000.
“We burned 2,470 gallons of diesel at a cost of $7,460,” he said.
Also, wages for regular hours worked amounted to $10,991.33, plus another $3,285.10 in overtime pay.
Costs for snow removal don’t include those for repairs, which King said quickly mounted.
“Our equipment took a beating,” he said. “At one time or another we had three graders and three plows down. We had trouble with switches and brakes freezing up,” King attributed to the below-zero weather of last week.
But, even with glitches, he commended Public Works Department employees for “doing a super job. They were up early and stayed out late to get the roads open and keep them open,” a chore that they went back to this morning after snow fell all of Tuesday and into this morning.
Snow plows revved up to full force about 4 a.m., although one truck was mustered at 2 a.m. to help with an ambulance call to the north of Iola.
Missed workdays tackled
