Mower County hires new mechanic

Published 10:11 am Thursday, September 4, 2008

James Chesney has been hired to replace mechanic Charles Luthe in the Mower County Highway Department.

Luthe retired earlier this summer as the county’s record-holding worker: Luthe worked 40 years in the Highway Department before retiring.

According to Al Cordes, county human resource director, Chesney was one of six finalists to be interviewed for the job.

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According to Cordes, Chesney’s application came from outside the ranks of Mower County employees.

The Mower County Board of Commissioners approved the hiring at their meeting Tuesday; the county board’s personnel committee recommended the hiring.

Chesney will start at Step 5 on the county pay scale with 40 hours of paid-time off.

The commissioners also approved sending Sgt. Jeff Ellis and his canine partner, Tazer, to the nation police dog trials later this month in North Carolina.

Tazer has been named the nation’s top police dog or a runner-up for the honor for the last five consecutive years, according to David Hillier, 3rd District county commissioner and chairman of the personnel committee.

The money will come from the Mower County Sheriff’s Office budget, according to Hillier.

The personnel committee also recommended allowing an employee of the Mower County Department of Human Services 20 comp hours during the work week to do a new, one-time data entry task.

The state DHS has requested all counties verify the identifies of recipients of public assistance.

Mower County DHS had sought 30 hours of comp time for the employee, but the recommendation of the personnel committee was only 20 hours and the county board approved it.

Because of the confidentiality of the information, the data entry work cannot be performed at home by one of the county’s tele-commuting employees.

Also Tuesday, the county board approved allowing two DHS employees to become tele-commuters instead of the three requested by the department.

A social worker and a child support case worker will be allowed to perform their tasks at home under the agreement.

This brings the total of telecommuters to 11, according to Al Cordes, county human resource director.

According to Hillier, Brent Gunderson and Bruce Henricks, the DHS executive director, each monitor the performance of the telecommuters while doing official county work at home.