News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Putnam County budget approval means new employee wages will hopefully go into effect this month following the county commission’s final approval Monday night.
The budget includes more than $3.3 million in salary increases thanks to a marketplace adjustment. Mayor Randy Porter said the next two weeks will involve updating the numbers to reflect the new budget.
“We’ll have to physically touch every employee’s file to put the new salaries in and work with department heads and officials to make sure we get the backpay to July 1st figured in,” Porter said. “So it’s going to be a fun couple of weeks as we work through all of that but it’s part of the process.”
Another large portion of this year’s budget focused on setting up the new county jail expansion with staffers. Porter said the process can now begin to hire and train officers before the anticipated May 2024 completion date.
“So they’ve got some time to try and find those folks,” Porter said. “Finding employees is difficult right now so I think that’s going to be the number one issue but I think they’re already getting ready to ramp up and try to hire at least a part of them and get some of them certified.”
Porter said in terms of capital projects, the biggest undertaking for budget disbursement will be the upgrades to the solid waste transfer station. He said they are already in talks with engineers to start that work and get it underway.
Porter said all budget and paperwork will be submitted to the Comptroller’s office for approval as well.
