The roads in Boise County are, to say the least, horrible. When I took office, roads were at the top of my priority list. Nothing has changed in respect to my intentions but the landscape has changed significantly. After our road supervisor departed, we thought we were on our way to finally repairing the neglected roads. What we didn’t count upon was that our current presidential regime was going to attack small businesses, rural counties, and cities by paying laborers to stay home. While it appears that they curtailed stay at home payments, it seems that they now pay folks $300 for each child. This was an obvious work around on our way to communism.
This is not a small problem we are seeing over the last year….all in the name of COVID. So, while we have a plan to fix the roads, we simply don’t have the manpower to do so. We inherited a county that was in shambles which required immediate attention. Our 1st 3 months were spent filling vacant positions throughout the county that should have been dealt by the prior board. Sadly, or happily if you don’t like high taxes, Boise County doesn’t have a huge budget to spend on employee salaries. Consequently, only some of these positions are being filled while others are seeing no applicants at all. The road department is down 5 employees if you include the Garden Valley supervisory position who was an operator.
It seems we have a plan, some reasonably decent equipment, and no one to operate it. The situation has become so dire that I am considering seeking out operator training in order to donate my time to help fix the horrible roads.
It’s budget season which means we must look at salary levels. We are one of the poorest counties in Idaho butted up against the wealthiest county (Ada). So, we are pinched between a rock and a hard place. Laborers must ask themselves….work for Boise County for the “quality of life” or work for Ada County and make a lot more money. For some, it’s a no-brainer. Because the county received CARES Act cash, we were forced to forego cost of living adjustments for our already meagerly paid county employees. These COL adjustments will be dealt with this budget cycle, assuming commissioners agree. Either way, it’s not remotely likely that Boise County employees will be paid anywhere near their counter parts in surrounding counties.
So, what is the fix? For now there doesn’t appear to be an immediate fix. Nearly ALL of our road crews are preparing for paving projects. This means that the dirt roads will be further neglected until they are done which should be around next week. According to some “experts” the economy is showing signs of slowing. Will it slow? No one actually knows. With some luck, the economy will adjust according to market forces and folks will be willing to work again. In the mean time, we will have to figure out how to utilize the few workers we have in order to fix the roads. Make no mistake….these are not excuses made up to placate the “people”. These are bumps in the road that plague rural government entities all over the U.S. Be rest assured, the roads will improve come hell or high water. We just need a little luck on our side and more skilled employees.
If you know someone that is looking for work, send them our way. We have openings in nearly all county departments that are not being filled. Apply today!
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Steve if we made our folks salaries more competitive what would be the cost to tax payer? I can’t see with it spread over our county it would be that much. I be all in for a slight raise to ensure we can get people that know what the heck they are doing and going to stick around.
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Couldn’t agree more. We are in the budget process as we speak. Because we took CARES act cash our employees were passed over for raises. Interestingly, every one of our elected officials took the cost of living raise while county employees did not. Fortunately, that 3% cost of living raise was set aside. So, with a majority vote our employees will get their 3% plus another 3% cost of living for this coming year for a total of 6%. It’s not likely to change much, as ADA county is still way ahead of us employee pay. We are working on a “step/grade” pay system that will make better sense of employee salaries. The bottom line is that we will likely never be at par with surrounding counties because we simply don’t tax. Long story short, we have little choice but to look seriously at employee raises or we will continue to be the training ground for surrounding counties. Thanks for following….It’s important for you and everyone to be involved in this process. Otherwise, we are just guessing at what you want to see happen in your county.
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