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Board OKs raises
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    DARLINGTON — At their meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 15, the Lafayette County Board of Supervisors approved four resolutions, resulting in approximately $79,810 in raises for county employees at the Memorial Hospital of Lafayette County. The raises include: existing non-salaried nurses with 3 to 5 years of experience and existing non-salaried nurses with 5 and over years of experience - $55,400; Billing Lead position - $5,950; Specialty Clinic Manager - $3,570; Purchasing Manager position - $1,190. These figures are approximate and all take affect Jan. 1, 2016.
    Memorial Hospital of Lafayette County department head - Julie Chikowski stated, “Nurses that have experience from 3 to 5 years and 5 years and above is where we are losing our nurses, so we want to compensate them at a hirer rate.”
    “I’ll get on my soapbox one more time,” said board chairman Jack Sauer, “here tonight we have approved over $65,000 in raises, in addition to a 2% raise – this cannot continue, if we were a private business and we operated this way, we’d be broke by February.” Sauer added “I was hoping these raises on the agendas month after month would start to dwindle and I’m sure the tax payers are hoping the same thing.”
    Sauer also pointed out that the raises are for the nurses we have right now and will not be going into the future.
    In other business, the board:
    • listened to an update given by Board Member Bill Moody on the County K building, including 90% of the studding is done.
    • reviewed a presentation involving October year-to-date financials, presented by Finance Director Nicola Mauer.
    • authorized Clare Bank, Platteville, with a branch located in Shullsburg, as the official county depository for Lafayette County funds for the calendar year 2016. All federal insured banks in Lafayette County and the Local Government Investment Pool, are also approved as additional designated official depositories.
    • withdrew from the Local Government Property Insurance fund, effective Jan. 1, 2016.
    • approved the title change of the Administrative Assistant for the Sheriff to Confidential Executive Administrative Assistant.
    • established the Disability Benefit Specialist as a full time position in the Human Services Department.
    • promoted the Human Resource Manager to Human Resource Director, and the Human Resource Department become a stand-alone department, separate from the Finance Department.
    • reviewed and approved changes in the county’s Employee Handbook. Including: new employee, if hired by the first of the month, would be eligible for insurance coverage immediately.