Twenty courthouse employees got a two-day weather-imposed furlough Tuesday and Wednesday, while Allen County’s other 80 employees worked, many doing extended duty in severe weather conditions.
The courthouse was closed when the winter storm hit and shut down most roads into and out of Iola. It reopened Thursday morning.
How they balance compensation between the two groups will be decided by commissioners Tuesday, they said Thursday morning in a rescheduled session.
“We need to be generous,” said Commissioner Gary McIntosh. “My gut reaction is to pay the courthouse employees for the days off,” and give two days leave to other employees, probably at their discretion. “We need to be fair.”
Opening county roads to traffic has been the priority, Bill King told commissioners.
“We have at least one lane open on about every road,” said King, director of Public Works. “Now, we’re widening the driving lanes.”
All hard-surfaced roads in the county were cleared of all but a smidgen of snow by Thursday. Motor graders continue to clear rock roads, King said.
The county has more than 100 miles of paved roads and about 900 miles covered with crushed rock. Since two passes are required to open both lanes of a road, total miles requiring attention balloons to more than 2,000.
Drifts as high as 5 feet built up over some roads, the result of wind that accompanied the 12 inches of snow that fell on Tuesday and continued to blow throughout that night.
“Drifts up to that height and a few feet in length aren’t a problem,” King said. “It’s when you get them a half mile long that they’re trouble. Fortunately, we didn’t have too many of any great length.”
In addition to the heavy snowfall, a blast of sub-zero Arctic air made things difficult.
“We had some equipment problems this (Thursday) morning,” King said. “That happens when it gets 14 below zero,” officially 12 below at Iola’s water plant, where weather data is collected daily for the National Weather Bureau. “We had snow and ice up in the machinery and lots of things don’t want to work when it gets that cold.”
Previous snow accumulations this winter, about 7 inches total, haven’t taxed the county’s supply of salt.
“We have plenty,” even with extensive treatment of roads this week, King said.
Crews were working on roads again today, but won’t over the weekend.
COMMISSIONERS retained Rhonda Fernandez, Dodge City, as their insurance broker for a third year. She will be paid $1,800 to administer the county’s self-funded health insurance plan.
Commissioners Dick Works and Rob Francis favored Fernandez’s retention. McIntosh, who said he wasn’t convinced she offered the best deal, didn’t. Commissioners earlier interviewed two other brokers.
With $1,000 deductible, the county pays each employees’ premium of $429.49 a month. Adding a spouse and children costs employees $795.57 a month. A spouse alone is $391.75 a month, a child $304.12.
