Commissioners assign roles, examine salaries

The Chase County Commissioners took care of housekeeping items during the Jan. 10 regular meeting.
Jacci Brown was reelected chairman of the board. Duane Dinnel will also continue to serve as vice chairman.
The board passed several resolutions, including authorizing the County Treasurer to invest county monies and designating depositories, payroll, tax certificates and foreclosure of same.
The board also spent time dividing up their appointments to other boards, such as Region II Human Services, Southwest Nebraska Public Health and Juvenile Diversion.
Duane Dreiling was reappointed as the county’s emergency manager and Toney Krajewski will continue as highway superintendent.
Salaries for Dreiling and Veteran Service Officer Duane Todd were discussed. Both salaries are typically 50% of elected officials’ salaries. This was approved for Dreiling, but Dinnel would like to see Todd’s salary and benefits reduced.
Believing that the Veterans Service position doesn’t need as many hours as Todd has been using, Dinnel stated that overstaffing of any office is an expense to the taxpayer and commissioners need to be fiscally responsible, the meeting proceedings said.
The board changed the position to an hourly rate of $20 with a max of 20 hours per week and no benefits other than retirement. All approved.
Rhonda Smith attended the open forum to ask for an update on the Champion bridge project. Brown will check with Krajewski about a timeline.
The saga of trees in county road ditches along the Chase/Perkins County border moved closer to an end.
The commissioners agreed to hire someone to top out the trees on the Chase County side of the road to 12 to 15 feet and Vince Lee, who started the discussion last year, will clean up what’s left.
The next meeting of the commissioners will be Feb. 14 at 8 a.m.