After receiving additional input, the Mower County Board voted to keep their sole interpreter on Tuesday morning.

The Personnel Committee consulted with multiple department heads regarding needs for interpreting services and other tasks within their departments, which resulted in county officials making a motion to continue utilizing its interpreter with additional responsibilities.

The motion for was approved for the following:

The addition of duties to the Interpreter/Translator position to include tasks in Corrections and the County Attorney’s Office

Transfer of supervision for the position from the Human Resources Director to the Director of Corrections effective Nov. 5, 2018. Also to occur is the adjustment of the two departments’ budgets according to this change and adjustment of the Approved Staffing Levels for each of the two departments to reflect this change.

Reduce the hours from 40 to 30; modify approved staffing hours level from 1.0 FTE to .75 FTE hours per week and apply benefits per union agreement to take effect on or before Jan. 1, 2019.

Previously, the Mower County Board had considered eliminating an interpreter position after initial review of the 2018-19 budget. However, after community members and different county staffs voiced their concerns for the potential elimination, the county commissioners agreed to hold off making a decision until meeting with department heads to determine the need for interpreting services.